The Speech, Selectively Annotated

So I supported the last administration's efforts to create the financial rescue program. And when we took the program over, we made it more transparent and accountable. [A lot of people would disagree with this statement. Is it an outright lie or an 'exaggeration'? You decide.]

And we haven't raised income taxes by a single dime on a single person. Not a single dime. [Message to the rich: pay attention! Your taxes aren't going to be raised.]

There are stories like this all across America. And after two years of recession, the economy is growing again. [He'd better pray we don't have a double dip, especially since his policies increase the odds that we will.]

That is why jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight.

Now, the true engine of job creation in this country will always be America's businesses. [Government is the employer of last resort. FDR understood that. Mr. Obama, for all his historical pretensions, doesn't seem familiar with the history.]

So tonight, I'm proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat. I am also proposing a new small business tax credit — one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. [Details to follow; sure to be a disappointment.]

While we're at it, let's also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment; and provide a tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment. [The nuts and bolts of his intention: tax credits for large businesses.]

Next, we can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow. From the first railroads to the interstate highway system, our nation has always been built to compete. There's no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products. [No details; none expected to follow.]

And to encourage these and other businesses to stay within our borders, it's time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs in the United States of America. [A challenge to Republicans, political pandering to the Democratic center. "It's time" means somebody else would have to do the heavy lifting. Mr. Obama merely pointed the way.]

One place to start is serious financial reform. [Nothing he says about this is serious.]

But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. [Biden at work here. Nuclear power is a catastrophe on every level. It's dangerous. It's not economic. It's not green. It's a huge giveaway to industry.]

It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. [Drill, baby, drill.] It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies. [A nod to Illinois coal, and an implicit OK to mountaintop removal for coal mining.] And yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America. [Cap and trade being the derivative traders' wet dream.]

We will double our exports over the next five years, an increase that will support two million jobs in America. [Make a note, he's predicted something here that surely won't happen.]

And that's why we will continue to shape a Doha trade agreement that opens global markets, and why we will strengthen our trade relations in Asia and with key partners like South Korea, Panama, and Colombia. [All the above, of course, means the off-shoring of more American jobs. Probably Mr. Obama genuinely doesn't understand what's involved.]

This year, we have broken through the stalemate between left and right by launching a national competition to improve our schools. [If he improves measurable educational achievement in any way I'll be astonished.]

I urge the Senate to follow the House and pass a bill that will revitalize our community colleges, which are a career pathway to the children of so many working families. To make college more affordable, this bill will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer-subsidies that go to banks for student loans. Instead, let's take that money and give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college and increase Pell Grants. And let's tell another one million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only ten percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after twenty years — and forgiven after ten years if they choose a career in public service. [Tiny steps in the right direction, the very definition of thin gruel. I'd be interested in seeing how the U.S. compares with other OECD countries in terms of subsidies to higher education. I'm sure we're towards the bottom of the pack.]

The steps we took last year to shore up the housing market have allowed millions of Americans to take out new loans and save an average of $1,500 on mortgage payments. This year, we will step up re-financing so that homeowners can move into more affordable mortgages. [Has anybody briefed him recently on the housing situation, or how poorly his administration's mortgage assistance plans have performed?]

And it is precisely to relieve the burden on middle-class families that we still need health insurance reform. [We know how that one turns out.]

As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we've proposed. There's a reason why many doctors, nurses, and health care experts who know our system best consider this approach a vast improvement over the status quo. [Who?]

Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. But all other discretionary government programs will. [This is absurd and doesn't deserve comment but I would note a news article in Politico about Secretary Gates' intention to increase DOD spending.]

That's why I've called for a bipartisan, Fiscal Commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. This can't be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The Commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline. Yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I will issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans. [This will be a real nightmare.]

Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that's why I'm urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong. [A bill won't work, Mr. constitutional lawyer, because the Supreme Court's decision makes that sort of thing unconstitutional. You'd think he knows better but it's possible he doesn't. In any case, there's nothing he's proposing that would have the slightest effect. This is just more rhetorical preening.]

In Afghanistan, we are increasing our troops and training Afghan Security Forces so they can begin to take the lead in July of 2011, and our troops can begin to come home. We will reward good governance, reduce corruption, and support the rights of all Afghans — men and women alike. We are joined by allies and partners who have increased their own commitment, and who will come together tomorrow in London to reaffirm our common purpose. There will be difficult days ahead. But I am confident we will succeed. [Clueless, what can one say?]

Even as we prosecute two wars, we are also confronting perhaps the greatest danger to the American people — the threat of nuclear weapons. [This should be easy but I no longer trust what the Obama administration says it's doing.]

The spirit that has sustained this nation for more than two centuries lives on in you, its people. [As I keep trying to explain, it's not about the American people or our culture. It's about our dysfunctional institutions.]