Holy shit....have you read some of the crap that Bush is going to propose in it??
Talk about getting farther and farther away from what the average American wants to hear......and do you want to explain how you propose a plan to cut gasoline consumption by 20 percent after you removed so many controls on it earlier in your presidency??
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/23/bush.sotu/index.html
Quote:
Bush to call for 20 percent cut in gasoline use
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush, in Tuesday's State of the Union address, will propose a plan to cut U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent while bolstering inventory in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Republican sources say.
The president's 10-year plan to cut gasoline use includes tightening fuel economy standards on automakers and producing 35 billion gallons of renewable fuel such as ethanol by 2017, according to sources briefed on the speech.
One official said the moves would be equivalent to taking 26 million vehicles off U.S. roads.
Bush will say increasing the oil reserve will give the nation a reliable backup in times of crisis, the sources say.
On other topics, Bush will propose a balanced federal budget by 2012, and he will call for members of Congress to cut pet projects from appropriations. Health care, Social Security, AIDS in Africa, and, of course, Iraq are expected to be addressed during what is expected to be about a 50-minute speech. Full coverage of the speech will begin on CNN at 7 p.m. ET. (i-Report: Deliver your own State of the Union address)
When the president stands before Congress and the nation Tuesday night, he'll be facing an angry citizenry dissatisfied with his leadership by a 2-to-1 ratio. (Is Bush already a lame duck?)
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, released on the eve of the speech, found only 34 percent of respondents approved of Bush's job performance while 63 percent disapproved. (Poll results: Is President Bush a successful president?)
Two-thirds of respondents say that Bush has done something to make them angry -- a figure that has grown six points since last year and 16 points since Bush's State of the Union in 2004.
Fifty-five percent of respondents said Bush's presidency is a failure, and 51 percent said they trust Bush less than they trusted his predecessor in the Oval Office, Bill Clinton. (The numbers on trust -- PDF)
Respondents satisfaction with the war on terror was at an all-time low. Only 28 percent think the U.S. is winning the war; two-thirds oppose Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, and a majority now oppose the war in Afghanistan.
The president's approval has changed little in recent days, the poll found. On January 11, it was 35 percent and, in mid-December, it was 36 percent. Last January, it was 43 percent. (Bush's approval numbers)
The poll was carried out Friday through Sunday and was based on telephone interviews with 1,008 adult Americans. It has a sampling error of plus-or-minus 3 points.
On health care, Bush will put forth a plan to make health insurance taxable income and give families a deduction on the first $15,000 in health insurance costs ($7,500 for singles), White House spokesman Tony Snow said Monday. (Watch what issues the president will address in his State of the Union speech Video)
Speaking on CNN's "American Morning" on Tuesday, Snow said Bush's plan "offers an opportunity to open up the health care system in a way that it's never had before."
Snow said the effect will be similar to what happened when market forces were let loose on prescription drug prices.
"You get major retailers fighting ... to provide medicine as cheaply as possible and at the same time effectively," he explained. "Prices are one-third lower than people expected."
Snow said Monday that Bush's "revenue-neutral" proposal on health care would boost costs for some people but would also raise the prospect that more than 100 million people "will pay less for health insurance and millions more not presently insured will have access to it." (Full story)
Democrats, however, charge that turning health benefits into taxable income will raise the taxes of millions of Americans.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said Bush's plan would hurt people who have health insurance.
"I think if we ask anyone in America today... if we oughta, in effect, punish people because they have great insurance, I don't think they'd agree with that," Reid said Tuesday.
While senior officials suggested last week that Iraq would be a small part of the speech, one official said Monday that Iraq would now be a "significant portion" of the address.
Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, who will give the Democratic response to Bush's address, said at a briefing Tuesday afternoon that the administration has no plan that has "an end point ... where the American military will be off the streets of Iraq."
"The difficulty many of us have had for a long time is that there is not a clearly understandable plan from the administration," Webb said.
The Republicans' November loss of a majority in Congress will not deter the president from addressing big issues, Snow said.
The president "understands his obligation as commander in chief is to go ahead and address forthrightly big problems and come up with solutions." (Quiz: Test your State of the Union knowledge)
