Bill Clinton’s State of the Union speech was not unlike past State of the Union speeches he has made. It was made up mostly of Republican initiatives, slightly repackaged to give them a Democratic (read big government) flair. Clinton’s speech was also full of his typical vague, generalized ideas and half truths to hide his agenda of a socialized one world government.
To start off the night, the idea of putting part of the money for Social Security into investments was a hollow gesture. This is a Republican initiative that Clinton wants to repackage. Republicans said, "Let individuals invest part of their Social Security." Bill Clinton said, "Let government invest part of Social Security." This would mean that Social Security investing would become another big government pork-fest. I can see now that politicians would be funneling this money to businesses that either they had personal interest in or to businesses that were owned by big political party donators. This money could even end up being "invested in America" by investing in depressed parts of the economy to shore them up (much like paying farmers to not grow certain crops). Letting government control the investment rather than individuals opens up a Pandora’s box of bad possibilities.
Talk of building new schools, teacher testing, dispersion of grants and scholarships to "lower income families" is the same old story of buying votes, and once your are hooked on federal dependency it becomes blackmail. "Do what we say or we stop sending you money." By the way, we would be blackmailed with our own money taken from us in the form of taxes. Most of Bill Clinton’s proposals dealt with areas that the federal government has no right going into. Most of Clinton’s ideas deal with areas where states should be functioning, such as his comments on insurance and welfare, not the feds. In the end, the federal government will dictate what to do and demand that the states implement it.
There were also overtures of "helping" to get folks off welfare, and on employee rolls. Bill Clinton said he had 10,000 companies helping to hire former welfare recipients. Now, he didn’t say what kind of jobs they were getting or if they were sticking with those jobs, but hey, he means well. At the turn of the century, 93% of Americans were self employed and 7% worked for those 93%. Today, 93% of Americans are employed by the other 7%. Bill Clinton’s big government would have us all dependent on companys that would be dependent on big government.
Bill Clinton also sprayed the halls of congress with a litany of "nice ideas" that all spelled out big government intrusion. Clinton advocated hate laws and laws protecting homosexuals. We already have enough of these kind of laws that protect citizens. Why do we have to pass more of the same stuff, other than to feel good about ourselves? One key idea Clinton had was to reinstate the 5 day waiting period for hand guns. This law was established to fill a gap until the FBI computer system was in place to do background checks. More government intrusion and control with no real purpose except to give power to the feds.
On international issues Bill Clinton launched a number of proposals to have the U.S. government dictate to other nations, on a variety issues, how to live their lives (if they want to be trading partners with us). One issue imparticular was child labor. Clinton wants other countries to change their child labor laws to conform to ours. This is arrogant and lacks an appreciation for other country’s economic and cultural ideas. What if , for a family to survive, all members of the family had to work? What if the only option to children working is for the parents to sell some of their kids into prostitution? This happens, especially in Asian countries where women or not looked on as equals with men. For a man who preached and praised diversity and inclusion, Bill Clinton was rather arrogant in setting down these qualifications for "taking part in the new world economy." Before going overseas and "fixing" the wrongs we see in another country, we should fully understand the situations that country faces. One bit of irony was when Bill Clinton mentioned Kosovo and how we, the U.S., should be working for Kosovo’s right to self government. What would he think of Dixie’s right to self government?
At the end, Bill Clinton said he wanted us to "be one America." That’s hard to do while advocating diversity and special laws for special groups. I’ll opt to pass on Clinton’s idea of "one America" and focus on the diversity part, as I define it. The president mentioned his "Millennium Project" where he wants to have everyone in America apply for historical sites in their home towns so we can save some of our history. Well, I say let’s file for every possible Southern site we can dream of so they are protected from the Liberals that constantly attack our beloved Southland. What irony to have their liberal government protecting our sacred sites! I doubt that we will get many sites approved, but the rejecton of our nominated sites would show the liberal bias of this dysfunctional Administration.
Jeff Adams
January 20, 1999