NEW YORK, Jan. 26 President Obama will need several props to get him through his first State of the Union address, including lifejackets, a box of teabags, a paper shredder, and a new "No Fly" list. Here's why:
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"The President should begin the address by taking the 2,074 page Senate health bill and stuffing it into a paper shredder. Then he should promise the public a 20-page bill in plain, honest English," says Betsy McCaughey, a critic of the current health legislation. "Twenty pages should be enough," says McCaughey. "The framer of the Constitution established the entire federal government in just eighteen pages." The public is outraged over the backroom deals, payoffs, and deliberately inscrutable language hidden in the 2,074 pages.
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In the last year, tea partiers have delivered a clear message that the President needs to embrace in his speech: Don't let big government take our wealth and freedom away. They understand that the more of a country's goods and services are consumed by government, the fewer choices are left for individuals and families to make. In France, well over 50% of GDP is taken by government. In Britain, government's take of GDP is soaring perilously to that same level. Americans don't want to be Europeanized. They didn't want it in 1773, when they threw the tea overboard, and they don't want it today. Obama better show that he gets the message. No more stimulus bills, no new middle class entitlements for retirement and college, and no new taxes.
National security is an American president's top responsibility, and this President needs to make up for his delayed and tepid response to the near-tragedy aboard a commercial jet on Christmas Day over Detroit. Under the federal policy in place then, nearly all known or suspected terrorists are allowed on flights. Less than 1% of the 540,000 or so names on the suspected terrorist lists are put on the "no fly" list, and less than 3% even have to undergo additional screening before boarding a plane. "That means you and I are unknowingly sharing flights with these dangerous people, and we don't even have the choice to get off the plane," says McCaughey. The top goal should be to identify terrorists and keep them off planes with a new, highly inclusive "No Fly" list.
And the lifejackets? The President should be ready to toss them to fellow Democrats in Congress. He may not mind being a one-term president, but many Democratic members of Congress are worried about their re-elections because of Obama's radical policies.
SOURCE Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D.
