Why Oh Why Are We Ruled by These Liars?

Reed Hundt remembers how things used to be back when we had a real president.

Shouldn't the change he describes be analyzed... discussed... even noted by... the press?

TPMCafe || SOTU and reasoning : It was a long time ago, I suppose, but I recall that during the first term of the Clinton Administration... the process of preparing the State of the Union address took the better part of two months. Everyone from every wing of government launched ideas.... If your notion was mentioned, you knew that there would be follow-up, that you were empowered to press on with your policy.... The speech was intended specifically to introduce proposals in Congress... the hope was that the proposals would become law.... The President aspired to have the whole nation learn the direction but also the details of policies.

The media were not allies. They actually limited the time available for the speech and usually offered not repetition but criticism and cynical comments about the President's motives. Nevertheless, the Administration considered the speech to be an opportunity to address the country outside the distortions of the media.

Now, it seems, the distortions are embedded in the speech, and the media echo them. The process of generating policy ideas, it seems, does not even exist.... Any connection to legislation is almost accidental.... Most of what is said is mean to be ignored by government leaders. It's simply breathtaking that the Energy Department secretary rescinded much of the core of the President's most recent SOTU speech a day later...

Comments

[save_the_rustbelt]

Clinton's speeches tended to be long sobbing laundry lists of feel good proposals - lets all hold hands and sing Kum-bah-yah.

Bush, on the other hand, can barely stitch together a coherent sentence.

Is this the best we can do?

[fouro]

Ahh, for the days of laundry lists, balanced budgets, job creation, an ambulatory press corps. Kum-bah-yah? Yeah we could use a little of that too from our party of values and it's Uniter-not-divider guy.

[bob h]

"The process of generating policy ideas, it seems, does not even exist.... Any connection to legislation is almost accidental.... "

Proposals are made because he has to fill air time. So they look to the wacko think tanks for hair-brained ideas. The real agenda of Bush is just tax-cutting and providing cover for both high- and low-end looters.

[Howard]

what's that prof? our media not suffer from collective amnesia? you're kidding, right?

[Jim S]

This is one reason I don't bother watching it or listening to it. I've noticed that if he does mention any good ideas there is no follow through on them or just enough so it can be said that they did something. The bad ones, now, those he follows through on. I expect minimal follow through on the parts of his speech that actually did mention some good ideas on energy. I foresee lots of support for the idea of banning stem cell research.

[bakho]

I thought it was great that Mr Bush would finally mention alternative energy in his speech. However, on second thought, Plan Bush probably involves corporate welfare in the guise of developing alternative fuels. The Bush budget shows that he is not serious. There is no money where his mouth is. From Think Progress:

SOTU: Bush Wanted Biofuel Cuts
Bush says: “The best way to break this [oil] addiction is through technology. … We will also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips, stalks, or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years.”

FACT — BUSH PUSHED FOR BIOFUELS CUTS IN LATEST BUDGET: In President Bush’s FY06 budget, “the RBS Renewable and Energy Efficiency Grant/Loan Guarantee Program would be scaled back to $10 million from $23 million in FY05, the NRCS Biomass Research and Development Program would be cut by $2 million to $12 million, and the CCC Bioenergy Program would be slashed $40 million from $100 million in FY05 to $60 million in FY06.” [Renewable Energy Access, 2/28/05]

SOTU:
Bush said: “The best way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly 10 billion dollars to develop cleaner, cheaper, more reliable alternative energy sources – and we are on the threshold of incredible advances.”

FACT — BUSH PUSHED FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY CUTS IN LATEST BUDGET: President Bush’s FY06 budget request for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) energy efficiency and renewable energy programs envisioned “reductions totaling nearly $50 million - an overall cut of roughly four percent.” [Renewable Energy Access, 2/28/05]

FACT — BUSH REJECTED BIPARTISAN PLAN TO SET GOALS FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY: Last year, President Bush “oppose[d] efforts to include a national renewable energy requirement for utilities in Congress’ broad energy legislation.” According to the Union of Concerned Scientists it “is a cost-effective, market-based policy that requires electric utilities to gradually increase their use of renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, and bioenergy,” to between 10 and 20 percent by 2020. A 10 percent standard “would have virtually no impact on electricity prices and could save consumers as much as $13.2 billion.” [Reuters, 2/10/05; Union of Concerned Scientists; Union of Concerned Scientists]

FACT — BUSH ENERGY BILL CONTAINED LITTLE ON RENEWABLE ENERGY: The energy bill supported and signed by President Bush dropped a provision that would have required utilities “to generate at least 10 percent of their electricity through renewable fuels by 2020.” [New York Times, 7/26/05]

SOTU: Dependence on Foreign Oil Has Increased Under Bush
Bush said: “Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. Here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.”

FACT — BUSH HAS INCREASED DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL: Sixty-six percent of oil consumed in the United States comes from foreign sources, up from 58 percent in 2000. Americans now spend $200,000 a minute on foreign oil and more than $25 billion annually goes to Persian Gulf states for oil imports. [Energy Information Administration, 1/06; American Progress, 2004]

FACT– BUSH ENERGY BILL WILL NOT REDUCE RELIANCE ON FOREIGN OIL: The energy bill signed and supported by President Bush “rejected a Senate provision that required reduction of oil consumption by one million barrels per day by 2015.” Under the bill, “our need for imported oil will continue to grow for as long as models are able to project.” [U.S. House Committee on Government Reform, 7/05]

We have real issues that good government would address in a rational way. The corruption of our government is breath taking. I am starting to understand that much of the problem in the old Soviet Union was lack of institutional checks on corruption. Seeing rampant unchecked corruption in the US today first hand makes the point much more clearly than any number of lectures.

[Bruce Ferguoson]

Disingenuous? (It is always nice when a word can say so much. The Latin root word ingenu-us has the meaning of being free born, a freeman, now who would dis that? )

Source: U.S. Department of Education Budget Service. All dollar amounts are estimates as of 2/25/05. For more information about the No Child Left Behind Act, please visit www.ed.gov.
President Bush’s Historic Investment in Education
2006 Budget Good News for Washington's Children
The U.S. Department of Education’s FY 2006 budget provides $56 billion in Federal education funding —an increase of 33 percent since the President took office. Despite all the priorities competing for our tax dollars—strengthening our economy and defending our Nation—the FY 2006 budget reflects the President’s strong commitment to
http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/statefactsheets/washington.pdf

{note the total discretionary spending in 2004 was 55661673000. Which of course is rounded 56B And total discretionary spending he asked for in 2001 was 56047848000}
http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/history/edhistory.pdf

[save_the_rustbelt]

For the years the right has been criticizing the MSM for any number of sins.

Now the left is also kicking them.

I guess we will have to depend on blogs for information.

[bakho]

BruceF- Your figures on Federal discretional spending cannot be correct. Discretional sepending for Education in 2001 was only $42 Billion. Now it is true that his 2006 request is about $1 Billion less than his 2005 request and about a half billion less than the 2005 appropriation for Total Discretionary Spending for Education

Your 2004 Figures are only for Educational Total Discretionary spending, not Total Government Discretionary Spending which is around $900 Billion.

Federal Education Discretionary Spending is up by about $14 Billion since 2001. About $5 billion is in more Title 1, and several million go to reading improvement and improving math teacher quality.

[christofay]

Bakho, usually even minded and informative, is getting shrill but still informative. Or am I just reading too much attitute into word choice?