State of the Union

Keep this in mind when watching Obama tonight...while unemployment currently stands at 10% in this country, the jobs market is showing signs of bottoming and the historical timeframe for when jobs start to come back (2-3 years after the start of the recession) is right about now. So when Obama proposes to spend more of your tax money, and your children's tax money, on some nebulous jobs bill (which unless it includes corporate tax cuts, instead of targeted lobbyist back-scratching, will be useless) he's making the purely political calculation that anything he does will be viewed as successful because of the coincidental timing of the business cycle.

Of course, any jobs turnaround will be delayed and muted by his bloated and still-mostly-unspent stimulus package...but if the stimulus package is mentioned at all, he'll take credit for turning the economy around...which again was more coincidental business cycle timing. (If I'm wrong, and his stimulus did fix the economy, then how to explain that we were already turning the corner before a single dime was spent, and we're now well on the way to recovery with 2/3 still unspent?)

At the same time, he's going to make a big deal out of a budgetary "spending freeze" proposal. While racking up a $1.4 trillion deficit, including a $850 billion stimulus package, Obama is going to propose "saving" the country $250 billion dollars - over 10 years, or $25 billion/year. If you're increasing the size of government by $1.4 trillion, while reducing it by $25 billion...well, you understand the general direction of his policies. He'll say the word "freeze" about a dozen times because he wants the idea to sink into your head that he's somehow keeping to campaign promises of reducing the deficit and spending responsibly, but his actions tell a totally different story.

To understand the true meaning of a freeze, however, you need to look at the exceptions. By saying he will freeze nondefense discretionary spending, Obama is excluding so-called mandatory spending, as well as defense, which he has interpreted as defense, homeland security and veterans spending. Without looking at any of the fine print, the freeze’s narrow parameters have already excluded the vast majority of annual spending. - Read full article here.

So when you're watching tonight, don't fall (again) for the charm and silver tongue that hoodwinked you into voting for him. Look at his actions and understand the meaning behind his empty words.

I don't want to sound like a Rush Limbaugh anti-Obama demagogue...I'm willing to change my opinion when he changes his actions. Stop running up huge deficits and increasing government power (ie: restricting our freedom) by sending more and more of our money to Washington. Then you'll have my full support.

Tim Tebow update: Hard to believe, but Tebow's mechanics are coming into question this week at Senior Bowl practices. He's having trouble with accuracy, velocity, and resetting his feet when his first read breaks down. His windup at times brings the ball below his waist - by comparison, watch some old Dan Marino clips and see how often that ball dropped below his shoulder. The time and space Tebow requires to throw the football simply won't be available to him in the NFL. One scout called him "Larry Csonka playing quarterback". That pretty much says it all.