GOP can turn the tables on Democrats

"Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States." When we hear those words from the House sergeant at arms, we know what's coming.

Words, and the thoughts they convey, matter. They can be consequential and profound or dissembling and craven. And when those words are linked to public policy and legislation, the nation either prospers or languishes.

A few examples serve to remind us of that reality:

In his first inaugural speech on March 4, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is ... fear itself." He said it to a nation gripped in fear. The nation heard him and believed him.

Harry Truman had that sign on his desk in the Oval Office that read, "The Buck Stops Here." And when Gen. Douglas MacArthur defied the president, Harry ignored the beating he would take in the polls and fired him.

In his farewell address on Jan. 17, 1961, Dwight Eisenhower said, "You and I must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow." Ike knew then the truth we perilously deny today.

On June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan, speaking at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." It fell, and with it the Soviet Empire.

On the other hand, in August 1967, Lyndon Johnson enunciated a policy of "guns and butter." It didn't work, and less than a year later, LBJ announced he would not seek re-election.

On Nov. 17, 1973, Richard Nixon said, "I am not a crook. In all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice." This from a man who graduated third in his class at Duke Law School, but who missed the lecture that the rule of law applies to everyone, not everyone else. On Aug. 9, 1974, Nixon resigned.

George W. Bush stood in front of the "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, and proclaimed the end of major operations in Iraq. The Iraq War was Bush's burial shroud. It was instrumental in bringing Barack Obama to power.

And last Tuesday night, President Obama called upon the nation and Congress to put aside their differences and come together to rebuild the nation's economy. The centerpiece of his address was the middle class. He mentioned it eight times. He called it the North Star that must guide our efforts to create good middle-class jobs.

But he did not tell us the middle class is an endangered species. It is. Here's a sampler from a post by Michael Snyder on Business Insider last Tuesday: Only 140 million of 240 million working-age people are working. Since 2000, America has lost 10 percent of its middle-class jobs. Since 1971, consumer debt has increased by 1,700 percent. In 1980, less than 30 percent of all jobs were low-income jobs. Today it's more than 40 percent. Today the wealthiest 1 percent have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.

The president's political calculation is obvious. He doesn't believe House Republicans will come to the negotiating table in any meaningful way. Thus, he has used his inaugural and State of the Union addresses to go over the heads of Congress to the people.

His game plan is to win back the House in 2014 and then run the legislative table during his last two years in office.

The question is whether Republicans are dumb enough to get mousetrapped. Based on responses to the president by Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul last Tuesday night, it looks like they are. Rubio, speaking for the GOP, was as unprepared as Bobby Jindal was when he delivered the GOP response in 2009. Paul, speaking for the Tea Party Express, said, "What America needs is not Robin Hood but Adam Smith." Mercy!

But the two most compelling points in the president's speech have received little attention and could enable Republicans to turn the tables on the Democrats.

The president said, "Indeed, much of this newfound energy (oil and natural gas) is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together. So tonight, I propose we use some of our oil and gas revenues to found an Energy Security Trust."

And he said, "Tonight I propose a Fix-It-Fund program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country. I am also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America."

In columns published last August and September, this is what The Shadow advocated. He called for the creation of a public-private partnership, the American Economic Renaissance, that would take control of and manage the approximately $37 trillion of federal non-tax revenues from royalties that are reliably estimated to exist in the nation's oil and gas shale plays in the Green River and Marcellus formations.

If Republicans got their act together and seized this initiative, it would change everything! That $37 trillion over the next half-century does it all. It fixes the entitlements, the tax code, the crumbling infrastructure and the national debt. It makes us energy independent. It enhances our national security. It restores the middle class. It secures our pre-eminence in an otherwise unstable and dangerous world.

Are there any Republicans bold enough and brilliant enough to figure this out?

The Shadow's saying, "I told you so," but Goldman can be reached at:  Email Me

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