On the Contrary

Last night with President Obama’s speech to a joint session of the House and Senate followed by Bobby Jindal’s Republican rebuttal, two different paths were clearly evident.  In order to understand this you have to step back and see where we are today.  Instead of listing what most of you already know about our failure to invest in our future, let me just refer you to a report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation that found that the competitive edge of the United States economy has eroded sharply over the last decade (New York Times).  If this is not a wakeup call we were on the wrong path, nothing is.

But last night we heard President Obama tell us that government has to get back in the drivers seat and lead, and we have to dream big.  He told us that we have been kicking the can down the road and now it was time to tackle, energy, education, and health care.  It was time for government to take the reigns and lead us out of our doldrums.  He described a way forward that would be led by a reinvigorated government/industry partnership working in our interests.

Next up was Governor Jindal who told us that the solution is not with government, but with businesses solving our problem. “But the way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians. The way to lead is by empowering you – the American people”.  What we saw in the last eight years of this approach was, as President Obama identified, the transfer of taxpayer money to the wealthy with nothing to show for it.   Then Jindal told us we can’t dream big because we can’t afford it.  That the very businesses that got us into our current mess are going to save us.  Then he told us the lie about the train from Disney Land to Las Vegas again, and reinvented the Katrina mess as how a state can take care of it itself without federal help.  He reinterpreted the whole mess as what happens when the Feds are involved instead of the reality of what happens when Republicans dismantle government.

So here it is as simple as I can put it.  President Obama tells us to dream big and tackle our problems by forging a partnership between an invigorated government and industry.  He points out that we cannot afford not to.  Governor Jindal tells us to not dream at all and to continue our rudderless approach to our future.  This is a choice?  If Americans are still intellectually alive, the Republican Party is finished.