The Real State of the Union Is Not Healthy

On Tuesday night, networks across the country preempted regularly scheduled programming for the annual State of the Union address.

As usual, the Bush administration created images of heroic plans to save our nation from the evils of the world. Broad-brush names for programs that sound impressive but whose details are as elusive as Osama bin Laden.

He told the nation, “The state of the Union is strong.” He promised job creation, benefits to small businesses and optimistic confidence in capital markets. The speech included lots of points an average American needs to hear to be lulled into believing all is well.

But all is not well in the Union.

While he spoke of creating jobs, President Bush forgot to mention that the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 6% at the end of 2002, the highest rate since 1994. This left 8.6 million Americans actively looking for work.

He also skipped the fact that his administration has the worst job creation record of any other in the last 58 years -- of any party.

He left out the fact that census data report 1.3 million more Americans slipped below the poverty line in 2001 and, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, requests for emergency shelter increased 19% in 2002, the largest annual increase since 1990. I never expected one of these homeless faces to be highlighted in the House gallery audience during a teary tribute.

He spoke of not passing along our problems to “other Congresses, other presidents and other generations,” but he conveniently left out the $157-billion deficit facing us at this moment -- a deficit that will only grow exponentially for our children.

Never mind that he inherited a budget surplus of $236 billion when he came to office in 2001.

And remember the grand bipartisan Leave No Child Behind campaign? There was a vague mention of education reform, but aside from that, it was never mentioned. Perhaps that’s because President Bush submitted a 2003 budget that cuts education programs by $90 million within the very bill he promoted. And the administration’s 2004 proposal is expected to fall more than $6 billion short of what is promised in the bill.

In last year’s State of the Union address, the president asked Congress to join him in approving a historic increase in veterans health.

This year, not only was there no mention of that increase, but the Veterans Administration also announced that it would no longer be providing health services to many “higher income” veterans. Just to clarify, under this plan, an annual income of about $30,000 qualifies as “higher income.”

We ask the most vulnerable of our communities to sacrifice basic needs while we are promoting corporate tax cuts. Under the Bush tax plan, nearly 50% of California residents will receive less than $100 in cuts to their annual income taxes, while the top 1% will receive more than $35,000 in cuts.

How far will that extra $100 go toward helping the 1.4 million Americans who lost their health care benefits in 2001 and the outrageous cost of prescription drugs burdening our senior citizens and veterans?

And as Al Qaeda remains the No. 1 threat to American security, and terrorist recruitment continues to rise, President Bush vetoed a bipartisan homeland security package for port security, local first-responder funding and updated systems for the Customs Service.

A recent congressional report pointed out that without sufficient funding, most of our nation’s cities and counties are no better prepared to combat potential terrorism than we were Sept. 11.

When all is said and done, we cannot protect our citizens, teach our children well, provide health care to our most vulnerable, preserve our environment, wage wars and rebuild nations ... and cut taxes. These things come with a price tag, and as Congress already faces a deficit spending situation, where will we find this money?

Our savings have been spent and we are opting to dig ourselves deeper into debt. I would like to find a better solution for the people of this nation.