It was a wish list, not a to-do list.
This is campaign season. All 435 House representatives are up for election as well as 33 Senators. Understand that before congress can act on any of this, Obama has to write it into several proposals, submit them to the appropriated houses of congress and proceed from there . . . . . not going to happen; not enough time. And what is he going to do in his second term.? Why did he not reference that? To date, we have nothing from Obama about his next term. A wish list, indeed !!!
He pushed for;
1. an immigration overhaul that was promised during his first year – didn’t even try.
2. permanent college tuition tax credits that he asked for a year ago – ignored by his own.
3. familiar discouragements for companies that move overseas – again, no serious interest.
4. Increased tax (36 billion) on gas and oil profits - something that as failed twice before.
5. a “future where we’re in control of our own energy” yet has done nothing to advance this end and has no plans to increase domestic production.
6. a restoration of the economy “where everyone gets a fair shot” – but gave this “fair shot” any definition.
7. for increased taxation of the rich, saying “a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households.” Actually the effective tax rate of folks making more than $250,000 per year is 31%, only 4.5% for the bottom half of the nation. - he has enact this increase and it does not seem likely during an election year.
8. for manufacturing to “Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed.” No plan, no incentives – just a wish for voluntary compliance.
9. for punishing overseas manufacturing by US based companies via the tax code as a means of forcing them to return to this country, in spite of the fact that the jobs were created overseas, not taken from this country and moved to foreign markets. – this tax will never happen, of course. His own party will not support this.
10. national commitment to train two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job. - of course tech and vocational schools are fairly numerous, the educational solutions are already in place.
11. a threat against higher education: let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. – of course this genius plan will only make matters worse for the cash strapped educational systems in this nation.
12. risk-taker and entrepreneur to “aspires to become the next Steve Jobs” and then, of course, he will tax the hell out of them.
13. “a plan that gives every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage” another bit of smoke and mirrors – “responsible homeowner” is one who is current on their loans for three months . This is his third such plan, the second while serving as president. The first two were miserable failures.