President Barack Obama used his Tuesday evening State of the Union address to promise Americans he would use the power of the Presidency, to foster balance and equity between the rich and struggling middle class, His speech offered a defining choice in an election year between continued leadership and a strengthening economy “built to last” and Republican’s, who continue to argue for a return to the failed policy of less regulation and tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.
While polls indicate most American’s have a very favorable opinion of their current commander and chief, they also capture a sense of disappointment with the state of the economy and the president’s handling of it, he sought to persuade Americans his proposed solutions remain more in tune with them than much of the Republican platform.
Because this is a pivotal moment in his Presidency, Obama took a successful page from former president Bill Clinton’s State of the Union play book, and sought to detail at length the extent to which he intends to contrast his core economic principles and values with those of his Republican rivals.
Ordinary Americans, the president said, have the right to expect, if not a helping hand from their leaders, then at least a field in which everyone plays by the same set of rules. “You can call this class warfare all you want,” Mr. Obama said. “Most Americans would call that common sense.” He characterized the looming choice as one between whether “a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by” or his own vision — “where everyone gets a fair shot
Central to his proposals were changes to the tax code, limiting deductions for companies that move jobs overseas, rewarding companies that return jobs to the United States and increasing taxes on wealthy Americans.
He also took a direct aim at the financial institutions that created the economic chaos, calling them out on the risky lending practices that tipped the country into financial crisis, Mr. Obama said he was asking Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and state attorneys general to expand investigations into abusive lending. The new unit, he said, “will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.”
Mr. Obama also proposed a new trade enforcement unit that would add to the number of government investigators pursuing unfair trade practices and that would be responsible for filing lawsuits against foreign countries, namely China. He called for new legislation to make it easier for Americans to refinance their homes if their interest rates are above market rates. And he proposed we allocate the financial savings from ending the war in Iraq and drawing down in Afghanistan: by using half of the war savings on infrastructure projects and the other half to reduce the deficit.
“We will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt and phony financial profits,” Mr. Obama said.
While his advisers have repeatedly promised elements of a Harry Truman style campaign against a do nothing Congress, he expressed a hope when ever possible to “work with anyone in this chamber” to solve the problems of the American people in a bipartisan fashion but warned he would “oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place”.
President Obama’s third State of the Union provided the portrait of a confident leader who dominated the chamber of a congressional House ruled by his political adversaries the Republican’s who have spent the last two years blocking economic policy and relief for the middle class.
The official Republican response came from union busting Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels who attempted to paint President Obama as the individual responsible for the less than stellar economic recovery, To his credit he did admit “The president did not cause the economic and fiscal crisis that continue in America tonight,” Governor Daniels however neglected to tell his audience it was the very policies his party proposes that caused the economic collapse
In Closing President Obama recalled the American assault that finally killed Osama bin Laden, and talked of the fateful day last May, when he monitored the attack from the White House. He called on the country to emulate the unity of the Navy Seal’s that conducted the raid. “When you’re marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you,” the president said, “or the mission fails.”
It was a speech given by a President in an election year, who displays a confident sense of proven leadership and a call to the American people to join him in continuation of the work still ahead.
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