As if there has not already been enough analysis of this speech, now here I come with my 2 cents . You can get the full transcript and video of the 2006 State of the Union Address here.

There were a number of good things that the President said last night. And they were:

• Defended the fight against terrorism and the effort in Iraq.
• Keeping a strong hand on Iran and Hamas.
• Told the dumbocrats (Democrats) that Social Security still needs reform. (I could have a long side-bar here about how private investments are doing better than Social Security, but if you want the government to keep your money you’re about as dumb as the dumbocrats. I’d like to save my money as I see fit and let others that want government to keep theirs to do just that. To avoid a long side-bar I must move on.)
• He said the “Tonight the state of our Union is strong…”. Being the “State of the Union Address” he had to say how things are going. And I feel he told the truth. Things are going well right now.

That was the good, but there was so much bad for me, that all I could think of are Thomas Sowell’s 3 questions for Liberal proposals.

Applying these questions to many of President Bush’s other proposals from last night leaves me with some bad answers.

First is President Bush’s request to make Tax Cuts permanent. (I know you’re wondering why a Conservative is asking about this one, but please continue reading.) While this is better than letting the tax cuts expire, I still must ask “compared to what”? I say, compared to the Fair Tax! Remember the previous State of the Union address, where the President declared that changing our system of taxation was being considered? Allow me to refresh your memory:

Well unless you’ve been a long time reader of this blog, you probably did not know that the Fair Tax was dissed by that panel! Did the President say anything about them coming up with anything better? Nope! He’s just hoping that the old tax cuts are made permanent. All hopes of the tax code mess being reformed are gone from the agenda. Sure the Fair Tax has support in the public and in Congress, but it’s effectively off the table for the President. This does not make me happy.

The President brought up that danged guest worker program again (aka amnesty)! I’ve expressed my displeasure with this idea many times. Michael Chertoff was about to clap his wrists off as Bush talked about this bad idea.

The guest worker program fails all 3 of Mr. Sowell’s questions in my opinion. 1) We could close the borders to illegals and allow more well screened legal immigrants, 2) a guest worker program cost us security, because such workers will not be as well screened as other legal immigrants and will have a lower threshold for entry, 3) There is no evidence that a guest worker program will stop drug trafficking and terrorists from still crossing the border and also finding ways to abuse the program. In fact there is no evidence that it will actually stop or even curb illegal immigration. It is more likely to encourage more illegal immigration, because there are plenty of illegals who come to the USA and are not looking for a low wage job.

So do you get the idea, I’M NOT HAPPY! And wait, I’ve got more!

Because he started talking about spending money. Oh my goodness! This man keeps spending like the Atlantic Ocean is made of money!

First he talked about alternative fuel research.

I compare that with allowing the market to develop and move to alternatives without government intervention. And I feel that allowing the market to work, without giving away money in the name of research is a better idea. I could be wrong, but I think this will be 6 years of wasted money.

Then he spoke about curbing our oil imports from the Middle East.

I compare that to a much more realistic idea for lowering our imports from the Middle East. Use the oil we have right here in the USA. And we’ve got plenty of untapped oil resources outside of ANWR. There is oil off the coast of Florida and even more in the Gulf of Mexico that we won’t touch because of various environmental restrictions. Not to mention oil shale resources. It’s time to do away with the environmental restrictions, drill in ANWR and everywhere else. Allow the market to continue working on the alternatives, while we use our own oil.

Then he proposed a 22% increase for the Department of Energy:

They will waste that money for sure! Changes to the use of more nuclear energy are already under way in the private sector and the private sector will lead the way in this regard.

Then he proposed more money for scientific research.

How about allowing private investors to fund research? Investors are better adapt to picking winners, while the government has done a great job of wasting money and throwing it down dead end holes. If it’s not worth a private investor’s time, it’s probably not worth my tax dollars either! Allow the private sector to fund this research, because the ideas with the best potential are already getting plenty of funding.

And then the President spoke of tossing more money at education:

Johnnie can’t read Mr. President! Most school’s advance placement classes have a low number of students. The advanced placement classes are not over crowded. So I don’t think that’s where the need for teachers is at.

As I’ve mentioned before, goverment keeps coming up with bad ideas for education. But when they come from the Federal level, we continue with a violation of the US Constitution.

You will not find the word education in our Constitution, because the Federal government was never supposed to get involved in any state’s educational process. While the Federal government can say that it is a violation of equal protection to keep a group from getting an education (or anything else for that matter), the Federal government has no Constitutional authority to be involved in education. It is really a power reserved to each state. The states are supposed to decide funding, curriculum, testing criteria and so on.

So given those issues, I was not smiling after watching last night’s State of the Union Address.