When You Listen to the President Tonight . . .

Carol Platt Liebau | February 24, 2009 3:31 PM

No doubt the rhetoric will be designed to be soaring, the calls for unity designed to be inspiring, the appeal for support designed to be common-sensical. But as you listen, ask yourself:

(1) Why should I have confidence that the President's plans will work?

(2) Why should those who worked hard and played by the rules be taxed in order to bail out those who didn't?

(3) While all the rest of us are being asked to go without, what, exactly, is the government planning to go without? Are congressmen and senators being asked to trim their staffs, or accept a reduction in their budgets? What about the President? Or is it "sacrifice" for us, but not for them?

(4) Is the President proposing solutions -- for example, when it comes to health care -- that maximize freedom and choice, or ones that emphasize government control and oversight?

After all, with all the bashing of the private sector we've seen in recent days, it's worth remembering that the Postmaster General received $800,000 in pay and perks for 2008 (more, please note, than the Obama pay caps for CEO's). Greed and incompetence are an ongoing feature of big government -- something to keep in mind as the Obama administration seeks to put the public sector in charge of more and more.