Farr says State of the Union was 'fun' but lacked substance and numbers.

Following President George Bush''s first State of the Union address, U.S. Rep. Sam Farr said the speech was long on feel-good jargon and short on reality.

"You saw the members all jumping on their feet, and everybody was having a lot of fun," Farr said in a phone interview immediately after the speech.

"Among the Democrats--we were all sitting together--there was a lot of ''where''s the beef.'' It was a good speech, an all-American speech, but it didn''t have much substance."

While dollar figures were hardly mentioned, Bush touted his budget--which includes the largest increase in defense spending in two decades.

"It was very defense-heavy tonight, because that''s where his high ratings are coming from," Farr said. "So he played to his strengths."

The president also pushed his plan for privatizing Social Security, "which many of us think would be foolish because it would make Social Security funds neither social nor secure," Farr quipped. And the president continued to push his aggressive tax cut.

"There''s no way he can pay for all of the things he mentioned tonight," Farr said. "I think everybody can be encouraged by his words, but they are going to be discouraged when they see the financial commitment just isn''t there."

"The only specific things he said he would put money into was defense and homeland security," Farr said. "The rest was words--nice words, good words, but no financial commitment to dollars.

"If he''s going to put more money into the most expensive thing we have--where is the money going to come for Social Security and for Medicare benefits? For prescription drugs for senior citizens? The devil is in the details of the speech we haven''t seen yet which will be in his budget."

Farr said Bush''s stated commitment to lessening America''s dependence on overseas oil worried Democrats, "because I think everyone knows that his definition of increased oil production means increased oil drilling at home."

Farr says the President should encourage alternative, clean energy sources before brining in the oil rigs.

Still, everyone on the floor "had fun with the President tonight," Farr said. And Farr, in particular, let out a whoop, at least on the inside, when the President announced he would double the size of the Peace Corps over the next five years.

"I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia back in the ''60s, and I''ve always felt that if we are going to put this much on the military side of things, after the war is over we need to build and sustain peace. I''ve asked him to double the size of the Peace Corps and he did. I jumped to my feet and he winked at me, so we communicated tonight."