Of last night’s two speeches broadcast nationwide , one was respectful, insightful, honest, and grounded in reality — without bombast, cliches, and vast embellishment. That speech came from an unassuming governor of the state of Iowa. The Iowa speech lasted 15 minutes. The other speech lasted more than an hour. The Iowa speech was not addressed to dignitaries and the powerful, but to the people of America.

Biden’s first State of the Union message (and his first year in office) make one thing clear. His overarching obsession is to create a monumental legacy. He wants to outdo FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society in spades. To make his mark, Biden is multiplying programs and spending. To ensure his legacy, he is spending unprecedented trillions. He wants to outdo the Pharaohs and the pyramids.

And this requires unprecedented increases in taxation and regulations. And demonizing of corporations. He doesn’t see (or admit) that  taxes on corporations are really only indirect taxes on the people.

Biden doesn’t see (or admit) that higher gas prices and record inflation are really the worst kind of taxes on all the people. As are the burdens of the one million plus pages of federal regulations and administrative law already on the books.

From the contrasting Iowa speech I take four clear lessons.

It should be clear that productivity and prosperity come not from government and programs, but from people allowed to participate freely in enterprise, daily labor, and innovation — without undue taxation and regulation.

It should be clear that simple morality and personal responsibility do not require that millions of innocent lives be terminated. And that life is precious.

It should be clear that societal harmony is fostered by honest and moral leadership.

And finally, It should be clear that strength,  honesty, and consistency, albeit without full advance disclosure, make for the best (and most preventative) policy with other nations, and especially with belligerent powers. Such a policy does not invite war and invasion of a vulnerable neighbor nation by an obsessed oligarch Putin. Nor does it abandon a dependent nation of 25 million people to terrorist Taliban subjugation.

Dan Bartholomew, Orem

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