State of the Union

Your Joking right !!..For the last 8 years the Times has made a pretty obvious point that we can't trust the government,,Yet now you stress anyone who doesn't trust the Government is a fool??? Come on LA Times staff make up your mind and get off your fake fence !! The government screws up everything it does,,Get them outta my life please and my life will be so much happier, just like I when canceled my LA Times subscription( which seems to really be helping the job security at the paper).

shane @ 7:51 AM PST, Jan 30, 2008

We need a lot of things from OUR government, but consider that that so much social-benefit legislation is designed to please our corporate masters. Your goverment wanted to let you buy prescription drugs imported from Canada, but big pharma didn't like that because they couldn't compete on price, so they rigged the system to benefit them. So much for the free market!

Chris @ 5:08 PM PST, Jan 29, 2008

I beg to differ, it is NOT lack of confidence in government -- it is lack of any sort of BELIEF in government on the part of George Bush and other Conservatives who seem to think it's still the wild west and every man for himself -- women and children, especially, be damned!

Carolan @ 2:05 PM PST, Jan 29, 2008

We have socialized medicine now. Its called the VA. We have single payer insurance now. Its called medicare. What the people who speak against socialized or single payer medicine is that they would rather make the VA and medicare go away. Or they don't know what they are talking about. Or they are lying hypocrites. Take your pick. Evil, stupid or liars.

Dan @ 11:47 AM PST, Jan 29, 2008

If Americans would bother to check out the UN's human development index (basically an assessment of the quality of life in a country) they would see that the Scandinavian countries come out on top. (Obviously, the USA scores quite low) The common characteristc of these countries is that people believe in and trust their governments and governance in general. They are largely happy to pay taxes because they receive quality services in return. I would call this civilisation and it is something that Americans should also strive to have in their country. The method of the Wild West "everyman for himself" is history.

Ronald Grünebaum @ 7:04 AM PST, Jan 29, 2008

Part Three: In almost ever promise public statement, the opposite becomes the reality. His words can be great, if only there was even a small degree of sincerity and a true effort to live up to his word our lives would be so much better. This disaster of a President and a human will be remembered not on the greatness of his spoken words, but by his actions, insincerity, and deceit. End.

Denis E Coughlin @ 6:24 AM PST, Jan 29, 2008

Part Two: He promised to support environmental issues including the Kyoto Protocol, once elected he changed his mind and declared war on the environment. He promised bipartisan conduct in his administration, then elected, slammed the door on all outside consideration and maintains a "My Way or the Highway" attitude. End Part Two.

Denis E Coughlin @ 6:24 AM PST, Jan 29, 2008

This administration has demonstrated time and time again to be the least trusting of any previous administration in American history, including the paranoid Nixon Government. He and the VP have worn out the "Classified" stamp that honestly shows how very little he actually "Trusts the People." If this president had even tried to live up to his own words, we and the entire world would not be in this tragic mess that this ' Forked Tongue Snake Oil Madman" has wroth. End Part One

Denis E Coughlin @ 6:22 AM PST, Jan 29, 2008

Americans are right not to trust government under Bush and his neocon friends. He has broken the Army and the economy, not to mention Iraq; continues to degrade the environment and destroyed a great American city. His proudest accomplishment may be that he has made the hard-core conservative view--that government is poart of the problem--come true, at great cost to the poor and middle class.

kathleen @ 3:23 AM PST, Jan 29, 2008