9:38 Talks about cutting back on "programs we don't need" but investing in 3 key areas: energy, health care, education. Now he sounds like Clinton (the old "cut and invest" cliche).
9:39 Spend money on energy for new grid, energy efficiency. Sounds pretty noncontroversial to me (except for cap-and-trade), but I'm hardly an expert in this area. But proposes only $15 billion/yr. which of course is nothing these days.
9:41 "The nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it." This is environmentalism? Oy vey.
9:42 Because of cost of health care, O. says we can't afford to put health care reform on hold. Talks about bringing down health care costs through "efficiency" - sounds too good to be true to me. Maybe I'm misinterpeting O. but what I think I hear is: if you hoped for (or feared) national health insurance, you ain't getting any from THIS President!
9:47 Claims stimulus provided resources to prevent teacher layoffs. Doesn't seem consistent with what I read in local papers.
9:48 Talks about education reform- charter schools. Says "every American will need to get more than a high school diploma." I think that's just dumb. 50 years ago, high school was fine for most people. Now we force people to impoverish themselves for 4 years just to get the same job they could have gotten with a high school diploma or less in 1948. And are they really any smarter? I doubt it- I suspect high school and non-elite colleges have been watered down to raise graduation rates. But then again, maybe I'm succumbing to false nostalgia here, remembering the distant past as better than it really was.
Except for the bailouts (which are arguably necessitated by the economic emergency- I think President McCain would be supporting large chunks of this) this speech could have been given by Clinton so far.
9:51 Comes out for deficit reduction. I'm speechless.
9:53 Says he has "identified $2 trillion in savings in next decade." We'll see how much of that survives Congressional scrutiny!
9:54 Comes out against "waste, fraud and abuse." Where have we heard that one before?
9:55 Talks about tax cuts in stimulus package - "checks on the way". Didn't we try that last year?
9:56 Calls for "Universal Savings Accounts" and "Social Security reform." Not sure what that means.
