State of the Union Speech Times Two and Olive Pits

Dear Mark: I just watched the State of the Union address, and I am confused about President O's position on education. What has me concerned is his idea of "investing" in education.

Is he actually proposing that we SPEND more money that we don't have? This is ridiculous. How many ideas of his are we going to have to foot the bill for? — Baffled and Broke in Atlanta

Dear Baffled: Of course President Obama wants us to spend more money that we don't have. When dealing with liberal politicians, the word "invest" is poll-tested and interchangeable with the word "spend." Thankfully with Republicans controlling the House, we shouldn't have to foot the bill for any more of Obama's ideas. We should always remain vigilant, however, as Republicans often cave in to seemingly innocent compromises that cost the tax payers billions.

The president's position on education is classic liberalism — create more bureaucrats and throw more money around. Oh, I'm sorry, I meant to say invest in the youth of our country. It seems liberals believe that dropping a bag of money on a student's head will suddenly make him smart.

Obama's speech was full of soaring rhetoric and platitudes about giving "every child a chance to succeed," as if kids don't already have that chance today. I may sound like an old fogy, but millions of people in my generation somehow managed to acquire an education with Big Chief tablets, No. 2 pencils and no air conditioning. Having one daughter in public school and another getting closer, it seems like a lot of the money designated for education is spent on fluff instead of fundamentals.

Obama mentioned that the classroom "should be a place of high expectations and high performance," which sounds all warm and fuzzy.

Yet he failed to discuss the discipline necessary for students to achieve that "high performance." One of the major problems with education is not the educational system itself but the fact that millions of students are spending more time smoking dope and playing Xbox than studying. As one friend of mine said, "Don't give 'em a check, give 'em a whoopin'."

Dear Mark: President Obama is much more reasonable than Republicans. During his State of the Union speech, he spoke of fixing the flaws in his health care law as opposed to repealing the whole thing like the House voted. Why can't conservatives be more like our president? — Lay Off Him in Lafayette

Dear Lay Off: In order to be more like President Obama, conservatives would have to, in the words of Hillary Clinton, go through a "willing suspension of disbelief." On the subject of health care, President Obama acts as if his reform simply requires minor tweaking and that the so called "flaws" have been freshly discovered.

The reality is that Obama's enemies (the president's words, not mine) pointed out many of these flaws prior to the health care vote. Unfortunately, Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress were too busy cramming Obamacare down our throats to listen to any Republican ideas.

Dear Mark: I just read where Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich is suing the House of Representatives cafeteria for $150,000 because he broke a tooth on an olive pit in a veggie wrap. With this mentality in Congress, how will there ever be tort reform in health care? — PO'd in Panama City

Dear PO'd: Instead of the dentist fixing the congressman's teeth, maybe he should have wired his mouth shut.

Dear Mark is a public platform for your enrichment and entertainment. E-mail your questions to marklevy92@aol.com. To find out more about Mark Levy, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.

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