Outside View: State of Bush’s union

Following are excerpts from editorials commenting on President Bush’s State of the Union speech Monday evening.

Chicago Tribune: The president at the microphone Monday night for his final State of the Union address? Last month, 32 percent of the Americans surveyed told Gallup pollsters they approve of his performance. Those who disapprove: 65 percent. And the members of Congress arrayed before him? Their approval rating is 23 percent. That’s better than the Ebola virus, but when their disapproval rating is 71 percent, you’re nobody’s heroes….

The Democrats spent 2007 essentially running against Bush. They lost dozens of congressional votes in failed attempts to wage war policy. The resulting gridlock in Washington helped to earn them the unpopularity they face today.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bush proposed that Congress create a $300 million program – described as “Pell Grants for kids” – so inner-city schoolchildren can transfer to better private or public schools. We call that school choice in Milwaukee and note that $300 million won’t go very far. Milwaukee’s program costs the state about $110 million. We await details.

Orlando Sentinel: Bush’s call for Congress to pass pending trade agreements – especially one with Colombia – was especially compelling. “On trade, we must trust American workers to compete with anyone in the world and empower them by opening up new markets overseas,” he said. Amen.

Bush made a far less compelling plea for Congress to make permanent his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Unless those cuts are accompanied by meaningful spending reductions – not superficial ones, such as eliminating obscure programs or cracking down on pork-barrel projects – the nation’s fiscal health will keep deteriorating under Bush’s successor.

Fresno (Calif.) Bee: Bush spoke on the eve of the Florida primary, and we’re now only a week away from Super Tuesday when 22 states will be voting for the presidential nominees. The two terms of George W. Bush are no longer today’s news. The fight for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations has moved the debate beyond the Bush presidency.

Newsday: An unpopular war, a bad economy and a presidential race already at full throttle are not the best backdrop for a State of the Union speech. But that’s the hand President George W. Bush was dealt last night as he delivered his seventh and final ritual address to Congress and the public. The speech lived up to expectations, which were low.

Bush bowed to political reality by eschewing any ambitious new initiatives of the magnitude of Social Security reform and immigration overhaul, failed initiatives from previous years. He has neither the political capital nor the compliant Congress he would need to deliver anything big or controversial.