By JIM BARON

The way Sen. Jack Reed saw it, President George Bush’s final State of the Union address was “a litany of past policies the American people have already judged to be a failure.”

“If he truly trusted the American people,” Reed said, referring to a phrase the president used several times in his nearly hourlong speech, “he would work with us to change some of those policies, like the war in Iraq or his failed tax policies.
“The economy is headed in the wrong direction, and he is asking for more of the same,” such as making the tax cuts of his first term permanent, Reed said. He said the Bush proposals “don’t do anything for the paychecks” of working Americans but would instead benefit those with portfolios on Wall Street.
Although Bush stressed the success of the military mission in Iraq, Reed bemoaned the “lack of political progress” in that nation. “The Iraqis need to match the courage of our troops with the political courage” needed to make the long-term changes in the governing of the war-torn nation.
Reed said he is definitely looking forward to next year’s State of the Union speech, “by a new president regardless of which party” he or she belongs to.
“I think this is the end of a difficult time in our nation’s history,” Reed said in a telephone interview immediately after the speech. “Our prestige is plummeting around the world and there is a resurgence of al Qaeda.”
“The state of our union is not as strong as it could or should be, and it appears from tonight’s speech that it will take new leadership, with new commitment to change; a new administration to turn it around,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said. 
All in all, Whitehouse rated Bush’s last State of the Union address as “pretty discouraging. On the three big issues – Iraq, the economy and health care, it was disappointing.
About the war, Whitehouse said the president only reiterated his previous claim that “the surge is working.
On the economy, Whitehouse told The Times that he got “very little sense that he feels any of the anxiety, suffering and concern of the average American. And there was astonishingly little on health care,” given its importance to families across the country.
Referring to Bush’s call for “Pell Grants for kids,” to allow children to leave underperforming schools, Whitehouse said, “he was taking the name of a great Rhode Islander in vain to make a move for school vouchers — something Claiborne Pell opposed his entire career.
Rather than “delay or derail” the economic stimulus package as Bush warned they would, Whitehouse said Democratic initiatives to add Food Stamp and unemployment benefit increases “very well might speed it up. The Food Stamps and unemployment benefits could begin sooner than the rebates” which he said might not get into the hands of consumers until this summer.”
“Throughout seven long years of this administration, it never seemed as though President Bush was really listening to the American people,” Whitehouse remarked inb a written statement. “Unfortunately, his final State of the Union address tonight was no different.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy calls the bi-partisan economic stimulus package “a start,” but says Democrats are looking to incorporate extended unemployment benefits to the tax rebates that have been agreed to by the president and congressional leader.
The economy has been “what’s on the minds of most Americans, what has been dominating the news, and what has been in front of Congress in recent weeks,” Kennedy said.
 People are concerned about home foreclosures, paying for health care, and the security of their jobs and pensions, the 1st District Democrat noted.
But particularly given the increasing unemployment rate in Rhode Island, already higher than the 5 percent national rate, Kennedy said, “Frankly, I believe the best approach is to get people working.”
He said the Ocean State has a plethora of infrastructure projects including water, sewer and bridge improvements that are “long overdue” to be done. “These projects need to be completed,” Kennedy said, noting that doing so “would put a lot of people to work and provide stimulus” to the local economy.
The problem with the rebates proposed by the Bush administration is that many people will use them to pay down existing credit card debt. They aren’t going to use if for new spending “because they are still nervous about the economy,” he said.
As a result, Kennedy said, the rebates “may not do what they are designed to do, which is to get the economy moving.”
Kennedy said it may be necessary to pass a second stimulus package sometime soon, perhaps as early as the spring, “if we don’t see positive results from this one in the near future.”
Although economists and politicians have not wanted to say so, for fear of making things worse, Kennedy says “there is no question” that the U.S. economy has been in a recession in recent weeks.
Because of the war in Iraq, Kennedy said, “We are on the verge of losing the war we should be winning in Afghanistan.” Besides that, he noted the U.S. military “is losing its competitive edge” and some day may not have the ability to meet threats from international terrorism or other nations such as China.
“Every dollar we spend in Iraq is a dollar we are not spending taking care of our veterans or re-equipping our military to deal with other potential threats,” Kennedy said.
Cumberland Mayor Daniel McKee, attending the speech as Kennedy’s guest, seemed less than impressed.
“The speech was not anything particularly new,” McKee said after leaving the House chamber, although he allowed that “the atmosphere was everything you would expect in person. It’s an impression I won’t forget for a long time.”
McKee said he had the opportunity to look around while the president was speaking. “I was watching Senator (Hillary) Clinton and Senator (Barack) Obama. They had reactions to some of the things he said, and no reaction to others.
The mayor said he “would have liked to hear more about getting oil prices down. I didn’t hear anything that is going to give us relief, especially in Rhode Island, on high heating costs.”
Rep. Jim Langevin said he was pleased to hear the president “renew his commitment to work with Congress on the stimulus package.
But, he added, “I was hoping to hear new ideas to stimulate the economy and bring the troops home from Iraq, but I didn’t hear much of that tonight.
The economic stimulus is a “short-term plan,” Langevin said, but the country need a long-term plan to create jobs and instill confidence in the economy.
The administration’s proposal “is not going to get the job done” he said, to solve problems like improving the nation’s infrastructure, addressing the mortgage crisis and caring for “people’s basic needs. I didn’t hear how he was going to take care of people most in need.”