The Sporting Life: Cliches, not details, highlight president's speech

|tab|

Brent Lawrence is copy editor and columnist for the Springfield Business Journal.|ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

The problem with U.S. politics was summed up quite nicely Jan. 28 during President Bush's State of the Union speech.|ret||ret||tab|

Here are a few excerpts from the president's speech.|ret||ret||tab|

"We must have an economy that grows fast enough to employ every man and woman who seeks a job." (Applause)|ret||ret||tab|

"With unemployment rising, our nation needs more small businesses to open, more companies to invest and expand, more employers to put up the sign that says, Help Wanted.'" (Applause)|ret||ret||tab|

"As we continue to work together to keep Social Security sound and reliable, we must offer younger workers a chance to invest in retirement accounts that they will control and they will own." (Applause)|ret||ret||tab|

"Our second goal is high quality, affordable health care for all Americans." (Applause)|ret||ret||tab|

"Health care reform must begin with Medicare, Medicare is the binding commitment of a caring society. We must renew that commitment by giving seniors access to the preventive medicine and new drugs that are transforming health care in America." (Applause)|ret||ret||tab|

All those are great points, but where's the substance? A vague reference to "a plan" simply doesn't cut it.|ret||ret||tab|

What's not to like about lower taxes, better medical care for the elderly, better-equipped police and economic security? We all applaud those items.|ret||ret||tab|

But how about giving us some specifics?|ret||ret||tab|

The president did a good job in detailing his problems with Iraq. He talked with conviction and gave specifics about United Nations and U.S. intelligence reports on Saddam Hussein's biological weapons materials, nerve agents and munitions. That was good and people, regardless if they agree with our Iraq policy, could follow a thought pattern.|ret||ret||tab|

Bush also gave a few specifics on tax relief. "A family of four with an income of $40,000 would see their federal income taxes fall from $1,178 to $45 per year. And our plan will improve the bottom line for more than 23 million small businesses."|ret||ret||tab|

And Bush mentioned spending $6 billion for vaccines and treatments against bioweapons, a $400 billion overhaul for Medicare, $1.2 billion for nonpolluting vehicles, $15 billion to combat AIDS and $450 million for a mentoring program.|ret||ret||tab|

Where was the meat to the rest of the speech?|ret||ret||tab|

There was no mention of what would be slashed to achieve these costly programs. How do we cut the heck out of taxes and increase spending without slashing other programs and/or increasing the deficit? There's a reaction for every action.|ret||ret||tab|

I can't get excited about tax cuts, Medicare reform and national security without knowing what else is lurking in the shadows.|ret||ret||tab|

And neither should the rest of America.|ret||ret||tab|

The root of all of this, however, is the sound-bite driven media and U.S. Today-type publications. They're all dumbing-down the public.|ret||ret||tab|

A minute-long comment on detailed specifics of a plan won't get on the national news or get fully printed in most newspapers; a catch phrase will get repeated play.|ret||ret||tab|

And where has it left us? It's left us with a lot of people walking around, happy about what they heard from the president, but completely void of any real factual information.|ret||ret||tab|

[[In-content Ad]]