LOUD AND CLEAR OR BACKGROUND STATIC?

Given that speeches are political hot air feasts intended to buoy public opinion on upcoming policy campaigns, they are meaningless without action, yet it is important to make voters feel that Washington is listening. 

It is also an opportunity for both political parties to present a buffet of policy ideas and receive feedback from the public, thereby getting a sense on what policy priorities are more or less popular. Obama's scorecard has already flunked, but the GOP, in its early grades don't seem to be acing any tests so far.  

Americans were not thrilled with either Obama's speech or the GOP rebuttal.

Obama has been deaf to public opinion since 2010, so few expected him to recognize that his Party and policies have nose-dived with independent voters, the same voters the Democrats rely on to make their minority "Kool-aid" policies seem mainstream. Indeed his administration has been marked with arrogant recalcitrant obstinacy that has diminished Democrat power.   

Yet the GOP response to Obama's SOTU speech was underwhelming and disappointing for its lack of inspiration and red meat, leaving conservatives and libertarians feeling wary about the lean, low fat agenda the opposition's menu contains.

Senator Ernst is not to blame, she is just a new member of an old party asked to deliver a speech that has been cooked up by high ranking members of the GOP in the back rooms of Washington's political kitchen.

The policy speech was troublesome for its bland banquet offerings and perhaps more importantly, worrisome because of the absence of sharp knifed proteins left off the table. Especially when a starving public expected and deserved full course satiation at a post game celebration feast.  

The first complaint is that the GOP agenda isn't bold, isn't innovative and somewhat mirrors the left. The left loves (especially Obama) to talk about job creation. The Keystone pipeline isn't going to make a dent in the number of jobs needed to re-energize the economy number one and number two, trade barriers are not the reasons entrepreneurial opportunities and business expansion is shrinking in America. 

Big government, class action lawsuits, high taxation, Obamacare, crony capitalism, myriads of regulations and laws that stifle growth have all have contributed to America's lackluster economy. 

Government need only to get out of the way by downsizing itself and repealing its unconstitutional presence in the marketplace allowing the free enterprise to grow. It is basic conservative policy to remove the mixed market governors from the economic engine that has served our nation well in the past and indeed created the Middle Class. 

Instead of touting un-tethered private enterprise as the curative, they spoke like Democrats by extolling what they (government) can do to fix the economy. They missed the opportunity to state emphatically the Ronald Reagan adage that resonated with Americans of all politically party persuasion: get government off our backs and out of our lives.    

Second complaint, was the hackneyed idea of simplifying the tax code. How many times have we heard that in the past? Today, we have an IRS agency that has been allowed to violate the law, punish political foes, destroy and or cover-up evidence, misuse public funding and to date, no-one has been held accountable, fired or prosecuted. 

Americans never trusted the IRS from its inception, but now more than ever the people want justice and the abolishment of the IRS. Calling for the closing of loopholes in the post Lois Lerner targeting age is beyond lame, it reflects a business as usual corrupt cluelessness over the public's discontentment.

Lastly the complete absence of bared teeth and pitchfork rhetoric we heard on the campaign trail in 2014 by the GOP over Obama's king George the third's impersonation in the White House. GOP Senators and Representatives seeking election assured voters that Obama's unilateral unconstitutional immigration plans would be met with legislative roadblocks that would take away his "phone and pen" by all means necessary. 

In the GOP response speech we instead heard this: "We will work to correct executive overreach."

Work to correct? Does that sound like a strong push back or a wet noodle chastisement? You work to correct mistakes, you don't work to correct defiance. You work to correct problems, you don't work to correct lawlessness. You work to correct mishandling, you don't work to correct a complete undermining of our Constitution and its clear separation of powers.

The GOP speech did not instill confidence in the public that we are being heard "loud and clear" instead it made most voters believe we are still a static background noise to Beltway buddies.  

The GOP seems to want to play nice with the administration until 2016 when it herds us to the table where Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Mitt Romney wearing hair nets try to slop the same over-processed goop of small appetizers-teasers on our plates calling it gourmet opposition catering.

Most know it to be however, the same old political pablum we were spoon fed as children, albeit now we are not naive political knickers-wearing "Gruber-ites" that can be swooned by empty words that produce imperceptible change in the way Washington operates.  

So we will wait and watch what the GOP will do or not do in the coming months, hoping that they dial in to our strong voter signal because so far, we are holding our spoons ready to either gag and swallow or toss that slop back on their obtuse noggins.

P.S.  Advice to GOP politicians, wear a raincoat to your town hall meetings because Americans don't want to be taken to the cleaners again.