‘WE DON’T quit. I don’t quit.” Barack Obama never said his “change” agenda was going to be easy. And he insists he is not going to be deflected. A combative and distinctly more populist president used his first State of the Union speech to Congress on Wednesday to stiffen the resolve of his Democratic Party and to warn Republicans that their obstructionism would backfire.
“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 – a supermajority – then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well.” Whether the voters will hear that message in what are likely to be painful autumn mid-term elections is another matter.
Reframing his agenda as a focus on jobs, the plight of the middle class and reform of the financial system, Mr Obama took repeated swipes at the dysfunctional Washington and Wall Street establishments – even castigating the supreme court for last week equating lobby money with free speech – and threatened legislative vetoes if politicians fail to live up to what is needed.
Largely eschewing new initiatives, a public sector freeze and aid to indebted graduates apart, the president urged politicians to complete tasks already in hand. His appeal for bipartisanship and warning about public disillusionment with politics – “We face more than a deficit of dollars ... We face a deficit of trust” – was a familiar theme. He blamed his predecessor, demanded acknowledgment of what he had already achieved on jobs and taxes and admitted errors on his own part in failing to explain his policies. The latter were right and deserved to be pursued, not least healthcare, although his speech was short of any explanation of how he saw the legislation being saved in the wake of the Democrats’ loss of their 60-seat filibuster-proof majority.
The challenge he set himself was to turn a national pessimism into optimism and to revive the “Yes we can” spirit by putting his own difficulties in the context of a dysfunctional system to harness public disenchantment. Although his approval numbers have dipped over the past year, Obama is still far more popular than Congress and much of the civics lesson he delivered is well understood . “To Democrats,” he pleaded, in a clear reference to healthcare jitters post-Massachusetts, “I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve problems, not run for the hills.”
The focus on the economy and jobs took up two-thirds of his speech and his comments on world affairs – largely through the prism of US security interests – were broad-brush, even perfunctory. No new ground broken here although two asides were of particular interest to Ireland. He again urged action on immigration, saying work must continue on a “broken” system and insisted, as he has done before, “it is time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs right here in the United States of America.” Whether he will make any progress next year on either is doubtful.