President Bush’s State of Union

Ah, the brilliance of the American electorate. What politician can state otherwise who has been sent to office. His virtues have been discerned and ratified by those very prudent voters--the ones who gave us President Jimmy Carter, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Rep. Jim Wright, Gov. Jerry Brown, and Mayors Marion Barry and Coleman Young to name just a few.

Deny the obvious, give upbeat and positive messages, promise the moon and spend more. That is how to get elected. And stay elected. Eternal gullibility is the driving force of countless scams, both financial and political. Sad to see that President Bush is now pulling one on us.

In his State of the Union address, he was upbeat and positive. How nice. Everyone applauded. They even stood and applauded. Including Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y), author of the bill to reduce Social Security taxes, when Bush said, “The last thing we want to do is mess with Social Security.” Did I miss something?

The Bush Gush continued as the President promised to “bring the cost of health care under control” and institute government child care. One ought to ask if it is government’s responsibility to baby-sit our children and control health costs, and if so, why. What makes health care costs more urgent than say food costs or transportation costs? Shall government control all costs here, as it does in the Soviet Union? And by what means? Cutting wages or services, or simplest and most consistent, by robbing me to give to someone more worthy.

“Liberty is (our children’s) most precious legacy,” said President Bush. But Bush’s vision of increased government meddling and spending are anything but liberating. Our Founding Fathers did not go to war with Great Britain to have their children baby-sat. They did so to escape the oppressive burdens of taxes and government decrees so generously heaped upon them by the king of England.

Comes now the President and his Congress announcing the perpetuation of the king’s policies, for our own good, of course. And you, my fellow Americans, are buying it.

JOHN JAEGER

Irvine