January 23, 2013
The Heritage Foundation’s Amy Payne explains President Obama’s second inaugural address in plain English:
The President was very clear that he sees no urgency about reducing the debt and cutting the deficit. In fact, in his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama was honest about his intentions to grow government in order to remake our country along his progressive vision.
To sell his agenda, the President borrowed imagery and terminology from America’s first principles. But he twisted the American founding idea of “We the people” into the liberal “It takes a village.”
Her take on what the President really said about “We the People”:
He may have surrounded these words with lip service to the Constitution and America’s promise of freedom, but the President revisited his core message here: It takes a taxpayer-subsidized village to build things. According to his philosophy, entrepreneurs don’t create jobs—the government does.
And what he really meant on the fiscal crisis:
On this point, the President followed up his promise that he will not negotiate on the debt ceiling by digging in his heels on taxes and entitlement programs. The “hard choices” he refers to on health care and the deficit are more tax increases—because he “reject[s] the belief” that entitlements must be reformed if they are going to stay around for the next generation.
And on green energy:
Despite the ever-growing Green Graveyard of companies like Solyndra that took taxpayer money only to go bankrupt, the President clings to this unworkable and expensive policy. And his linking of climate change to “more powerful storms” points to a renewed push for policies like a carbon tax to punish people for using energy—a policy that would harm the economy and produce no tangible environmental benefits.
And on foreign policy:
Even as Obama pulls troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the hostage crisis in Algeria shows that al-Qaeda is alive and well. Though Iran continues to rebuff international inspectors and basically do whatever it wants, Obama seems perpetually optimistic that more talks with this hostile regime—and others like it—could make them change their behavior.
You can read Payne’s full analysis here.
What did you think about President Obama’s second inaugural address?
Eric McCoy - January 23, 2013
His address was vulgar, perverse, UNAMERICAN, and should serve as a shocking warning and wake up call to America today. He is going to grab all the power, as forcefully and through executive fiat as he can. He has waged war on all that it means to be an American, and he feels he has a mandate to do so. The question is, will God fearing, Freedom loving, Constitution defending Americans going to rise up and stop him or are we going to be silent, lazy and just roll over and let him destroy America? Only God knows, but God knows time will tell the tale.