In State of the Union, Bush Pursues Ideological Agenda at Expense of Middle Class

Posted by Elana Levin at 11:41 AM on January 24, 2007.

The think tank I work for - the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy was up late last night working on our annual " Rapid Response" to Bush's the State of the Union address. Let me tell you- on the domestic front (which is the area we work on) President Bush's State of the Union address attempted to sell America on a full scale political philosophy; the philosophy that privatization is the answer to everything. Bush is promoting a failed ideological experiment on the backs of struggling Americans. The President's highly ideological "solutions" refuse to address the core cause of the problems the middle class is facing. I'm thinking that has something to do with how Bush's friends in the oil industry and the healthcare lobby are a huge part of why we have these problems in the first place.

Our response to the State of the Union analyzes the speech from the perspective of what is in the best interest of America’s middle class and those struggling to become middle class. We highlight specific lines from Bush's address and offer policy information, stats and facts providing an analytic counterpoint to his proposals.

Here's some highlights that show how the President's proposals fail to solve problems and if enacted would probably make things worse.

* On balancing the federal budget: "The President’s refusal to reduce his war expenditures or to take back any of his staggering tax cuts for the richest Americans means he intends to balance the budget on the backs of average Americans."

* On health care reform: “The State of the Union’s health care proposals share three common themes: "(1) they shift the cost of health care from employers to individuals and families; (2) they threaten the existing health benefits middle-class Americans get through their jobs; and (3) they pressure ordinary Americans to cut back on needed care."

* On immigration reform: "While the President is right about the need for immigration reform, we need a plan that focuses first and foremost on the needs of middle class Americans, not the big business lobby. [P]roposals that undercut America’s middle class by creating a permanent class of exploited immigrant workers should be vigorously opposed."

* On the American economy: The President’s glowing report of the condition of the American economy, while reflective of the views of corporate CEOs and Wall Street bankers, is out of touch with the average American’s experience.”

* On improving public education: "Lacking any original new ideas, the President turned to reauthorizing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and offering school vouchers as his routes to improving public education. . . . Unless the President reforms and fully funds NCLB, it will stand no chance of helping American children. . . . Likewise, moving children from one school to another is an inadequate substitute for a broad, aggressive effort to improve all of our public schools."

You can read the whole report here.

Evan did a great blog stroll of progressive bloggers response to the SoTU. Read it here

Tagged as: education, healthcare, think tank, economic disparities, economy, policy, middle class, state of the union, budget, education