The real State of the Union
BY CARTER E. ANTHONY, CFA
A few nights after President Biden’s State of the Union address, I sat down to watch the recorded version. It was recorded so I can speed through the usual blather of any SOTU address.
Unbelievably, the president is going to forgive all our wrongs, including my previous poor golf scores and fix my golf game simply by throwing more dollars at it. Money continues to grow on trees in Washington, D. C.
Seriously, after the usual lead-in of his creating more jobs than any president in the history of the world, my interest began to wane.
This claim must be the most over-used claim among many claims by this administration. The “jobs created” by this administration come from workers returning to their government-mandated jobs-shutdown.
He also heralded his causing inflation to fall from 9% to 3%. No mention that his policies created the 9%. Apologizing is not in the DNA of any government official.
Pundits called the president an “angry old man.” He reminded me of a pit bull on a tight leash snarling, growling and barking with teeth bared.
It was obvious this was not the man/speaker we have seen across the nation the past three years.
On the next day, while speaking in a small town in Pennsylvania, he exhorted the crowd to return him to the Senate and suggested the trials of July 6, not January 6, must continue. The old Joe that we all know and love!
If you want to know the real state of the union, read the “Economic Report of the President”. It is several hundred pages long, the first 1/3 is narrative with the remaining 2/3 supporting charts and graphs.
For example, it will tell you that interest on our country’s debt will this year exceed our defense appropriations.
Where would you rather have your tax dollars spent? If you read far enough back, you will find that President Clinton balanced the budget by cutting President Reagan’s defense budget in half.
To be fair, Saturday following the SOTU, another angry old man spoke in Rome, Ga. Former President Trump gave his usual long, rambling, dis-jointed speech that might be his response to the SOTU.
It included what he has done, all that “Crooked Joe” has done wrong and what he, Trump, will do if re-elected.
Almost 40 years ago, I wrote speeches for the Chairman/CEO of Torchmark. Without any experience at speech writing, I remembered the art of giving a speech was “Stand up, Speak up, and Shut up.”
The speeches that I wrote were full of content and they were short, 20 minutes to 30 minutes at most. Like Trump, he was a Chairman/CEO and he delivered it his way.
Unlike Trump, he welcomed Stand up, Speak up and Shut up. Somebody, please tell Trump to Stand up, Speak up and Shut up!
I am reminded of Ronald Reagan’s saying he was going to do his best to get the government off the front page.
Obviously, these two candidates relish the front page. There was also no mention by these candidates of President Reagan’s “Shining city on a hill” delivered in his Farewell Address in 1989.
As my light grows dimmer, I wish for my children a “Shining city on a hill” but these two are not delivering it.
If you listened long enough, you heard President Biden, three years after entering office, blame the Republicans for the border invasion and for not passing his border bill.
All you need do is wind Trump up and let him repeat his border crisis comments.
Let’s take this down to an investment decision, the universe in which I live.
Several weeks ago, WalMart announced a 3 for 1 stock split and a dividend increase which usually leads to appreciation in the stock. WalMart also announced the closing of stores due to pilferage and theft.
This caused me to do a little comparative research. WalMart has an open-door policy; customers come and go as they please.
Costco, a big box retailer and competitor of WalMart’s has a tightly controlled membership policy.
Customers are not free to come and go as they please without showing a card to enter and having their receipt checked as they leave.
Except for TSA lines at airports, it appears the United States has a policy similar to WalMart’s.
Citizens and non-citizens can come and go as they please, bring in and take out what they want.
The total return on WalMart stock for the last 10 years is 196%; Costco’s total return for the last 10 years is 668%.
Which return do you want for your country, for your children and for your grandchildren? Which country do you want to live in, one like WalMart or one like Costco?
