The President Speaks To Congress

As I listened to all the television analysts talk about what President Trump’s speech might be like, and then watched him give it while Republicans in Congress stood up repeatedly to applaud - and some Democrats sat and politely clapped - I kept hoping for the sun to break out.

Petty politics should be put aside, he leaked just before the speech. Democrats and Republicans would work together to insure a better future, he promised. Decaying industries will come roaring back, coal miners will go back underground to earn a living and die from black lung disease, and unfair trade deals would vanish almost overnight.

Our taxes will get lower, our economy will get better, our military will become stronger, and - he said it with a tone that was almost daring anyone listening to disagree - God Bless America.

Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with any of it, in fact.

Then I made a cup of coffee, and I realized that I had hoped - at least a little part of me had hoped - that he really could make a deal to let everyone in the country get cheap health insurance. That immigrants coming into the United States would be admitted based on their skills, not the countries where they came from, and that it would end up driving up everyone’s wages.

Then it hit me. I was Charlie Brown, and he was Lucy, holding a bright shiny football down on the ground and just waiting for me to run over and try to kick it. Looked real good, until you actually tried to touch it.

President Trump did mention a goal of clean air and clean water, something that is very important to me and to a lot of other people. It came at 9:45 p.m., and seemed almost like an afterthought - especially coming on a day when his proposed budget signaled a gutting of the EPA and he issued an executive order that would begin a study on the feasibility of ending federal oversight of streams and swamps and other small watercourses that 19 million people depend on for drinking water. But, the rule he wants to end is strongly opposed by builders and golf course operators.

It was overshadowed by the creation - vaguely - of something called VOICE (the victims of immigrant crime engagement, I think) - which would be run by homeland security and do something about illegal immigrant crime. Stop it? No way. Give money to victims? Didn’t say that.

In fact, he didn’t really say much of anything when it came to the nuts and bolts details of his proposals. A trillion dollar public/private partnership to rebuild our infrastructure sounds good, but what does it mean? The government builds a road and a private developer builds the bridge that it goes to? Who sets the tolls?

Jobs are vanishing because of automation and the aging infrastructure which makes it difficult to move goods from one place to another in our nation. Well, that will all get better somehow. I promise.

Now, come on and just  kick that ball.