State of the Union Speech

I watched the State of the Union speech last night in the hope that there might be some hint that the president would be willing to change course and start getting our spending under control.  I understand that he can not be very overt about doing that kind of thing because his liberal base would vehemently oppose it, so I was just looking for hints.  Unfortunately, I didn't find anything that was in the least encouraging.

The most depressing part of the speech was what he chose to leave out.  I didn't hear him say anything substantive about the real problems that imperil our future - particularly our massive debt.  He only repeated his mantra about the rich not paying their fair share, as though there are enough dollars there to solve our debt crisis.  I heard him embrace the thought that Washington is broken and make a plea for working together, but I don't see any concrete evidence that he is doing his part.  It would seem to me that he could nudge Harry Reed to get the Senate to at least take up the budget that is required by law.  It is obviously not the Republicans that are blocking a debate on the budget.  The House long ago passed one, but, as we all know, it continues to languish in the Democratically controlled senate.  My suspicion is that the President does not want the budget debate because it would highlight our out-of-control spending binge as well as talk to the problems of the rapid acceleration in the growth of government bureaucracy.  I heard the President championing energy independence, but I didn't hear an explanation as to why he has decided to send Canadian oil to China rather than bring it down to Huston to be refined here.  I did not hear anything substantive about what he recommends that we do about medicare and social security.  Etc, etc, etc.  I heard him make some minor promises, but given that he has repeatedly broken his word in the past, I find that I no longer trust him even in the little things.

I not only found the speech boring (all State of the Union speeches tend to be boring), I found it to be depressing.  I agree that Washington is broken, but I suggest that our President is one of the chief reasons why that is so.