Washington, DC: In anticipation of President Barack Obama's first State of the Union Address, members of the Project 21 black leadership network are offering their thoughts on his first year in office and the strength of the nation.
Bob Parks: "During the last few months, President Obama has arrogantly broken one campaign pledge after another. Even after the "Massachusetts Miracle," when his fellow liberals began to act as if they were moving to the center if only for purposes of political preservation, Obama continued his narcissistic approach to governing.
"When Representative Marion Berry (D-AR) was said to have warned Obama about the potential for a mid-term election drubbing like that experienced by Bill Clinton in 1994, Obama reportedly replied: 'Well, the big difference here and in '94 was you've got me.' Berry has since announced his retirement, but the rest of America is stuck working with Obama until at least 2013. That means more broken promises, more bogus job-creation numbers and more botching of the war on terror."
Kevin L. Martin: "President Obama will undoubtedly claim the state of our union is strong and insist that his big-spending policies brought us back from the abyss. He will sing the praises of the middle class and vow to ease their pain, yet it has been the middle class that has borne the brunt of the burden of his policies during his first year in office. After being saddled with generations of debt, whatever happened to all of those shovel-ready jobs? Why are people making under $250,000 encountering new taxes? Are we safer now than we were a year ago?
"The state of our union is not determined by the size and scope of the government but by the resilience of everyday Americans. We remain hopeful, but we grow weary of a government that fails to deliver and angry at a government that refuses to take our input on real relief and reform."
Project 21, established in 1992, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org
Posts
