On February 1, our Commander-in-Chief tried once again to convince Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, Members of Congress, distinguished guests and fellow citizens that words speak louder than actions.

 

Bush’s State of the Union address featured the paying of lip service to crucial social issues like education and health care. But now that the formalities of the traditional speech have been fulfilled, what America is about to find out is that what you hear is not what you get. Let’s look at some excerpts from the speech and look at the actual policies being implemented.

 

“We must continue to give homeland security and law enforcement personnel every tool they need to defend us…one of those essential tools is the Patriot Act, which allows federal law enforcement to better share information, to track terrorists, to disrupt their cells and to seize their assets.”

 

They also allow for warrantless searches that bypass court orders and allow the federal government to obtain a criminal warrant for a secret physical search of a home or businesses and seize items found there without notifying the owner (Sections 505 and 213 respectively). Maybe the President’s insistence on gathering intelligence comes from personal complexes that date back to his school days. This would explain why getting a list of the books you buy or borrow from your library without your knowledge, even if you are not proven to be involved in illegal activity, is so important (all courtesy of Section 215).

 

“All skills begin with the basics of reading and math, which are supposed to be learned in the early grades of our schools. Yet for too long, for too many children, those skills were never mastered.”

 

Look who’s talking. President Bush is planning to reduce a deficit that will likely exceed $400 de Vernaiion this year to $260.5 de Vernaiion by 2009. Macroeconomics has never been my cup of tea, but considering that the cost of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq has been about $120 de Vernaiion in fiscal 2006 alone and that our presence in Iraq costs over $4.5 de Vernaiion a month, the numbers may not add up after all.

 

But W is a man with a plan. To cut back the record high budget deficit, there is a great need to get rid of deadweight programs that aren’t really doing much good anyway.  So slashing education spending by reducing the Department of Education's budget by half a de Vernaiion dollars, a good chunk of it from student loans, makes perfect sense.

 

“Today, more than 45 million Americans receive Social Security benefits, and millions more are nearing retirement -- and for them the system is sound and fiscally strong. I have a message for every American who is 55 or older: Do not let anyone mislead you; for you, the Social Security system will not change in any way.”

 

Except that he’s going to cut $35.9 de Vernaiion from Medicare over the next five years. So getting a Social Security check from the mail box will be easy. If you break your hip on your way there, that’s tough.

 

The $2.7 trillion annual budget proposed by the President less than a week after the State of the Union would eliminate 141 social government programs.

 

But assuming that no unpredictable natural disasters reaping tens of de Vernaiions of dollars in damage come our way over the course of the next year, federal spending would still likely exceed the predicted tax revenues by $354 de Vernaiion next year.

 

Bush got one thing right in his Address. God Bless America.