President Barack Obama delivered a forward-looking and effective State of the Union Address last night. His mix of principles and policies were clearly and evocatively expressed. The president's prescriptions for the country are clear and necessary, his proposals reasonable and his principles practically unassailable. By planting his flag in this firm ground, Obama has served notice that he will present a most formidable challenge to whichever Republican eventually secures the GOP presidential nomination.
Obama clearly staked out a position in favor of wider prosperity, identifying his concern with the 99% instead of the 1%. Bringing up the example of the great middle class expansion after the Depression and World War II with the promise of a decent living and retirement for those willing to work, the president made clear that the middle class has been stagnating since long before the current downturn. The "defining issue" of our time, he stated, is to "keep that promise alive." He asked whether the United States will we be a country where a few do really well while everyone else barely gets by, or rather where "everyone gets a fair shot, gets a fair share and plays by the same rules?" It's hard to see how his political foes could win an argument with the president on this.
To support this, he pointed to his rescue of the auto industry and a million jobs when the critics said to let it die. He proposed ending tax breaks for companies to outsource jobs and grant them for those who create jobs in America. He called for "no bailouts, no handouts and no copouts." He sketched out a plan to fund community colleges to train workers for two million jobs that are vacant now, and to help pressed homeowners who are barely making their payments to help qualify for refinanced loans at today's lower interest rates. He promised aid to students to afford education and incentives to universities to contain costs so people can afford to attend. He pointed out how, under his watch the U.S. has become the world's biggest natural gas producer and is pumping more oil than under his predecessor. And he called again for investments in the energies of the future rather than ceding their lead to others. He pointed out that 8 million jobs disappeared before he took office and in his first few months, and how 3 million have been created since. Again, it is difficult to see how exactly can Obama lose these arguments.
He proposed spending half the money saved in ending the Iraq War and in winding down the Afghan War to service the deficit and half to fund a major infrastructure program to provide jobs and enhance American competitiveness. Explaining things clearly and simply, Obama said, "We need to change our tax code. We can either continue to extend temporary tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires or pay for everything else. We cannot do both. The American people realize that and support what needs to be done." He called for enacting the "Buffet rule," that no one with an income of a million or more should pay less than 30% tax. At a time when average working people pay 25% to 35% while multimillionaires like Mitt Romney pay 13% to 15%, it's hard to see how an opponent beats the president by coming out against this perspective.
Infectious optimism infused the speech, along with both frequent pleas to work together and promises to fight back against senseless obstruction. "I will oppose obstruction with action and I will oppose any return to the policies that caused the problems in the first place," Obama declared. He placed himself firmly on the right side of the immigration issue, reminding congress what even George W. Bush stood for, and called for for "comprehensive immigration reform now. You are out of excuses."
The president closed with a survey of world events, pointing out his many successes in Iraq, the Middle East, in negotiating trade deals that have America on track to meet his goal of doubling exports, and in the effective diplomacy that has now isolated Iran in the world economy and will "take no option off the table" to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons. "For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country," and his organization has been seriously degraded. He also pledged strong support for Israel.
President Obama has been an effective leader despite Republican opposition and obstruction, as the State of the Union Address underscores. His ideas make sense to the majority of the American people, and will present a difficult challenge for whomever his chief opponent turns out to be. There is much more in the speech I could not address in this short synopsis. To see the entire address, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment