January 22, 2015
by Nick Novak
Originally published by The Washington Times.
Let’s be honest, no one was surprised by what President Obama said in his latest State of the Union address. He had been trying to sell his ill-conceived ideas for weeks leading up to Tuesday night’s speech. What would be surprising is if any of his announcements ended up affecting public policy in our country.
With just under two years left in his final term, the president can take one of two approaches. He can work with congressional Republicans and pass real reforms to move America forward, or he can continue down the path of using his pen to take America backward.
Based on what he said in his sixth State of the Union, my guess is he wants to take our country not only backward, but as far to the left as he can. To be fair, he did try to mask his progressive ideals with the cloak of bipartisanship – albeit not very well.
Mr. Obama came off as very congenial to the Republican Party by offering to work with Congress, right up until he said he would veto anything he disagrees with. The president essentially promised to veto any bill that reformed immigration, made changes to Obamacare or approved the Keystone pipeline.
So instead of reducing the burden placed on countless businesses by changing the definition of full-time work in the Affordable Care Act to 40 hours a week or approving a pipeline that could create thousands of jobs, the president offered plans to give away all kinds of “free stuff.”
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