Jan. 28, the President of the United States gave his annual State of the Union address. As expected, I was displeased at the way President Obama spoke to the public. I was not only disappointed to not receive the truth about things such as Benghazi, the Fast and Furious scandal, the IRS probe and many more, but I was also rather upset at the fact that President Obama walked up to the podium and once again, did not speak the whole truth. It seemed like Obama was campaigning for re-election rather than stepping up and finally acting like a president. As a matter of fact, his speech had very similar messages conveyed from the past four years at each of the State of the Union addresses.

Education is a big talking point for the head honcho. Obama spoke of programs, such as the College Opportunity Summit, that help low-income students go to college. While I agree that college should be much cheaper, it should not be easier for to gain a collegiate degree. Why? It’s rather simple, really.

What happens if you print a $20 bill and give it to someone on the street? They will go spend it and help a local business. Now, what will happen if we print 1,000 twenties and hand them out all over town? Some may say that it will help the economy. Those of us who took economics in high school know, however, that the value of the $20 will deflate. This is the same concept as a college degree. If everyone in the world has a college degree, it is now a pointless achievement, yet students are still in debt for 30 years. America is known as the land of opportunity, not the land of handouts. While that seems like a harsh comment, some of us may be just a tad bitter that we actually have to pay for college because, according to the government, we make too much money.

President Obama also talked about how women make 77 cents to every dollar earned by a man. He went on to say how wrong it is that women make less, but I must have missed his plan to change this. He went from calling this an embarrassment and saying it is time to do away with certain workplace policies (without ever identifying the exact policies to which he was referring), straight to raising the minimum wage.

I must give the President credit, however. When proposing the minimum wage hike, he said that the people who feed our troops deserve more. While he never claimed how much they make, by speaking about the troops, it makes people forget that fast food workers, telemarketers and other low-skill jobs will also see an increase in pay. Incredibly smart on his part, but we must not be distracted from the whole picture.

While Jason Collins was not mentioned at the State of the Union address, Collins was a special guest after President Obama called him and said how proud he was of Collins for coming out to the public eye, becoming the first openly gay NBA player. I was rather shocked to see Collins at the State of the Union, primarily because the president has a track record of changing his stance every few years on one of the most popular gay-rights issues: same-sex marriage. In 1996, Obama was for the legalization of same-sex marriage while he ran for Illinois Senate. Two years later he was “undecided” about the issue. In 2008, the president defined marriage is between a man and a woman, claiming that “God’s in the mix”. In 2010, he claimed that his views were evolving, but he merely said that he “wasn’t prepared to reverse himself”. Finally, in 2012 he has officially taken a ‘final’ stand on the issue claiming that he supports same-sex marriage. It seems that he tends to sell out to his supporters quite a bit, around election time especially.

Finally we get to the big topic: Obamacare, the President’s poor excuse of a plan to get every American health insurance. We all know the whole “if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan” promise was a lie straight to the face of the American people (it garnered PolitiFact’s “lie of the year”). He said that premiums would go down, yet after years of fighting, what were we left with? A broken website that cost millions, premiums through the roof, dropped coverage and false hope.

According to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, premiums have gone up in Iowa 123 percent for men and 47 percent for women at the age of 27. For 40-year-old men and women they have gone up 100 percent and 39 percent, and for 64-year-old men and women they have increased 54 percent and 69 percent. If this glorious plan was supposed to help so many people, why are so many hurting because of it? Why are companies dropping their health care coverage? Why are premiums going up?

Check the facts. 6.7 million people went into poverty after Obama took office. 19.4 million people have enrolled for food stamps since 2008. An additional $19,661 was added to our debt per capita since he took his oath. 5 million people have received cancellation notices for their health care.

Let’s cut the talk, Mr. President, and start acting like a leader that this great nation needs.