Obama Delivers His First State of the Union - image Telegraph UK
In a total about face, Barack Obama has suddenly become interested in partisanship and tax cuts and according to his State of the Union, the recession is over. Suddenly he is a deficit hawk, promising to cut pork and make sure that there is transparency in government. Over the past months, the administrations focus on Health Care Reform belies the claim of renewed partisanship, as one party locked the other out of negotiations, preferring to ignore the millions of constituents who were against the bills in their current form, and throwing all criticism into the “partisanship” pot. Each stimulus, each version of the Health Care Reform Bill, each budget, was laden with pork from the Party in power. Talk is cheap, sometimes - Obama spoke about selective tax cuts and the need to cut spending and then announced a job creation bill that will cost a measly $80 billion dollars, similar in design to the stimulus, and one which former President Jimmy Carter implemented in the late 1970’s.
In several rousing moments of the speech, he spoke about the will of the American people and our ability to rise from adversity. America, according to Obama, needs high speed railways in order to best our global competitors. He’d also like to see tax cuts go to businesses that stay in the U.S., and to those who prefer to build overseas, no tax cuts at all. Protectionism is a fine idea; however, many states in these United States have such high corporate tax rates, that even a federal tax cut will not make a federal tax cut attractive. Massachusetts, for example, has the 4th highest corporate tax, globally. He blamed the banks who were part and parcel of the TARP program, setting fees on the largest banks in order to pay for it all. However, there are still more programs pending than three large banks can afford, and with the Bush Tax Cuts set to expire, a tax increase will set in across the board, (another source of revenue, one in which he failed to mention. – see marriage penalty and child tax credits and the federal income tax cut that will overshadow the $13 and $8.00 gain in Obama’s tax cuts. (Note: those who are working two jobs may actually end up paying back their tax cut, if they did not wisely claim 0 on one of their two W-2 forms.) What he did not mention was terrorism, a problem the U.S. faces from within its borders.
Overall, his reception was tepid, at first, however, the room warmed to him for the most part. His language was casual, less formal than most Presidents of the past, including George W. Bush, an effort to reach out those millions of Americans who are now looking at him with a less than favorable opinion. The task before the President now is to carry through on the promises he made the American people, and produce some results. Perhaps Obama truly believes that he has moved to the middle, perhaps these have been his intentions all along, perhaps he needed a crisis within his own party to be able to step up and get out from the shadows. Only time will tell if this new Obama will “make good” - he has precious little time to do a total about face before the mid-term elections in 2010.
That said should this be the real Obama, a total reversal of fortunes for his party, with a new party majority in Congress in 2010, will be exactly what he needs in order to be able to govern and get off the campaign trail. If it is merely rhetoric, then time and history will liken Obama to Jimmy Carter. Should he be sincere, then he will emerge as a Bill Clinton. All American’s should be mindful that it is easy to Monday morning quarterback, (or Thursday morning in this case), and time should be allowed for Obama to “make good”. As the President is used to getting bills delivered to his desk immediately, this should not present a problem.
For future reference: full text of the State of the Union Huffington Post
