Blog For Our Union

The Congress will continue to work with President Bush in a bi-partisan manner to meet the needs of the American people. However, for a nation that is facing a potential economic crisis, I was dismayed that the President offered no new ideas to the American people and no perspective on the span of his Administration.

We applaud the development of and look forward to the passage of the Economic Stimulus package. Though the package is a bi-partisan agreement, the Democratic leaders in the House pushed to ensure that as many people in the middle and lower tax brackets would gain some benefit from the stimulus package.

In just a few weeks, we will mark the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. Five years later, the political and economic situation on the ground has changed little, while the rest of the world, including the United States, has changed significantly.

The President continues to ignore the bigger picture in Iraq. It is not a question of what happens to Iraq if we leave; it's a question of what happens to America if we stay. It's a question of whether America can afford to continue spending $343 million every day in Iraq, while growing our national debt by nearly $1 million every minute.

Last year, in his State of the Union Address, President Bush called for the creation of an "Opportunity Scholarships Program" -- which was actually just a clever name for a proposal to drain much-needed money away from cash-strapped public schools and use it to fund private school vouchers. Private school vouchers are a bad idea, and that's why the President's proposal never went anywhere. This year, the President is reviving his private school voucher plan, but this time with a new name: "Pell Grants for Kids." Apparently the President believes that if you just get the name right, the bad policy doesn't matter.

Tonight, President Bush did not put forward bold new ideas to lay the groundwork for bipartisan progress on the issues most important to our nation.

Last year, the new Democratic majorities in Congress began to move our nation in a new direction. But we recognize that we must work on a bipartisan basis if we are to achieve the real changes that the American people want -- reinvigorating our economy, restoring fiscal discipline, reducing global warming, and responsibility redeploying our troops in Iraq.

The determination and will of the American people is strong and resolute, however the bleak state of our economy and the over-burdensome strains being placed on our military personnel and their families are disheartening.

With unemployment numbers rising, our housing markets plummeting and the stock market sagging, now is the time for the President to work with the New Direction Congress in a more cooperative manner to remedy the fiscal ills plaguing America.

Tonight, President Bush addressed this Congress in his State of the Union for the last time in his presidency. Unfortunately, what we heard was more of the same. While Americans wait with bated breath for relief from an impending recession; relief from the subprime mortgage crisis; relief from skyrocketing healthcare costs; and light at the end of the tunnel in the Iraq War, this President addressed us with the rhetoric of a failed legacy. The past seven years have set this country back by decades.

We have so many challenges facing our nation -- a reeling housing market, a slumping economy, and the ongoing war in Iraq - yet, I didn't hear anything new from the President tonight on these issues.

In California, more than 31,600 residents have lost their homes to foreclosure in the past three months, including nearly 650 families in the 32nd district. My constituents are looking for relief and for an American economy that works for all workers. The bi-partisan stimulus package is a beginning, but we must do more.

America needed to hear from a leader tonight, but instead we heard from a follower: a president following his same, worn out and ineffective solutions to the real problems facing the American people.

The President called for spending more and more and more, and he would do so by mortgaging America again and again and again. He wants to borrow everything from foreign countries; this was a speech by a president who has lost touch with reality.