A Sad State

A Sad State
The View from the Middle

Many a President has started his State of the Union speech by saying that, “The state of our union is … Strong”, and President Trump could use that same language in his upcoming address. The unemployment rate is under 4% and has hit record low rates for African Americans, Hispanics and women. The US economy is growing at annual rate of over 3% for the first time in ten years and North Korea isn’t testing nuclear bombs or launching missiles over Japan and ISIS is a shadow of its former self. With these realities in place, ANY President would say that the state of our union is strong. But I would argue that Trump should say that the state of our union is sad – disgusting – pathetic or at best dysfunctional.

It saddens me that as the market fell almost 4,000 points in December, I pictured Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi celebrating. And when the market set a record one day gain on Wednesday, you have to know that they were cursing. They have made it clear that they would rather see America, and thus the American people, suffer than to allow Donald Trump to succeed. Their hatred for this President is so rabid that they would rather have American citizens lose their jobs, lose their houses and even go hungry than have this President be successful or be the person who actually solves the illegal immigration problem.

When Mitch McConnell suggested that his most important objective in 2009 was to make sure that Barrack Obama did not win a second term, I condemned him. And when Rush Limbaugh declared that he wanted President Obama to fail, I rejected that idea, because if our President fails, the American people pay the price. This two person, single statement example, however, pales in comparison to the entire Democrat party who has proudly announced that they will resist and obstruct everything Donald Trump proposes no matter how good it is for the country and its people.

Not a single Democrat voted for Trump’s tax cuts, which all fair minded people would have to agree was good for our economy and job creation. Democrats not only didn’t support his foreign policy moves, but some, like John Kerry, actively tried to sabotage it. And now we have a second “Schumer” shutdown over Trump’s insistence on five billion dollars for a wall as part of his plan to secure our southern border.

It’s not about the money! Five billion dollars represents only about one tenth of one percent of our country’s budget. Hillary Clinton lost (or more graciously mismanaged) six billion dollars just while she was Secretary of State. According to Bob Woodward, the Pentagon wasted $125 billion over five years. Our government squanders over five billion dollars a week in waste, fraud and abuse according to some estimates. It’s not about the money. It’s not about a wall or even about border security. It is about a political calculation that Democrats and their co-conspirators, the main stream media, are making. As long as they believe they are gaining a political advantage they will gladly shower Americans with misery and suffering.

It’s also about an almost irrational hatred for this President. Some call it “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, but whatever you call it, it’s pathetic when our politicians actually cheer for the collapse of our markets and the failure of our country so that they can experience revenge or political gain. This is what makes the real state of our union – Sad!! What we need is term limits to force all of these selfish jerks out of office!!