The true state of the union under President Obama

President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address on Tuesday smacked more of a an Oval Office brainstorm session that was heavy on the storm and particularly light on the brain part.

What is the state of our union? The RNC released some numbers reflecting the true state of the union under President Obama's leadership:

$18.1 Trillion: Total Debt Under Obama As Of January 14, 2014. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15)

$10.6 Trillion: Total Debt When Obama Became President On January 20, 2009. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/9/15)

$7.5 Trillion: Amount Added To The National Debt Despite Obama's 2010 State Of The Union Declaration That He Would Not Leave "A Mountain Of Debt." (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15; President Barack Obama, Remarks On The State Of The Union, Washington, D.C., 1/27/10)

$4 Trillion: Amount Of Debt That Obama Once Called "Irresponsible" And "Unpatriotic." (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At A Campaign Event, Fargo, ND, 7/3/08)

$1.8 Trillion: Cost Of ObamaCare's Coverage Provisions Through 2024. (CBO, 4/14/14)

$1.3 Trillion: Total Student Debt Held By Americans. (Federal Reserve Board Of Governors, Accessed 1/14/15)

$869.3 Billion: Total Taxes In ObamaCare. (JCT, 6/15/12; CBO, 4/14/14)

$95 Billion: Cost Of New Regulations Added Since Obama Became President. (American Action Forum, 1/6/15)

$60 Billion: Cost Of Obama's Community College Tuition Plan Over Ten Years. ( The Associated Press , 1/9/15)

$3.4 Billion: Average Amount Of Debt Added Daily Since Obama Became President. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15)

$3.4 Billion: How Much The Construction Of The Keystone Pipeline Would Contribute To GDP According To A State Department Review. (United States Department Of State, 1/14)

46.5 Million: Average Number Of Americans Receiving Food Stamps In FY 2014. (Department Of Agriculture, Accessed 1/14/15)

13 Million: Average Number Of Americans Who Have Joined The Food Stamp Program Since FY 2009. (Department Of Agriculture, Accessed 1/14/15)

7 Million: Number Of Americans Who Will No Longer Have Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Due To ObamaCare. (Congressional Budget Office, 4/14/14)

5.5 Million: Americans Who Have Fallen Into Poverty Since Obama Became President. (U.S. Census Bureau, Accessed 1/14/15)

2.3 Million: Americans Who Are Only Marginally Attached To The Labor Force. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)

401,000: Construction Jobs Lost Since Obama Became President. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)

321,000: Manufacturing Jobs Lost Since Obama Became President. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)

273,000: Number Of People Who Left The Labor Force Between November And December Of 2014. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)

$56,492: Current Debt Per Capita Under Obama. (U.S. Census Bureau, Accessed 1/14/15; U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15)

42,100: Number Of Jobs The Construction Of The Keystone Pipeline Would Support Over Two Years According To A State Department Review. (United States Department Of State, 1/14)

$21,724: Increase In Debt Per Capita For Americans Since Obama Took Office. (U.S. Census Bureau, Accessed 1/14/15; U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15)

$4,154: Increase In Family Health Care Premiums Under Obama. (The Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/10/14)

$2,484: Decline In Median Household Income Since Obama Became President. (U.S. Census Bureau, Accessed 1/14/15)

1978: The Last Time The Labor Force Participation Rate Was At Its Current level. (BLS, 1/24/14)

677: Individuals Who Have Been Through Obama's Revolving Door. (Center For Responsive Politics, Accessed 1/12/15)

215: Rounds Of Golf Obama Has Played Since He Has Taken Office. (Mark Knoller, Twitter Feed, 12/31/14; Mark Knoller, Twitter Feed, 1/4/15)

174: Number Of Days Obama Has Spent All Or Part On Vacation. (CBS News, 12/22/14; Mark Knoller, Twitter Feed, 1/4/15)

100%: Total Debt As A Percentage Of GDP Under Obama. (OMB, Accessed 1/14/15)

65.7%: Labor Force Participation Rate When Obama Became President. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)

62.7%: Labor Force Participation Rate In December. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 1/14/15)

65: Number Of Fundraisers Obama Attended In 2014. (Mark Knoller, Twitter Feed, 12/2/14)

32.8: Average Number Of Weeks Someone Will Be Unemployed. (BLS, 1/14/15)

14.5%: Poverty Rate In 2013. (U.S. Census, Accessed 1/23/14)

13.2%: Poverty Rate Before Obama Became President. (U.S. Census, Accessed 1/23/14)

6: Veto Threats Issued By Obama In The New Year. (The White House Website, Accessed 1/19/15; ABC News, 1/16/15)

Our federal reserve continues to pump cash into the economy in unprecedented, dangerous and unsustainable ways that distort our capital markets, and hence the real economy downstream a bit. Essentially, we are still in economic crisis mode. Did any of you get the impression that Obama saw us in an ongoing economic crisis?

How about foreign affairs?

China pressing its prerogatives in the South China Sea and is also very busy setting itself against us in many countries in Africa and elsewhere. Russia's anti-American rhetoric is not much different than it was in the Soviet days.

The Middle East? Africa?

South America has swung leftward dramatically and is more anti-U.S. than ever. The idea that Afghanistan will stand up a strong central government and keep the Taliban at bay is not held by most experts on the region not working in the Obama administration.

Iran is closer to developing nuclear weapons, with North Korea doing the test for them. Our relationship with Israel has never been more strained.

Obama and supporters of his progressive agenda continue to pander to the self-interest of their base – more entitlements, tax the rich (i.e., anyone doing better than me), free healthcare, preschool for every child, etc., to the detriment of our nation’s long term interests.

It doesn’t seem to matter to Obama that revenues don’t cover expenditures, and his agenda pushes us ever further into the red. Even if we taxed the upper income brackets 100% and there was no corresponding change in economic behavior by those so taxed (which isn’t a rational expectation), revenues simply wouldn’t come close to covering the existing, let alone his desired, spending.

Obama continues to push the class-warfare and something-for-nothing buttons of his constituents because, in my opinion, it’s proven to be an effective and self-sustaining political strategy. Frankly, it’s unpatriotic (and I don’t use that term lightly), but what benefits Obama and his party are apparently the only currency he considers valid.

The President's policies continue to tamp economic growth, hurting everyone across the board and jeopardizing the status of our nation as the greatest economic and democratic (small “d”) engine the world has ever seen.

As the economy continues to limp along and thing get worse for individuals, Obama's message that the government should and can support those suffering resonates ever stronger with the vast number of people who either don’t know better or, like the President, figure their personal gain offsets the collective pain.

It’s a tough cycle to break, one that requires effective communication to educate the public on matters fiscal and economic. It also requires self-sacrifice on the part of those with outstretched hands to forgo endorsing policies that put pennies in their pocket today but levy a larger price on everyone down the road.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Americans will open their eyes, see the situation clearly, and once again turn things around before we cross the tipping point.

Obama's over narcissistic sense of over confidence is better described a hubris. There was nothing new in Obama's speech and little detail on the laundry list of items that Obama was promising.

Our President promised in 2008/2009 to cut the deficit in half. Instead he quadrupled it. He promised to tackle our growing national debt. Instead, he increased it 60% overall.

Obama promised that his green energy jobs would revitalize America and create 'millions' of jobs. They have done virtually no job creation and we have squandered billions of taxpayer money on bankrupt entities.

The President did promise action on the climate change fantasy. So the EPA has ordered by bureaucratic fiat new carbon rules that are forcing dozens of coal-fired power plants to shut down thus reducing our generating capacity and weakening our economy with higher risks of rolling power blackouts.

The one thing Obama promised and delivered is that government would get bigger and more intrusive in all of our lives. As a result, national incomes have fallen. Health care costs including insurance have risen dramatically. 8,500,000 left the workforce in his 1st term. Violence - especially urban violence - has increased substantially. Drug use is rising.

Hard to find anything to be optimistic about - except that we now have less than two years to go until 2016.

After this SOTU address, it should be clear to everyone that Obama doesn't know anything about the economy. In fact, the government has no business sticking its oar in the water and trying to manage something it neither understand or can control. About the only thing that happens when governments involve themselves at trying to manage the economy is that they interfere in the normal cycle of creative destruction, create bubbles, and mis-allocate capital.

None of this is good.

There is a good reason to be anxious over what the President is going to propose--it won't work. The Keynesian, large government solutions have never worked over the long-term and today they aren't even working over the short-term.

Liberals herald the improvement over the final year of the George W. Bush era without considering facts. An objective analysis demonstrates just the opposite.

Things have not gotten better as fast as they should have considering the recession ended about four months into Obama's first term.

The net impact of all of the fiscal and economic mismanagement of this administration is that 8.5 million less Americans are working today than they would have had the economic policies used by GWB and the Republican Congress been continued.

I'm not suggesting that we go back to George W. Bush era policies--for me they are way to progressive. I want to reduce government's footprint in a big way.

President Obama is just more of the same. Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Wake up America, we are in big trouble and President Obama continues to lead us down the wrong path to economic recovery and success.