What Was His Last State Of The Union About?

Last night I listened as GW Bush gave his final State of the Union Address. It gave me pause, to think about all that has happened during his time in the White House. A lot has happened in the eight years since Bush first took office. We are now into the eighth year, the last year of George W Bush two terms as president. When he first ran for president, the economy in our country was at the strongest it had been in a long time. He talked of continuing in the American tradition of respect in the White House. Bush spoke of the nation being respected around the world by the example that the president sets forward. George W Bush also remarked on the importance of appropriate behavior in the White House. On the day he was sworn in as the president on January 20, 2001 and we had a new Republican Congress, the U.S.A. had a surplus in the Social Security budget, and the country's deficit was lower than it had been in a long time. But that would all change, almost overnight. With the first year of passing tax bills to help the rich and the big businesses, which put a burden on the middle class. The Republicans, in looking for another way to pay Federal bills, began dipping into the Social Security budget. They also began to change the way Medicare worked for the elderly. Bush and the Republican Congress refused to work on a bipartisanship with the Democrats to help the senior citizens. The Republican Congress had bills that were easily passed all the way through to the president without so much as a blink-of-an-eye. In the late summer of 2001, 9/11 happened. The twin towers in Manhattan, New York had collapsed by the action of terrorists high-jacking planes and crashing them strategically into the buildings. When the dust had cleared a new agency was formed for Homeland Security. We entered into a war in Afghanistan for one purpose only, to hunt and find the people responsible. The terrorists who were responsible were, Bin Laden, al Quaeda, the Taliban. We went in to hunt them down. By 2002, Bush talked to the nation about his plan to give Financial Government Incentives to Businesses to send American jobs overseas. That, of course, sent many high technical jobs overseas, along with businesses having foreign offices, businesses, and employees receiving our most personal data with the financial businesses following after. It also left many states to deal with a sudden high rate of unemployment. Many of the unemployed who were in their late 40 yrs of age and up were finding themselves struggling with younger people for job positions in the lower wage industries. Engineers who once worked in the programing and computer engineering with government space contract companies were now having to get jobs in different fields for lower wages. Yet no one noticed. Bush and the Republican Congress refused to work with the Democrats, in a bipartisan way, for the working middle class. This move, according to Bush, would add more jobs in America and give businesses a chance to compete globally. Between the summer of 2002 through 2003, Bush had given a speech which even shocked me. His speech was on the changing of our country's workforce. He made the statement that we are no longer the high technological country, and that Americans were going to have to work in the service job industries in order to compete globally. Yet between 2002 through 2004 hidden in all of this was Bush and the republicans, through either financial or tax credits, helping companies stay afloat. By the beginning 2003, there was a hint that Bush may begin to forcibly go after Sadam Hussein, the dictator leader in Iraq to hunt for the weapons of mass destruction. According to the Bush administration an Iranian informant verified that there really were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Rumsfeld and Bush were pulling troops out of Afghanistan and stopped hunting for Bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the Taliban. They mentioned that the band of terrorists were broken up and on the run. Imagine for a moment if our police and FBI would just do an about face in a man hunt for a murderer just because he was on the run. Does that seem like the logical course of action to take? On March 23, 2003, after pulling troops most of our troops from Afghanistan, Bush and the Republican Administration rerouted the troops to go after Bin Laden. Overstretched, and under equipped to deal with the aftermath of an invasion, our troop got to Baghdad in a weeks time, and were able to catch Bin Laden quickly there after. But the only thing that the soldiers found besides normal caches of weaponry, was a mosaic tile likeness of Bush Sr. on the ground in front of a capital building in Iraq. Apparently, Sadam enjoyed wiping his shoes on the face of the Bush Sr. image every time he entered the capital building. All during this time with American jobs lost overseas, first there was a drop in existing home sales. Some took longer to sell. New homes sales were slowly dropping, but not as quickly and deep at first. Each Christmas season, the consumer sales would drop each year, yet no one noticed. So businesses and media blamed the consumer for tightening their belts. Each year the utility companies raised their rates, both heating and electricity, but no one noticed. There was a stimulus package, which did not work to help the economy since many had to pay bills with their tax rebates. The American people had voiced their opinion against the Bush administration allowing a Foreign company controlled by a foreign government to own and control an eastern port of the United States. Bush went ahead with the plan any way. At the end of 2006, People had enough of Republican spending, and putting the Federal government in a deeper deficit than it had been for a long time, and tired of the Republican Congress spending more pork than any other Congress ever, that the people voted mostly for a Democratic Congress. And in the beginning of 2007, the new Congressmen were sworn into Congress.

During GW Bush campaign for the second term he stressed the importance about staying the course, going after terrorists, and homeland security. He talked of stricter border security as well. Yet here we are, 2008, the borders are no more secured than they were before 9/11. Bush even allow 2 border agents who did there jobs well, to be arrested, charged and tried for shooting a drug smuggler. Even during the trial of the border agents, the prosecutor on the case, had information that the drug smuggler had been arrested for smuggling across the border again while he was the lead witness in the case against the two border agents who are still in prison. Also in the last year of Bush 2nd term in office, Bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the Taliban are more stronger and have more allies of leaders in different countries in the Middle East. One known friend of Bush, the president of Afghanistan, Musharaffe had made a deal with the Taliban, and al Qaeda. And more American jobs lost to overseas, with more foreign imports coming in to the U.S.A., with more loss of income, with more housing sales crisis being overburden with the increase in foreclosures, with more rates raised in the utilities. Plus and ANNUAL increase in the cost of gasoline at the pump since 2001 when Bush first to office, and the roller-coaster of the market every year till it plunge to a dangerously lower level before slightly creeping back up, the American economy has failed, we are in a recession, yet still no one notices.

So what was his last State Of The Union of 2008 about? GW Bush demanding that the Democrats in Congress now work with Bush and the Republicans in a bipartisan way for the stimulus package. He warned of adding pork to the bills, and tightening the borders, and staying the course in the Iraq war. After eight years of the Bush Administration, Now he wants to work with the Democrats, and now he wants to stop adding the pork?