Comparing Two Inaugural Speeches, Reagan's and Obama's

In Obama’s first term, his signature legislation called Obamacare not only imposed many new taxes, but challenged freedom of religion as well. It effectively nationalized twenty percent of the nation’s economy. It put government in between patients and their physicians.

Obama’s first inaugural speech was sprinkled with signs of his intentions. Ignoring the fact that government does not create jobs—the private sector does that—but he promised “to create new jobs.” Despite the failure of his energy policies that saw government waste billions in loans to failed solar and other green energy companies, Obama said, “We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.”

“The question we ask today,” said Obama, “is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works…” In 2013 the government is not working. There are 26 million Americans out of work after four years in which the official unemployment rate has barely dropped below eight percent. “And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day.”

Obama was not held to account by enough Americans and has been reelected to continue policies that have not avoided the “fiscal cliff” because of his refusal to work with the Republican Party that has sent one bill after another to address our economic crisis only to see them kept from a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate. His administration has operated without a budget for three years at this point.

In the arena of foreign affairs, in 2009 Obama said, “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.” That policy has been a complete and utter failure.

The challenges in 1981 were not that unlike those in 2009. History records that Reagan met those challenges, lifted our spirits, and did his best to reduce the size of government. It also records that Obama has exacerbated our problems and done his best to increase the size of government and its intrusion into our lives.

Obama’s legacy thus far has been a polarized society based on class warfare; a society in which millions more Americans are purchasing guns in anticipation of an attack on the Second Amendment, and a government that menaces the Constitution. His second inaugural speech will be as filled with false promises and failed policies as his first.



© Alan Caruba, 2013