President Obama seemed to contradict himself while delivering his first SOTUS. Peggy Noonan writes about this contradiction in a recent op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. I agree with Noonan's expert analysis of the president's speech. Obama started out by asserting the point that Americans need the government to help them and that more government programs are the answer. However, Obama went on to highlight the "deficit of trust" in Washington. He further criticized parties on both sides of the aisle for using political games to turn Capitol Hill into a three-ring circus with Reid and Pelosi as the ringmasters. Why any American would expect help from a government that clearly cannot get its house in order is beyond my understanding.

Noonan goes on to describe a conversation that she had with a Republican acquaintance of the president. "He's a community organizer. He mixes the discrimination he felt as a young man with the hardship so many feel in this country, and he wants to change it and the way to change that is government programs and not opportunity.", he said when asked about Mr. Obama.

I too came from the worst of what my community had to offer. I was raised around drugs, prostitution, and violence. I attended a predominant white high school in a rural town, so I had to learn how to "fit in". I too share the president's desire to inspire "hope" and motivate "change" in our country, but I am unconvinced the solution is more government.

Social programs breed dependence and we need a focus on independence and empowerment. The American people want equal and fair opportunity to pursue their individual happiness. Obama must realize that placing someone in a program and brainwashing them to believe they are now equal with their fellow citizens is not a solution and in fact it is disingenuous. Government should remove barriers that prevent the people from seeking education, fund specialized training, and create mechanisms to connect them to opportunities ... not more programs.