State of the Union

In case you were too busy to catch the State of the Union, here's a quick analysis from your favorite progressive news source (for those that don't read Daily Kos, anyway).

Bush started with the domestic agenda, which was probably a good idea given that the foreign stuff isn't looking so good. So what's on his plate?

• Renewing No Child Left Behind
• Changing the tax code to make it easier for people to privately acquire health care
• Getting on the energy security/climate change bandwagon by...
• Quintupling the renewable fuels mandate to 35 billion gallons per year by 2017 (the equivalent of 15% of gasoline usage)
  
• Committing the U.S. to reduce gasoline usage by 20% by 2017
• Increasing CAFE fuel economy standards (starting in 2010) by 4% (or 1 mpg) per year
• Doubling the strategic petroleum reserve

NCLB is legislation with lofty goals (eliminating the racial achievement gap), but it has never been fully funded. I won't get into it here, but there are a lot of reasons why basing educational achievement on high-stakes testing might not be the best formula for success.

The health care stuff is just hand waving. Changing the tax code is a pittance compared to the efforts being made in states like Massachusetts or even Minnesota to guarantee universal health coverage.

The climate change proposals are a mixed bag. The renewable fuel mandate is a bold move, along with a commitment to reduce gasoline used by 20%. However, the Johnny-come-lately provisions are unlikely to even level off U.S. carbon emissions, which scientists have said may need to drop by as much as 80% to halt irreversible climate change. So, it's a good jumping off point for the Democratic Congress.

The foreign agenda involved three major items:

• Emphasizing the importance of the troop surge
• Covering the rest of the war on terror that we've put on hold (Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, etc)
• Discussing a few items of foreign aid, such as combating AIDS (something he talked about ages ago) and malaria in Africa.
  
• I lied - the fourth item was a proposed permanent increase in the size of the army and marines.
  

I won't even get into the futility of the surge, the lost war on terror, or the African two pence. Increasing the size of the army is beyond idiotic, however. First, it gives us more flexibility to stay in Iraq. Bad. It also frees up troops for other cockamamie freedom plans for countries like Iran or North Korea. But generally, it's a poor idea for a democratic nation to have a large standing army. It makes it too easy to get ourselves in more quagmires. I hope that someone with some sense stomps this idea like the cockroach it is.