Green Party in 2014 State of the Union address
On Budget & Economy:
Answers to wealth inequality are out there; ask the people
In spite of the so-called "recovery", millions of Americans still own homes with negative equity, millions were impacted by cruel Federal housing sequester cuts, and millions more remain literally homeless.While this year's State of the Union
mentioned inequality of wealth, it failed to mention poverty, homelessness, or the ongoing home foreclosure crisis (except in passing), and in any case failed to offer substantive solutions. It is not as if the answers are not out there.
In Pennsylvania, the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign is moving people into vacant housing. In Richmond, California, Green Party Mayor Gayle McLaughlin is working on a program to take back foreclosed homes from banks and return them
to original owners. The people are moving to find ways to meet their needs. The silence of the twin corporate parties makes it only a matter of time before the people move forcefully to build a political party of their own.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Corporations:
Focus on declining deficits only benefits the wealthy
People are seeing their incomes and wealth shrink, unless they are among the wealthiest Americans. Median household income continues to decline. Income is 8.3% lower than it was in 2007. And, for the poorest Americans, the rise in poverty is the most
dramatic indicator. This is the first time the poverty rate has remained at or above 15% three years in a row since 1965.If President Obama had provided Americans with a truthful perspective on workers it would have meant a completely different
approach to the economy. The president could have put forward a vision of a full employment economy and ending poverty. Instead he focused on declining deficits, a mistaken goal he put forward in his first State of the Union. He set the wrong goals then,
and continues to pursue them. The result is an economy that is a disaster for most Americans, despite the president's attempt to create a false image of success.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Corporations:
Citizenship means standing up to corporate-dominated system
When Obama said, "It is you, our citizens, who make the state of our union strong," it was hard to disagree. But by "citizens" he unfortunately means "consumers." Without the activism and courage of everyday truth-tellers and people willing to stand up
to the corporate-dominated system through nonviolent means--certainly not what he meant by citizens--our union would be more broken than it is today. No, it is not our uniformed men and women who make us more secure (as he maintained)--it's people
willing to refuse orders; people who take responsibility for their actions who make us more secure.Let us not reduce ourselves to the lie that we are consumers destined to combat an eternal, external enemy who is lurking behind the corner.
This kind of outright manipulation of corporate and political elites who have everything to gain from a disunited, fearful citizenry must be seen for what it is: a direct insult to our human potential and dignity that we will no longer tolerate.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Drugs:
Nation is waking up to the end of the war on marijuana
The silence on the illegal mass spying on Americans by the NSA, and no doubt the CIA and other intelligence agencies, was deafening. The lack of discussion about the legality of the drone program showed once again the U.S. is a nation that violates the
law rather than abides by it. The failure to discuss the mistaken mass incarceration that is so racially disproportionate was a missed opportunity as the nation is waking up to the end of the war on marijuana.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Energy & Oil:
Natural gas does not result in climate justice
In this shriveled State of the Union, natural gas is a gateway to energy independence and climate justice. In this reality, student debt is to be solved with counseling and unemployment to be addressed with job training. In this United States,
poverty can be overcome by a president who appeals to corporate executives to raise workers wages. In this America, equal pay for equal work is a promise the White House intends to fulfill before the next Clinton takes to the campaign trail.
So few are fooled by this State of the Union because so many have been betrayed by those who sat in that congressional chamber the other night. When the President introduces a man horribly maimed after ten tours in Afghanistan,
Washington wants us to understand that their plan requires our continued sacrifice. And they are right that it does.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Foreign Policy:
US routinely ignores UN action toward nuclear disarmament
In a letter sent to President Obama on January 29, 2014, a consortium of national organizations called on the Administration to stop obstructing and to participate constructively and in good faith in current international initiatives to delegitimize and
eliminate nuclear weapons. These include:- A conference hosted by the government of Mexico on Feb. 14, 2014
- The US boycotted the first such conference, hosted by Norway last year.
- A new UN resolution calling for "the urgent commencement of
negotiations for the early conclusion of a comprehensive convention" to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.
- The US boycotted last year's UN "Open Ended Working Group" on nuclear disarmament.
- The US indefinitely postponed a conference to start
negotiations on a Nuclear Weapons and WMD-Free Zone in the Middle East, mandated by the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, acting on behalf of Israel, the only nuclear weapon state in the Middle East.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Free Trade:
Trans-Pacific Partnership widens the wealth divide
Perhaps the most inconsistent was his call to shrink the wealth divide, which has gotten much more extreme during his presidency, while at the same time pushing rigged corporate trade agreements. This history of NAFTA and other trade agreements
shows an expanding wealth divide, shrinking incomes for workers, more wealth for the already rich and a growing trade deficit. The Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade agreements will make 90% of Americans poorer and expand the wealth divide.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Health Care:
ObamaCare focuses on just selling more insurance
Obama's comments about ObamaCare lacked substance and were primarily focused on selling his law, and more insurance, to the public. He avoided discussing the root causes of our ongoing healthcare crisis.The bottom line of Obama's comments on the
health law was that more people have health insurance and insurance companies can't deny people based on pre-existing conditions. He urged everyone to make their friends and family buy insurance.
What he didn't say is that people with health insurance
in the US still can't afford the care they need and face bankruptcy if they have a serious health problem. And although insurance companies cannot deny policies to people with pre-existing conditions, they have a number of ways to avoid paying for
people's care.
The `health law perpetuates a health system that treats health care as a commodity so that people only receive the amount of health care they can afford rather than treating it as a public good, as does every other industrialized nation.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Homeland Security:
Promise to close Guantanamo has no real plan to achieve it
President Obama's State of the Union last night showed that our task has now become parsing his statements to show Americans reality rather than the myths that falsify reality.President Obama began painting a rosy picture of the economy on the
rebound, unemployment dropping and healthcare on the mend, based on narrow, selective examples. By failing to paint the full picture, he paints a false one.
On issue after issue we see the same false description of reality followed by proposals that do
not solve the real problems: the green light to environmentally damaging fracking that will worsen the climate crisis, the promise to close Guantanamo--a promise repeated several times in previous years--again with no real plan to achieve it, the promise
that the healthcare law is working, already saving money when in fact it is resulting in people getting worse healthcare coverage and not going to the doctor when they need to because out-of-pocket costs are so high.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Jobs:
America's 25+ million jobless is intolerable
The Republicans are right when they point to America's 25+ million jobless and ask whether the President is serious in proposing job training as his primary remedy. The Democrats are right when they respond that the Republicans have proposed no real jobs
alternatives of their own.Five years after Obama's historic mandate, the conditions of the great mass of Americans remains intolerable. And yet to hear his 5th State of Union address, an uninformed listener might think America's problems are limited
and manageable.
The reason for this dissonance is that this State of the Union was not delivered by the man elected in the mandate of 2008. This State of the Union might as well have been given by a robot, or an actor, or a media spokesperson.
In fact, a media spokesman is what this President of the United States has long since become. His is a voice that modulates the reality experienced by an ever more disconnected political establishment for a polity that grows smaller by the year.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Jobs:
$10.10 federal contractor minimum wage still not living wage
The big announcement by the president that he will by executive order raise the minimum wage under federal contracts to $10.10 an hour is really a dud.
The reality is that $10.10 is still not a living wage, so rather than ending poverty wages he continues them with a little less poverty.
But, to make it worse even these poverty wages are an empty promise. The executive order will only apply to future contracts. That means all the existing federal contractors can continue to pay the existing poverty wage.
Of the millions of federal contract employees living in poverty perhaps 200,000 will be helped by the president.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Social Security:
ObamaCare sets precedent for market-based social insurance
Using a market-based model for health insurance sets a dangerous precedent. Traditional social insurances are provided by the government and are paid for through taxes.The same plan may be in the works for Social Security. In his speech, the
President announced a new retirement savings program, MyRA. Although the details of MyRa are not clear, it is based on creating individual retirement accounts (IRAs) for workers who don't currently have them.
What we do know is that Social Security
has been under attack throughout the President's time in office. Rather than doing what is needed, raising the cap, or going beyond that and raising benefits, there have been attempts to cut benefits and raise the age of eligibility. The public is being
told that Social Security is in a crisis but is not being told that this 'crisis' is intentional. Unlike Social Security, IRAs are managed by financial institutions that profit from them. MyRa is another gift to Wall Street by President Obama.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On War & Peace:
Diplomatic solution for Syria, not dismemberment of Syria
The U.S. is playing a deadly and cynical game at the Geneva II conference on Syria, sabotaging the talks in order to set the stage for more warfare and terror. In this sick equation, diplomatic failure is victory: "the U.S. moves closer to their real
strategic objective--regime change or the dismemberment of the Syrian state."The crisis created by the administration on the eve of the Geneva II conference to exclude Iranian participation only confirmed the duplicitous nature of the conference.
While Iranian participation would not have guaranteed that a peaceful, durable resolution to the war in Syrian was achievable, the Obama administration demonstrated that it is not serious about seeking a
diplomatic solution by excluding the only other force beside the Syrian government that actually has real influence on the ground in Syria.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On War & Peace:
Negotiate on Iranian nukes; but negotiate on US nukes too
President Obama didn't even give a nod to his rhetorical commitment to the global elimination of nuclear weapons ("perhaps not in my lifetime")--the rhetorical commitment that won him the Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, he focused exclusively on the
danger of a prospective Iranian bomb. To his credit, Obama made clear that he would veto any legislation that would derail the current negotiations with Iran, stating: "For the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed."
Entirely missing, however, was any mention of the dangers posed by U.S. nuclear weapons, the trillion dollar U.S. commitment to maintaining and modernizing its nuclear arsenal over the next three decades, and the recent record of
U.S. non-cooperation with multiple efforts being made in international forums to stimulate progress on achieving and sustaining a world free of nuclear weapons.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
On Welfare & Poverty:
Homeless Bill of Rights to address affordable housing crisis
One housing official in Silicon Valley, where five homeless people froze to death in December, reported that homelessness there is "the worst I have ever seen." The 1300-resident CCNV shelter in Washington DC is slated to close
its doors in 2016. And hundreds of the homeless took to the streets in twelve cities on January 17 to protest for a "Homeless Bill of Rights", since Democrats and Republicans have refused to even talk about ending America's affordable housing crisis.
Source: Green Party response to 2014 State of the Union
Jan 30, 2014
Page last updated: Feb 24, 2019