What I Want The President to Say

The State of the Union is tonight and every news agency is asking every American, what we want to hear the President say tonight. That’s the wrong question. It isn’t what I want the President to say; it is what I want the President to do!

President Obama knows how to say all the right things, but when it comes time for action, he falls a bit short. It is being reported that he will talk about income inequality tonight. That’s great; we need to do something about that. We need to raise the minimum wage, crack down on Wall Street fraud, shift the tax burden from the working poor and middle class to the wealthiest Americans, penalize those who create tax shelters overseas, give tax breaks to those who move businesses back to America, fix the health care insurance industry by creating a Medicare4All system (or at the very least a public option). That would be a good start.

Then I would want the President to do something about global climate change. He can talk about it all he wants, but he needs to actually do something about it. He needs to encourage businesses and private individuals to start looking into alternative energy sources. He can do this by calling for and strong arming congress to pass new tax breaks for switching to renewable energy. He can also crack down and prosecute energy polluters like BP Oil and fine them ridiculously. End government subsidies to big oil.

Lately, people like Dinesh D’Souza and others have been arrested for illegal campaign contributions. That’s great, but it is only the tip of the very large iceberg. Sadly, it is pretty legal to bribe politicians these days and this needs to stop. Obama needs to push for an amendment to get money out of politics. D’Souza funneled $20,000 to a candidate when the limit was $5000, but the Koch Brothers and others funnel a great deal more. This isn’t just a Republican thing either. Democratic billionaires do it too, to a much lesser extent. Still, it needs to stop and not in 2017 when some other president is in charge. No, Obama needs to do these things on his watch.

Finally, I would like President Obama to announce tonight that he will push to renew focus and fund NASA and other government science agencies. We have to not only look to the future, but actually start creating the future. Private corporations are already starting to do this stuff, but we need NASA to lead the way.

There are of course plenty more things for Obama to do, but these are a good start. The President has to remember that not everything needs to have a profit margin; that the purpose of government is to do the things that individual people can’t do and that corporations won’t do. Talk is cheap and we need the President to start taking actions.

Yes, the Republicans who try to stop him and that is to be expected. Superbowl Sunday is coming up and it is the job of each team to get touchdowns. Neither side complains that the other side is trying to stop them. It is their job to find a way to score anyway. President Obama needs to find a way to get a progressive agenda passed.

Most of these things that I have put on the table have polled pretty well among the American people. The President can threaten to take these issues and other issues to the voters. He can use his bully pulpit and go around the country and actually make the arguments in favor of these policies. He can set an agenda and actually follow through on it.

The State of the Union can be strong, but only if we have a president who will strongly stand up against the opposition and push for a progressive agenda.