State of the Union - Follow up

I got most of it right.

There was talk about sacrifice and compromise, though not always in those words. Big time talk about the tax code and corporate taxes, whoopee. Investing in the country, but that was probably always a gimme since it’s such a popular topic. Same for the strong future.

I was flabbergasted that the long-term concept I expected turned out to be a 5-year freeze on spending levels. What a monumentally bad idea. Someone explain to me how we invest without spending.

I’d say the not raising taxes was not explicit, so I’ll call that a push.

The talk on health care was as I expected, so, I got it right but I’m not impressed. The same for talking about the amazing American worker – he mentioned it, but with no specifics or real enthusiasm.

I’d say it was mostly a move to what people in DC like to call the center.

Not enough about protecting Social Security from the predators, but no talk of changes yet. I didn’t really hear much specific about the economy – did I miss it?


So, I claim a high level of accuracy, if not being very thorough in my predictions. It was a standard State of the Union address – vague, bland and apparently designed to leave little room for criticism. Pretty much what I expected (did I say that already?).

I can’t wait until next year when we can all be called on to look to the future and make our country stronger without any mention of how nothing got done based on this speech.

I didn’t pay attention to the so-called rebuttals.

Oh, there was one surprise. I didn't know that Biden was that much taller than Boehner. That's about it.

State of the Union Predictions

At the moment I would expect to see the following things mentioned in some form in the SOTU tomorrow:

Shared sacrifice
Everyone has to be involved
Compromise
Bipartisanship
Changes to Social Security
Raise the retirement age
No benefit cuts
Tax code reform, emphasis on corporate and cuts
Invest in the country
Look to a strong future
The economy is strong but not yet recovered
Implicit move to the so-called center
A plan for something that won’t be completed until after 2012
And some form of ‘everything on the table’ where the ‘everything’ excludes raising the high end marginal tax rate
List accomplishments
Something about health care reform
Lip-service to workers

Pabulum, promises and no real plan to fix things.

Mostly I expect it to be vague, with maybe one specific big item to use as a focus – which would also work as a distraction from the major problems that aren’t being addressed.