White House 'furious' over leak of his State of the Union speech & Text of Bachmann's speech; Paul Ryan’s speech hopeful but short on details. Overall the opinion and comments on Obama’s speech were:
- fluff
- heard if before
- too little too late
- election games
- freezing spending for 5-years at an all time high level shows he thinks we are stupid
- said most of this last year and didn’t do it
- only saying these things because he wants to be re-elected after which he will go wildly to the left
- blah blah blah blah
· National Journal leaks SOTU early (White House 'furious' over leak)
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:21:46 PM · by Qbert · 1 replies
Politico ^ | 1/25/2011 | Carol E. Lee & Keach Hagey
So much for all of the White House’s efforts to keep the details of President Barack Obama’s second State of the Union address under wraps until delivery. At 7:14 p.m. – almost two hours before Obama was scheduled to speak in the House chamber – The National Journal posted a draft of the speech, making the secrecy, calculated leaks and embargoed background briefings seem quaint. The White House, furious over the leak, responded by releasing an un-embargoed copy of Obama’s speech. It landed in reporters’ in-boxes shortly before 8 p.m. National Journal editor in chief Ron Fournier told POLITICO he...
'We received a draft copy of the speech from a trusted source,' said a spokesman. | AP PhotoClose
By CAROL E. LEE & KEACH HAGEY | 1/25/11 8:13 PM EST Updated: 1/25/11 10:05 PM EST
So much for all of the White House’s efforts to keep the details of President Barack Obama’s second State of the Union address under wraps until delivery.
At 7:14 p.m. – almost two hours before Obama was scheduled to speak in the House chamber – The National Journal posted a draft of the speech, making the secrecy, calculated leaks and embargoed background briefings seem quaint.
The White House, furious over the leak, responded by releasing an un-embargoed copy of Obama’s speech. It landed in reporters’ in-boxes shortly before 8 p.m.
National Journal editor in chief Ron Fournier told POLITICO he didn’t reach out to the White House before posting the text, and was only concerned about the draft’s accuracy. “I think that my only concern was that this was an accurate draft of the speech — were the sources credible? I talked to our reporter, and was assured that it was a credible and accurate draft, and we moved it out.”
“As a courtesy, I do wish I had given the White House a heads-up. Normally, anytime I’m part of a breaking news story, I do that,” Fournier said.
And in fact, Obama himself responded with a bit of chagrin in the chamber to the news that a copy of his speech had been leaked to National Journal.
As he greeted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Obama joked, “I don’t need to deliver it now; everyone saw it.”
A National Journal spokesperson, Taylor West, said, “We received a draft copy of the speech from a trusted source. In addition to the reliability of the source, the draft matched up to excerpts that had been released previously in the day. Given the clear news value of the information, we moved with it. We have not spoken with the White House about the decision.”
West noted that “in comparing our copy with the remarks that the White House just sent around, it appears that what we received was, in fact, the final draft.”
The National Journal piece did not contain a byline but was credited only to “National Journal Staff.”
“Getting the speech, verifying, prepping, and publishing it all in an extremely short period of time was a full team effort on the part of the NJ newsroom, so the attribution went to the team,” West said in an email.
EXCLUSIVE: Obama to Declare 'The Rules Have Changed'
· Full text of speech draft obtained by National Journal - EXCLUSIVE: Obama to Declare 'The Rules Have Changed' (Leaked Full Text of Speech Draft)
By National Journal Staff
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 | 7:14 p.m.
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
President Obama speaks to both houses of Congress during his first State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on January 27, 2010.
· Full Text: Michelle Bachmann Response to the State of the Union
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:13:42 PM · by wk4bush2004 · 6 replies - National Journal ^
Good evening, my name is Congresswoman Michele Bachmann from Minnesota's 6th District. Two years ago, when Barack Obama became our President, unemployment was 7.8 percent and our national debt stood at what seemed like a staggering $10.6 trillion dollars. We wondered whether the President would cut spending, reduce the deficit and implement real job-creating policies. Unfortunately, the President's strategy for recovery was to spend a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus program, fueled by borrowed money. The White House promised us that all the spending would keep unemployment under 8 percent. Not only did that plan fail to deliver, but...
Full Text: Michelle Bachmann Response to the State of the Union
National Journal ^ - Posted on Tue Jan 25 2011 20:13:42 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time) by wk4bush2004
Good evening, my name is Congresswoman Michele Bachmann from Minnesota's 6th District.
Two years ago, when Barack Obama became our President, unemployment was 7.8 percent and our national debt stood at what seemed like a staggering $10.6 trillion dollars.
We wondered whether the President would cut spending, reduce the deficit and implement real job-creating policies.
Unfortunately, the President's strategy for recovery was to spend a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus program, fueled by borrowed money.
The White House promised us that all the spending would keep unemployment under 8 percent.
Not only did that plan fail to deliver, but within three months the national jobless rate spiked to 9.4 percent. And sadly, it hasn't been lower for 20 straight months. While the government grew, we lost more than 2 million jobs.
Let me show you a chart. [CHART]
Here are unemployment rates over the past ten years. In October 2001, our national unemployment rate was at 5.3 percent. In 2008 it was at 6.6 percent. But, just eight months after President Obama promised lower unemployment, that rate spiked to a staggering 10.1 percent.
Today, unemployment is at 9.4 percent with about 400,000 new claims every week.
After the $700 billion bailout, the trillion-dollar stimulus, and the $410 billion spending bill with over 9,000 earmarks, many of you implored Washington to please stop spending money we don't have.
But, instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt, unlike anything we have seen in the history of our country.
[CHART SHOWN]
Deficits were unacceptably high under President Bush, but they exploded under President Obama's direction, growing the national debt by an astounding $3.1 trillion-dollars.
What did we buy?
Instead of a leaner, smarter government, we bought a bureaucracy that tells us which light bulbs to buy, and which will put 16,500 IRS agents in charge of policing President Obama's healthcare bill.
ObamaCare mandates and penalties will force many job creators to stop offering health insurance altogether, unless yours is one of the more-than-222 privileged companies or unions that has received a government waiver.
In the end, unless we fully repeal ObamaCare, a nation that currently enjoys the world's best healthcare may be forced to rely on government-run coverage that will have a devastating impact on our national debt for generations to come.
For two years President Obama made promises just like the ones we heard him make tonight. Yet still we have high unemployment, devalued housing prices and the cost of gasoline is skyrocketing.
Here are a few suggestions for fixing our economy:
The President could stop the EPA from imposing a job-destroying cap-and-trade system.
The President could support a Balanced Budget Amendment.
The President could agree to an energy policy that increases American energy production and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.
The President could also turn back some of the 132 regulations put in place in the last two years, many of which will cost our economy $100 million or more.
And, the President should repeal ObamaCare and support free market solutions like medical malpractice reform and allow all Americans to buy any healthcare policy they like anywhere in the United States.
We need to start making things again in this country, and we can do that by reducing the tax and regulatory burdens on job creators.
America will have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Look no further to see why jobs are moving overseas.
But, thanks to you, there's reason to hope that real spending cuts are coming. Last November you went to the polls and voted out big-spending politicians and you put in their place men and women with a commitment to follow the Constitution and cut the size of government.
I believe that we are in the early days of a history-making turn.
Please know how important your calls, visits, and letters are to the maintenance of our liberties. Because of you, Congress responded and we are starting to undo the damage that's been done.
We believe in lower taxes, a limited view of government and the exceptionalism of America. And I believe America is the indispensible nation.
Just the creation of this nation was a miracle. Who's to say that we can't see a miracle again?
The perilous battle that was fought in the pacific, at Iwo Jima, was a battle against all odds, and yet the image of the young G.I.s in the incursion against the Japanese immortalizes their victory. These six young men raising the flag came to symbolize all of America coming together to beat back a totalitarian aggressor.
Our current debt crisis we face today is different, but we still need all of us to pull together. We can do this.
And that's the hope we hold tonight as Americans. We will push forward to reclaim the greatness of our country and to proclaim the liberty upon which we were founded.
And we will do so because we the people will never give up on this great nation.
God bless you, and God bless America.
Paul Ryan rebuttal: Cut spending, shrink government for the GOP
He lays out a bleak view of the nation’s fiscal health, saying the only cure is slashing government spending. | AP PhotoClose
By RICHARD E. COHEN | 1/25/11 10:40 PM EST
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) used his moment in the national spotlight to lay out a bleak view of the nation’s fiscal health, saying the only cure is a conservative vision that relies on slashing government spending and reducing the size of government.
The 40-year-old Budget Committee chairman was chosen to give the Republican rebuttal to the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night because he is seen as an appealing, young visionary on federal spending. Yet while his speech sounded familiar conservative themes — “limited government and free enterprise have helped make America the greatest nation on earth” — Ryan did not lay out any bold new fiscal programs. He did not mention Social Security or Medicare — the biggest drivers of the U.S. deficit — and he did not propose any specific budget cuts, nor did he say exactly how much Republicans would cut federal spending. Instead, he gave a dreadful view of the current deficit, bashed Democrats for a “spending binge” and promised that Republicans “will cut spending to get the debt down” and “help create jobs and prosperity.”
Yet his hopeful words about the Republican vision were coupled with a pessimistic view of the economy.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48201.html#ixzz1C75YY8BK
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