offered a feisty defense of the stalled agenda that has consumed his
first year in office, including his health care initiative, climate
change legislation and new restrictions on banks.
The president, in his first State of the Union
address, pledged compassion for people struggling in the nation’s sour
economy and dedication to the cause of assisting them.
“The worst of the storm has passed,” Obama said of
the financial sector meltdown that helped bring on a deep recession and
double-digit unemployment. “But the devastation remains.” He said that
“jobs must be our No. 1 focus in 2010” and called for new spending to
promote jobs growth.
Obama enumerated a host of challenges but focused
solidly on joblessness and the national economy. The prescriptions he
offered were not dramatically different than those he offered almost a
year ago when he first addressed lawmakers as the newly elected
president, as he called for investing in small business, green jobs and
clean energy. He promised to spur the export of American products,
crack down on
But while the words were similar, the context was radically changed.
Last year he talked about moving forward with progressive policies on a scale akin to that of
On Wednesday, he spoke as a politician battered for a year by opponents
and his signature health care effort in jeopardy after a stunning loss
of the Democratic
The ideas he outlined were still big — fighting
global warming, fixing immigration policy and making long-term
investments in economic growth — but the solutions were fine-pointed.
He peppered his speech with demands for change in the
playbook, for instance, and then called on lawmakers to establish a
single Web site for disclosing all the special-funding requests before
they come to a vote.
That information is already posted on the Web, but Obama wants it all in one place.
To boost the economy, Obama proposed taking
He announced funding to begin a new nationwide high-speed rail system and urged the
to pass a financial reform package. He called for an end to tax breaks
for companies that ship jobs overseas and said the money should go to
reward those who do otherwise. His budget, due on Monday, will include
new investments in technology to diversify energy sources and reduce
dependence on foreign oil.
Obama also touted his plan to help middle class
families by doubling the child-care tax credit. Vowing that the federal
government would tighten its belt, too, Obama pledged to freeze
discretionary spending on non-security items amounting to about an
eighth of the federal budget.
Still, even experts with an affinity for his views suggested that Obama’s plans were small-bore.
“I wouldn’t say the economic challenges have changed much,” said
A new edge to the Obama persona was evident,
however, as when he admonished Republican leadership that, if they vote
as a group against every piece of business before the
At several points, Obama seemed like a beleaguered,
misunderstood president struggling to explain himself — a surprising
tone to strike for a young leader who stood on the podium a year ago
with soaring popularity and deep reservoirs of good will.
Obama spent a lot of time in the speech “setting the
record straight’ by saying he had cut taxes and that the budget deficit
that had been built up “before I even walked in the door.”
He said he was forced by events to support a bank bailout.
“If there’s one thing that has unified Democrats and
Republicans, it’s that we all hated the bank bailout. I hated it. You
hated it. It was about as popular as a root canal,” the president said
to laughter.
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(c) 2010, Tribune Co.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
