"State of the Union Misses Reality"
USA Today, January 31, 2000
By Terry Paulson, PhD

Listening to President Clinton's final State of the Union address was maddening. Thank God it is his last ("Clinton hails 'new economy,' " News, Friday).

I could almost hear the cash register sounding as the "Candy Man" went from giveaway to giveaway at $4 billion a minute, knowing full well that the Republican Congress would not allow him funding for nearly any of his proposals.

America got to see, in my view, a discredited man trying to buy his legacy with money we will have to pay in the form of continuing high taxes for all. Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and their Democratic spin machine would have us believe that we cannot afford an across-the-board Republican-proposed tax cut that would give back some of the surplus to all of the taxpayers who paid the money that made that surplus possible.

If Congress were to pass Clinton's proposed plans and the surplus went away, the American people would be left holding the bag for billions of dollars to fund new entitlements with no way to pay for them but to raise taxes again.

I hope the new century will bring a new administration that pursues the goal of making the American Dream possible for all Americans— instead of pitting one group against another.