The Plight of the Union

"He's in his last term. He's got this great opportunity to do something bold about something that's really important." "And look what we get. . . . What the heck has he got to lose?"

These quotes come from Regina Herzlinger, a professor at the Harvard Business School who did some of the early work on consumer-driven health care, which is at the heart of the health care initiative the president barely mentioned last night.

Hasn’t anyone told him that one quarter of America’s working people is without health care insurance?

What kind of a legacy is Bush going to leave behind?

He’ll be remembered for the narrow minded decision that got us into a so called war against terrorism based on shaky intelligence that Saddam Hussein had his infamous WMDs, weapons of mass destruction, recently called weapons of mass murder in the 2006 State of the Union speech.

He’ll be remembered for not listening to a wider scope of thoughts and ideas prior to making a final decision to invest the lives of thousands of young men and women in a war that was poorly planned.

He’ll be remembered for record deficit spending and for expanding the nation’s debt to new record levels. Our children and grandchildren will be left to pay the bill.

He’ll be remembered for being the President who established the Department of Homeland Security or whatever title it’s known by now; an additional layer of government that’s fraught with wasting taxpayer’s money.

He’ll be remembered as the President who placed more importance on the plight of citizens from a foreign country (Iraq) than his own people from the Gulf Coast states who were devastated by national disaster.

He’ll be remembered for fattening the coffers of the rich by cutting taxes at the expense of slashing aid for the poor and students.

I don’t care to hide behind a label of Independent, Republican or Democrat. It doesn’t matter what you are what should matter is providing the best for all people in our great nation.

You still have time to reshape your legacy. Speak honestly to your citizens and provide the leadership that they sorely need.