Obama's Speech to Congress 02/24/09

Obama was eloquent, relevant, on point, educational, thought provoking and full of substance. For example, he got massive applause for saying we should not leave a deficit for our children to repay. He then suggested we work hard to repay our recession debt once the crisis is over. Obama pointed out the fact we need to prepare our citizens through education. One of his most memorable statements to me was when he said that there is no more room for dropping out of school because we need everyone to grow our nation. Obama herein equated lack of education with lack of patriotism. He said that the imagination of our entrepreneurs are the backbone of our economy. Obama reminded us that our economy has not failed overnight, and yet we managed to not seek answers until the problem became dire. He said now that we are here, we must do what needs to be done regardless of cost and then work to reduce the deficit we inflict upon ourselves. Obama pointed out if we don't restart lending in this country, we stop any growth in the economy. Banks are now fearful to lend. People are fearful of buying large ticket items like cars, land, homes, and education loans. He announced a plan to help home buyers who face losing their homes. Obama announced tax cuts are beginning in April on workers' pay stubs. He announced the plan to retract the Bush tax cuts to the top 2 percent of Americans to help spurn more income through taxes to government. See where recovery money is spent from this plan at www.recovery.gov to make government spending transparent. In a time of crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of bitterness or anger, he stated in response to Bush and Banks' bad choices. Obama says this is not about helping banks, but helping individuals and families. Slowly but surely confidence will return he says if we just do what needs to be done. He plans to reform the regulatory system in America to assure this kind of crisis does not happen again. We need to invest in new jobs, education, health care, schools, our roads, energy, technology, etc. Obama admits this budget does not seek to cover every situation that may occur. But, we cannot sit and wait because that is how we got here. We must cut back on programs we do not need, and support those we do need. Obama said we need to stop supporting Cold War era defense systems and only pay for newer technologies that keep us strong. He addressed Medicare and Social Security reforms. Obama is seeking ways to end our involvement in Iraq and effectively end this war. He is also seeking ways to strengthen troop involvements in Afghanistan to end the war there soon as well. He sent message to the troops that they have our/his unyielding support. He announces a raise in troop pay and increase benefits to our veterans. He then mentioned strengthening old alliances and creating new ones amongst the world's nations. He mentioned that the eyes of the nations are again on America, waiting to see what we do. President Obama emphasizes we must ALL work together to make it through these tough times. You can find find this speech in full at www.youtube.com as Obama Speech to congress Part 1/6 to 6/6. You can find me at www.myspace.com/alansimmons3 and at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/profile.php?id=1553229531&ref=profile. Friend me and leave comments there as well as here.