The State of Our Union

Congressman Dennis Kucinich published this piece today on Common Dreams regarding the President's upcoming State of the Union address. The opening paragraphs are below.

"On Tuesday night President Bush will stand before the Congress and the nation, to deliver his annual State of the Union address. We are sure to hear a rosy tale of an economy on the rebound, a blossoming democracy in Iraq, a terror network on the run, and a Gulf Coast region rebuilding better and stronger than ever before. As is most often the case with this Administration, the rhetoric does not match reality.

The facts are clear. Our economy is struggling and leaving tens of millions of Americans behind. According to the non-partisan National Journal, since President Bush first stood before Congress and the nation in 2001, the median income in this country has decreased, the jobless rate has jumped from 3.9% to 4.9% and the number of families living in poverty has increased from 8.7% to 10.2%. Our trade deficit has doubled. Inflation has gone up. Personal bankruptcies have gone up. Consumer debt has gone up. College tuition has gone up. And, the price of gas has gone up. All the while, this Administration has turned a $128 billion federal budget surplus into a $319 billion deficit."

I agree that the President will likely spout platitudes about how well his administration is managing our nation, and that most of what he says will either be completely untrue or generously lacking in truthful details. I also predict that, shamefully, few if any of the major media outlets will attempt to point out the obvious distortions of reality that will make up the bulk of his speech. Perhaps I will be mistaken about the media, but there's little doubt that the State of the Union will be another embarrassing chapter in this administration's complete disregard for anything resembling the actual state of our country.