State of Union '19

The State of the Union (SOTU) was Tuesday. 

Trump is great in these big moment settings and even manages to be charming and statesman like. I’m not sure if it’s the preparation or the event but he nearly always gets high marks from viewers. Most of the viewers are probably supporters, which skews the data, but not all. Conservative pundits hate the SOTU because they think it looks a lot like a king addressing his subjects. Their thinking goes something like this “We aren’t ruled by a king or monarchy and having a president give pronouncements from on high smacks of rulers and the ruled. Another complaint says the speech is basically useless as policy, no one remembers it weeks later and Congress gets back to telling the president to go pound sand. He tweets something nasty about “Pocahontas” and it’s back to normal.

Both criticisms are true but the first one is such an old fashioned one it hardly applies. Complaining about the monarchical vibe of the SOTU is like worrying about piracy in the Caribbean. It was a much scarier reality 200 years ago. If the office of president is more powerful today than it’s the fault of Congress for acquiescing law making abilities to the executive branch. Congress has the authority to declare war but we treat ‘going to war’ as a presidential decision.

 I’ll buy the second criticism though. The speech is generally forgotten by both parties within a week’s time. I like it as a historical record though. SOTU speeches go all the way back to Washington and it’s a good way to understand issues facing the country at the time.

I do get annoyed by the slow speech patterns, standing and sitting for every ‘home run’ idea or bravo moment. It forces the writers of the speech to aim for big claps. It’s a show. I understand why that’s irritating but much of politics is theater and this is just the biggest stage.

Here is what I liked. Trump reinforced his position on the wall and drove home the emphasis on security at the border. Will it get him the wall he needs? I doubt it. The votes aren’t there. It would have been better to get the funding last year and put the pressure on his own party to support it. They had a majority after all. I can’t see what changes in the minds of democrat lawmakers. It feels like positions have hardened on this whole business. He could always call for an emergency at the border and use allowable funds to construct the wall, fence. I don’t think he really wants to fight that court battle that would follow.

I like how he talks about abortion. He doesn’t use milquetoast language like “culture of life” when signaling support to pro-lifers. He says things like they “rip the baby out of the womb” which is admittedly hard to hear. But then, some things should be hard to hear. His proposal for a ban on late term abortion comes just after the horrific bill in New York passed which eliminates restrictions on the procedure. His tone of disgust was perfect.

I don’t like Trump’s embrace of North Korea or their nutty leader. Not only because he is a dictator who has starved his people and murdered his own family members, but because this is far from a win. It may turn out that the North dismantles its nuclear facilities over time but I doubt it. President Bush tried this and got burned. They have a tendency to promise or hint at what the US asks for and sign treaties, or agreement, or frameworks. But they always back out. Usually it’s a tactic so the US releases their seized bank accounts and frees up their ability to get money. Once awash in cash, they do what dictatorships do. Kick out inspectors and fire up the rockets for testing. Maybe this time will be different but I don’t think so.  

A couple things set off my spidey senses about the direction of the speech. I’m not picking on Trump because both Bush and Obama did it on similar things. Proposals suggesting the federal government ‘fix’ things never before within their purview. The family paid leave stuff is not an American idea, sorry. It’s unclear at this point who gets the bill for mom and dad’s absence from work. Will the government require insurance plans to cover it or does Uncle Sam fork it over at tax time? I’d like to know who came up with this idea? I imagine wonks dreaming up ways to spend funds they don’t have, “Hey I know, how about another welfare program? Yeah, we’ll say it’s for the kids. That always works.”

Taxpayers aren’t responsible for your time off, whatever the reason. Either use your vacation time or take the hit. Or, save some money and quit expecting us to work harder while you sit around in your sweatpants. Having kids is a responsibility. Having a job is a responsibility. Both are duties the individual need care for. The real problem isn’t the transfer of money, from productive to unproductive segments; it’s the addition of yet another entitlement. Entitlements become ‘rights’ shortly after being implemented. And good luck taking it away once it’s implemented. Sorry, this one strikes a nerve. 

 Does every social problem in the country need to be addressed by Washington? Are we really so helpless and incompetent to need a federal solution to everything that ails us? Some private employers have started providing family leave as a benefit. We have wonderful charities and churches that assist people in financial straits. If paid time off is going to happen it should happen in the private sector.  

In short, the SOTU was far cheerier than I expected. There was some forgettable parts about the nation’s infrastructure bill (state’s don’t fix their own roads?) and drug prescription prices (I guess that’s a thing). In reality presidents have to be laser focused on one maybe two issues. For now it’s immigration.