A week after the worst political setback of his presidency Barack Obama used his first State of the Union address to rally his party, talk up the struggling American economy and challenge Republicans to stop “just saying no”.
Cheered on by Democrats who were yearning for a glimpse of the magic they saw in their President-elect a year ago, Mr Obama mounted a populist attack on Wall Street excess and responded to public anxiety over unemployment by demanding a new jobs Bill “on my desk without delay”.
He vowed to veto spending that would increase the deficit that has so enraged American voters, but at the same time refused to abandon his cherished – and expensive – goals for reforming US healthcare and investing in clean energy.
With his party still reeling from the loss of a crucial Massachusetts Senate seat Mr Obama was forced to restate the soaring themes of his election victory in the language of a fighter. “We have finished a difficult year,” he said. “We have come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don’t quit. I don’t quit. Let’s seize this moment to start anew.”
As expected Mr Obama had harsh words for the lobbyists who he accuses of trying to sabotage his signature reforms of US healthcare and financial regulation. Demanding that they be forced to disclose all contacts with the White House or Congress, he attacked a recent Supreme Court ruling that ends limits on what special interests can spend on political campaigns.
“I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities,” he said. “They should be decided by the American people.”
He also lashed out at Republicans even as he appealed yet again for a new era of bipartisanship. In a reference to the Massachusetts seat and the need for a “supermajority” to pass any legislation, he said: “If the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership.”
Occasionally both sides rose to applaud. They did so when Mr Obama demanded a tax on bankers’ bonuses and again for his unexpected expression of support for increased offshore oil and gas drilling – a concession to Republicans that could unblock opposition to a climate change Bill at a time when most of the Administration’s domestic agenda is paralysed.
Minutes into the address Mr Obama defied expectations by declaring that “our union is strong”. He used the line – familiar from past State of the Union speeches – despite sagging poll numbers and anger among voters over a budget deficit of $1.4 trillion (£864 billion) and counting.
Invoking an American spirit of “great decency and great strength”, he said: “I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight. Despite our hardships, our union is strong. We do not give up. We do not quit. We don’t allow fear or division to break our spirit.”
Mr Obama was still working on the address with his chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau, 28, late yesterday. He used it to urge both main parties to overcome “the numbing weight of our politics” and find the common ground that has eluded them for the past year.
In a gesture to his liberal base, the President said that he would seek the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy instituted by President Clinton on gays in the military. He also admitted that he and his team had made mistakes in their first year. Most were unspecified but he owned up to a failure to communicate his aims for health reform more clearly.
No detailed strategy was expected for saving the healthcare Bill that dominated Mr Obama’s first year in office, and none was offered. Mr Obama restricted himself to a plea “to come together and finish the job for the American people”. Earlier, Senator Harry Reid, who led round-the-clock negotiations on the Bill until the Democrats lost their Senate supermajority last week, said that there was “no rush” to get it passed.
Elsewhere in the 70-minute speech Mr Obama listed modest initiatives to ease the burden of recession on hard-pressed middle class families. These included a $4 billion funding increase for schools and renewed promises of tax credits for small businesses and childcare in the budget next week. The President also announced a bipartisan commission on deficit reduction and a symbolic pay freeze for senior White House staff.
He rallied his rank and file with the words: “I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills.”
Eager Democrats were reserving aisle seats by 8am to ensure that they had a chance to shake Mr Obama’s hand when he made his way to the podium for his biggest set-piece political speech of the year, but polls published yesterday showed that three quarters of Americans believe that their federal government is not working and 58 per cent feel that their country is heading in the wrong direction.
At least 30 million viewers were expected to tune in for the speech.
Source:The Times
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