2008 Woodie Awards
What's the real state of the union?
By: Will Garrison
Issue date: 6/13/08 Section: Opinion
In his state of the union speech, George W. Bush said that "from expanding opportunity to defending our country, we've made good progress." Oh, really? When? Was I asleep during all of this progress?
Thankfully the president was happy to enlighten us, first by bringing up his saves-the-day stimulus package. Bush proposed (and slid past the House) an economic stimulus package worth $146 billion. Dubbed by the Washington Post as a "shot in the arm for the nation's ailing economy," the package is George Bush's answer to the torrential downpour of economic hardships drowning the U.S. The proverbial band-aid on our sinking ship. According to the U.N., the price of food has risen by almost half since the year 2000 thanks to skyrocketing petroleum prices. The U.S. dollar has dropped by almost half in the meantime, being surpassed by both the Euro and the Canadian dollar. We double-tax social security, college tuition has exploded, and it all seems to be compounding upon itself exponentially. It's understandable that the first point the president would cover in his state of the union address would involve the economy, but is a stimulus package really the answer?
We are currently in the middle of a war that has, to date, seen 4,000 of our soldiers dead and another 60,000 wounded. It has cost us almost five hundred billion dollars, or over 4,000 dollars per U.S. household. That's three and a half stimulus packages. It has created around 4 million refugees and claimed the lives of anywhere from 30,000 to 700,000 Iraqis depending on whose statistics you believe.
It has depleted our armed forces to the point that no single unit is considered combat ready. So much for making progress in defending our country. Not to mention that, thanks in part to the war, expenses have been at an all-time high. As of 4 p.m. on the 30th, the national debt of the United States was nine trillion, two hundred and six billion dollars or $30,000 per person; the national debt has increased at an average of 1.43 billion dollars per day since 2006.
Thankfully the president was happy to enlighten us, first by bringing up his saves-the-day stimulus package. Bush proposed (and slid past the House) an economic stimulus package worth $146 billion. Dubbed by the Washington Post as a "shot in the arm for the nation's ailing economy," the package is George Bush's answer to the torrential downpour of economic hardships drowning the U.S. The proverbial band-aid on our sinking ship. According to the U.N., the price of food has risen by almost half since the year 2000 thanks to skyrocketing petroleum prices. The U.S. dollar has dropped by almost half in the meantime, being surpassed by both the Euro and the Canadian dollar. We double-tax social security, college tuition has exploded, and it all seems to be compounding upon itself exponentially. It's understandable that the first point the president would cover in his state of the union address would involve the economy, but is a stimulus package really the answer?
We are currently in the middle of a war that has, to date, seen 4,000 of our soldiers dead and another 60,000 wounded. It has cost us almost five hundred billion dollars, or over 4,000 dollars per U.S. household. That's three and a half stimulus packages. It has created around 4 million refugees and claimed the lives of anywhere from 30,000 to 700,000 Iraqis depending on whose statistics you believe.
It has depleted our armed forces to the point that no single unit is considered combat ready. So much for making progress in defending our country. Not to mention that, thanks in part to the war, expenses have been at an all-time high. As of 4 p.m. on the 30th, the national debt of the United States was nine trillion, two hundred and six billion dollars or $30,000 per person; the national debt has increased at an average of 1.43 billion dollars per day since 2006.
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