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Senators Miller & Chambliss,
Congressman Linder,
Other Members of Congress,
Here is the speech President Bush should have given America. This is a speech ALL Americans would support.
Wes Alexander
The Address Bush Should--But Won't--Give Tonight
By Murray Sabrin
"My fellow Americans. When we arrived in Washington two years ago, the economy was entering a recession, our armed forces was dispersed around the world, federal spending was still increasing, taxes were unbearably high, unnecessary regulations had not yet been abolished, illegal immigration continued unabated, and monetary policy was destabilizing the economy.
Given all the challenges facing our nation, a coordinated attack against America occurred on September 11th, 2001. We responded quickly, sending our brave men and women to Afghanistan to root out, to apprehend and punish the evil doers who killed and harmed innocent Americans.
We also concluded that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction that he would use to threaten his neighbors and our friends and allies in the region as well as other peaceful and freedom loving nations around the world.
I also warned that an axis of evil existed stretching from Baghdad to Teheran to Pyongyang. These nations pose a grave threat to world peace if they did not disarm.
We have mobilized with some of our allies a formidable military force to disarm Saddam Hussein's regime so he will not be able to launch any attack using any weapon of mass destruction.
There is no more important issue facing America and every other nation than war and peace. The rest of the world can be reassured that the United States wants to have friendly relations with all nations. We do not seek hegemony over any nation, or region of the world.
Consequently, I have reassessed our policy in the Middle East. All peoples in the Middle East deserve an end to the hostilities that have caused so much bloodshed. We need to replace the tears of mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters and sons and daughters who have seen their loved ones killed because of the continuing conflict that has gripped the region.
America will work tirelessly to usher in an era of peace and prosperity in the Middle East. The families in the region, whether they are in Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, or in other nations, deserve no less.
As the leader of the free world, the United States must lead by example. Thus, I have ordered our military commanders to begin withdrawing our troops from the Middle East to defuse the situation and show all governments in the region that the United States will work with them to resolve any disagreements peacefully.
In addition, we will also withdraw our troops from nations around the world, where the national security of our nation is not in jeopardy. I am also ordering Attorney General Ashcroft to dismantle any policy or program that violates the American people's constitutional rights that have been enacted in our fight against terrorism. We cannot fight terrorism with any of the people's rights compromised.
I have ordered Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to convene a summit with his counterparts in the Middle East so weapons of mass destruction can be eliminated from the region.
I have asked Secretary of State Colin Powell to begin talks with all the parties in the Middle East to lay the groundwork for rebuilding of the nations that have been ravaged by suicide bombing and military intervention.
The Middle East needs more investment and less military weapons. Investment and free markets can reduce the despair and grinding poverty in many parts of the region. The effects of suicide bombers, rumbling tanks and helicopter gun ships are destruction and death. We must do all we can to end the destruction in the Middle East and begin a glorious period of reconciliation and reconstruction.
I will personally meet with the heads of state in the region to reassure them that the road to peace and prosperity must begin with the insight of one of the twentieth century's insightful national leaders, Mahatma Gandhi, who said that an eye for an eye would lead to widespread blindness.
I am confidant that the future of the Middle East will be bright if openness and reconciliation replace distrust and violence. The people in Tel Aviv, the West Bank, Gaza, Baghdad and other locations are looking to us to provide the leadership to create a lasting peace.
That is our challenge. My administration will work nonstop to assure that peace and prosperity will rein in the Middle East, and with the American people's support we will succeed.
We must also lead to show how to be good stewards of the people's money. We must get our own financial house in order.
I am ordering all cabinet heads to initiate a zero-based budget for the next fiscal year. Every dollar requested must meet several criteria, the first of which is simple; does the Untied States Constitution authorize the expenditure? If it doesn't, then I am obligated to deny any funds for any federal agency that does not meet this basic standard.
To meet our constitutional obligations as federal office holders, I am requesting that the Congress abolish the departments of education, energy, housing and urban development, commerce, and other cabinet departments that do meet the fundamental test: Is the activity authorized by the U.S. Constitution?
The American people deserve to keep more of their income, and pay a nominal amount of taxes to support the legitimate functions of government. And paying taxes must not be more painful than having root canal. I propose that the income tax be replaced with a simple and easy method to fund a downsized government beginning in fiscal 2004.
I will work with the Congress to end the intrusive and complicated income tax immediately.
This gives us several months to finally give the American people a low tax burden and a lean federal government.
We need to abolish the regulatory taxes that eat up as much as $700 billion of the people's income every year. The American people need to have this burden lifted from them as soon as possible so the business community can create more jobs in our factories where more goods can be manufactured in our factories.
The American economy has lurched from boom to bust for too many decades, causing widespread business and individual bankruptcies. Easy money polices have caused prudence and thrift to replaced with unsustainable speculation and recklessness. In addition, the boom-bust cycle has caused needless unemployment
The creators of our prosperity--America's entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and savers--need monetary stability. I am thus authorizing the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury to convene a summit for the expressed purpose of returning our nation to the gold standard as soon as possible.
No longer will the Federal Reserve be able to manipulate interest rates. The Federal Reserve will be abolished and we will return to a free-market monetary system, making the dollar once again as good as gold
Lastly, America has been the final destination of tens of millions of individuals from around the world for the past 400 years. We have prospered in no small measure from the men and women who came to our shores as infants, youngsters or young adults, and then lived the American Dream. And in the process of living their dreams, they enriched us all, in business, the sciences, the arts, entertainment, education, and medicine.
We are a nation where the rule of law makes it possible for us to live together peacefully. That's why we must stop illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is undermining the rule of law and causing social tension and economic pressures throughout our nation.
Stopping illegal immigration is just common sense. No one should make anything more out of this proposal than for what it is, respect for the law.
If our immigration laws were not respected, why should we think illegal immigrants or others would respect our other laws?
My fellow Americans, we have a lot of work to do to create the peace and prosperity that you deserve.
We will do our part to downsize the federal government and get government out of your way so you can prosper and become financially independent.
Our agenda is precisely the one that drove the Founding Fathers to pledge their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to create a free society.
Our initiatives will give all compassionate Americans the ability to become more involved with nonprofit institutions to tackle the needs of individuals and families in the villages, towns and cities throughout our great nation.
The American people have been dependent too long on federal solutions when the answers are in their own communities. We will begin our renaissance starting tonight.
Thank you, and may God continue to bless America."
Senators Miller & Chambliss,
Congressman Linder,
Other Members of Congress,
More and more Americans agree with the message below. The power of any State can seldom be constrained peacefully. This was true for those living under the Taliban. It remains true in Iraq and for those of us toiling away for the American socialist democrats that control our very lives.
Don't be too shocked by the word "dictator" in the article below. I've heard it used several times to describe the American head of state. Those using it were people who have fought for this country, people I work with, people I don't even know. They were all U.S. citizens that talk to their family, friends, and co-workers everyday. Your relevance and our polite respect are declining.
Wes Alexander
Power Lust
By Lew Rockwell
I would rather eat my keyboard than watch the State of the Union speech, so consider this article an act of sacrificial public service.
The most irritating thing about the State of the Union is that we are a captive audience – in every way. This guy taxes us, spends our money on stuff he likes, sends our kids to war on his decision, lies to us, dares to believe that his personal will is somehow more important than yours or mine or anyone else's solely because he managed to eke out a few more electoral votes than Gore two years ago, and to top it off, expects that we will watch for more than an hour as he prattles, while his minions interrupt him only to stand and applaud.
Where to begin to criticize? George Bush is the biggest spender since Lyndon Johnson, increasing federal spending at a rate twice that of Clinton, and yet he stands up and demands spending restraint, seeming to blame everyone but himself.
He talks about freedom and opportunity and then brags about his new bureaucracies, spending programs, mandates, comprehensive plans, regulations, and goals concerning all our lives, from how our kids are educated to the cars we drive to the way we care for those in need.
He claims to care for life, decries partial-birth abortion, but refuses to rule out the use of nuclear weapons in the war he is plotting. He calls on America to feed the entire world, liberate all its women, educate all its children, and cure all its sick, even as ghettos rife with every social pathology languish miles from the White House.
Hypocrisy? He denounces bureaucrats and praises innovation only to demand a huge new boondoggle program to put researchers on the dole. Indeed, the underlying assumption behind the entire speech was that America’s commitment is identical to his own commitment, which is reflected in his plans for your money.
Don’t write me to say that he wants to cut taxes, and so we should like him. Every few minutes, we heard spending numbers: tens and hundreds of millions, tens and hundreds of billions! It is never too much, and nothing is outside his purview. Indeed, he calls for the federal government, under his leadership, to "transform" our "souls." He went further: he says he is defending the "hopes of all mankind."
His entire foreign policy seems like a massive effort to incite every terrorist in the world against this country, and otherwise encourage every small country to arm to the teeth against the US threat. From the government’s point of view, such would only increase the power of D.C., so one has to wonder whether this is the point after all. And not to nitpick, but how can he at once say that Iraq is despotic for ignoring the UN even as he brags that he will ignore the UN if he chooses?
"The course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of others… I will defend the freedom and security of the American people."
Are these not the words of a dictator?
It's too much! There should be a break at the midway point, in which we could broadcast messages like: You are our servant, not our master! Everything you do, you do with our money! There are three branches of government, and you only represent one! The powers not granted to you are reserved to the states and the people! You are not king of the world! The founders envisioned frequent impeachments!
Instead, we must sit and sit and watch a despotic display that seems like an import from the times of Pharaohs and Caesars, or the modern world of dictators and commissars. What does this one fellow, holed up in the White House, living off other people's money, surrounded by sycophants and pollsters, know about the state of the union?
The speech was particularly bad this year because we are dealing with a man who has clearly lost perspective. He speaks about his desire for peace even as he ignores the whole world's plea for him not to bomb and kill. He talks about a war on terror but the words Osama Bin Laden never pass his lips. He speaks of all the things the government will do to make us prosperous even as a two-year track record has failed to put a dent in the worsening recession.
Indeed, his language seems to reflect a very dangerous state of mind. He habitually speaks about America as identical to the central state, and seems to regard that state as incarnated in himself – the entire apparatus of government embodied in his person. His will is the people's will, the perfect realization of Rousseau's fantasy. But rather than the language of the French Revolution, he uses the cadences of his evangelical constituents, invoking God and quoting old-time hymns.
Americans have a hard time recognizing just how fascistically scary all this is because we are surrounded by it all the time, and we read and watch a media that rarely draws attention to it. But foreigners see it
Hardly a day goes by when I don't receive a call from abroad, usually from some classical liberal scholar or supporter, who asks with astonishment: what in the world is going on over there? What is it that drives this man? Why is your president going to war? Who does he think he is? How broadly is he supported? Are there no mechanisms available within your system of government to rein him in?
Well, the speech tonight illustrates the problem. Whereas Clinton was merely a con man who seemed to revel in his ability to dupe people, Bush is something more alarming: he may actually believe what he is saying.
Sadly, there are no mechanisms to restrain him other than public opinion. Americans are instinctively suspicious of government, but when it is headed by someone who seems to be a good and sincere man, they let the head of state get away with murder, particularly the murder of foreigners.
Just in time, however, it is becoming more obvious than ever that the economy is not improving
For 20 months, the business punditry and the government have been telling us that the economy is not in recession but is rather only stumbling a bit. Recovery is perpetually underway.
The truth is that we are still in the midst of what even official data designate as the longest recession in postwar history.
There's nothing like a prolonged recession to end a people's romance with the head of state, and this seems to be happening. It was due to internal polling that the speech had an unusual focus on domestic issues, at least in minutes. But instead of recognizing an obvious truth that there is nothing the government can do to improve our lot except get out of the way, Bush has invoked a tired cliché: we must rally to a unified "great cause" that involves serving the government and serving each other in ways the government approves of.
This man has no idea what a "great cause" is. In the real world, a great cause is doing something like meeting a payroll, getting one's kids a good education, paying for college, doing a good job at work, helping the needy through our churches, maintaining healthy families and peace at home. These day-to-day details of bourgeois living constitute the great cause, and it has nothing to do with the government. Nothing at all!
But in Bush's mind, no cause can be truly great unless it is endorsed and generally organized by the state. If the great cause that Bush is seeking won't actually address any real problem that the typical American may be having, what is the point? It is to "rally the American people," as they say, which is to say, distract them from the failures of the state in hopes that they will view the state as the organizing center for all of society. This is the real point of invoking a great cause.
Everyone says that Bush is a Christian man who has a strong moral sense and a penchant for prayer. Good. But the Christian religion offers specific spiritual guidelines for heads of state. St. Augustine writes in the City of God (Book XIX) of the "Libido Dominandi" – the lust to dominate others. He was speaking of a general flaw in human nature, to which heads of state are particularly prone.
Augustine cites this impulse as the worst manifestation of the sin of pride, since it directly seeks to ape God. It can also be shortened to a more familiar phrase: Power Lust. By way of contrast, Augustine cites the case of a family headed by a "just man who lives by faith and is as yet a pilgrim journeying on to the celestial city." There, "those who rule serve those whom they seem to command; for they rule not from a love of power, but from a sense of the duty they owe to others – not because they are proud of authority, but because they love mercy."
Mercy and peace are causes great enough to consume any head of state. A just man who heads a government has enough to do to suppress the lust to dominate, which every "great cause" proclaimed by every despot threatens to unleash. He got the country’s name wrong, but Bush was precisely right when he said: "Your enemy is not surrounding your country. Your enemy is ruling your country."
January 29, 2003
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. is editor of LewRockwell.com.
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