Wednesday, January 25, 1984

President Reagon delivered his State of the union speech today. He stated that America is much improved, that "America is back". I would be the first one to agree that America is back, back to the depression. He said that unemployment is down, but that's only because people's unemployment benefits have and are terminating. Retraining programs have been cut in half since 1980 when the unemployment rate was seven and seven-tenths percent and now the nationwide unemployment is nine and one-fifth percent, although twenty-two separate no-cost and low-cost proposals for retraining projects have been denied.  New York's Governor states that the average age of the homeless in his state is thirty-four years old.  President Reagon said that inflation is down.  If inflation is down, why did one bag of groceries cost me $41.00 today.  He wants to bring the federal deficit down, but he's going to have to put people t work, who will be paying taxes, instead of letting more people run out of unemployment and be put on welfare programs.   Taxes will also have to be raised!  I believe that Proposition #13 in California started all of this madness about cutting taxes, and forced millions of people to live one the street with nothing to eat.  Maybe the policy is: people will die from exposure to the elements or malnutrition, then they won't drain Social Security and other welfare systems of their money.  He wants businesses to expand.  Why? Businesses are going broke quickly enough without expanding to meet the needs of non-existant customers.  He says he wants to bring us together, from the youngest child to the elderly.  Well, he is doing that already.  People of all ages are being forced to share their homes or one-room shacks with others, while other previous homes or one-room shacks are sitting vacant, unaffordable.   He says that more people are working than ever before.  That also is true, more people are working underemployed, part-time jobs, because business gets tax breaks for hiring part-time workers.  He wants a space station.  Pretty soon we'll be marrying aliens, via space courtships.  As much as I like E.T., I don't want my grandchildren meeting him.  He said with no competition, there is no excellence in schools.  I say with no competition, there is no excellence in utilities.  Why can't we have competing utility companies?  He wants God in school: Russia doesn't want God in school, it's six of one and half a dozen of another to me, each one is freedom infringement to someone.  He doesn't want abortions legalized.  Oh cource not, more youngsters are going to have to live to pay taxes to support the Social Security system in twenty years.  At the current population level, forty percent of workers paychecks will be going toward Social Security.  We need all the youngsters we can keep alive, even through ridiculous laws, example: child restraint laws.  He mentions the great Grenada Invasion.  I have no idea why we invaded Grenada, except that this is a political year.  All of our own helicopters could have stocked an arsenal in Grenada.  No one was allowed to view what was happening, so, I can only assume that we did stock Grenada with arms.  It, indeed, was an invasion!  He wants to end child abuse and battered wives.  It's a very moralistic attitude, but you have to get to the root of the problem, unemployment is one root, and until you put people back to work in full-time jobs, child abuse and battered wives won't diminish.  He wants another commission, this time on the economy and the deficit, but all the commissions in the world aren't going to solve the problem, if nothing is acted upon that the commission recommends.  He gets satisfaction from the crime rate dropping, but the crime rate always drops in depressions, and I don't think he wants to take credit for that.  He says that we can feel safer, stronger and more secure in 1984, but my ulcer is bothering me, which hasn't happened since 1972.