State of the Union

I was going to write a piece on Obama's accomplishments for the last year but he did a good job himself in the State of the Union Address. In case you missed it, do yourself a favor and find it on the white house website or elsewhere and listen to it. Obviously, the number one issue was the economy and jobs but the defense of the stimulus bill should be heard. It's one Democrats should run on, while the RNC has made it part of their purity test to be against. What we just heard was a President who has complete control and dominance of the political debate in the country. You can knock him down on this or that issue but he defines the universe of the issues, which is what a transformative President does.

Rhetorically he put Republicans in a box. His defense of the stimulus bill started with a litany of tax cuts woven in with Reaganesque stories of average Americans being affected. He goes in his speech to outline tax credits for small businesses, middle-class families with college students (me) and those who create jobs in America. He suggested his policies were aimed at making America number 1 in the world, which Republicans reflexively had to applaud. He emphasized that in his first year he didn't raise anyone's taxes one cent. (It's something I hear all the time from teabaggers and conservatives about his tax hikes--which don't exist.) But later in the speech he slips in the need to tax the top 2% again because of the deficit. He also said that tax cuts for companies who export jobs would have to be cut--which elicited no support from the Republicans. His proposal to tax banks drew huge applause but only a few claps from Republicans. He basically framed the issue to put the Republicans on the defensive. They must argue now openly for tax cuts for the rich and for companies to export jobs and banks who give outlandish bonuses (1% of the GDP this year). He also called for the end of capital gains taxes for small businesses. Now Republicans must argue for an extensive to the large corporations.

He also did a little policy wonk trip about the new Green economy while embracing nuclear power plants and "clean" coal, if such a thing exists. Running through this part of the speech one sees where he envisions America going. Almost all his climate change arguments will not pass mustard on the Hill, but alot of his clean energy initiatives will.

He also addressed the distrust Americans have for Washington--at about 70% now. He also directly talked to the supermajority idiocy in the Senate and challenged the Republicans to deal with the issues at hand. Throughout his speech he applauded the series of bills passed by the House on jobs, financial reform and health care to the detriment of the Senate. He also blasted the Supreme Court ruling but in polite terms raising the specter of foreign companies interferring in American elections. In fact the Saudis are starting because of the threat the clean energy bill poses to them.

He also reaffirmed his stand on health care and emphasized how it would cut the deficit by $1 trillion in ten years. Which led to his segue to the Debt Reduction commission, which was defeated today in the Senate but would be enacted by executive order. His freeze on discretionary spending and his urging a paygo policy for budgets helps him capture this issue and allow him to order the priorities for deficit reduction in the future.

He also came out strongly for eliminating Don't Ask Don't Tell for gays in the military as he had promised.

His foreign policy section included Afghanistan and ending the war in Iraq. He claims to have killed many times more Al Qaeda terrorists in 2009 than the previous year. And , what is most important to him, his initiative at nuclear arms reduction citing JFK and Ronald Reagan. He also said that a 50 country security conference would be meeting in Washington to discuss how to secure nuclear materials and loose nuclear arms. Which led him to promise tougher actions against Iran and continued sanctions on North Korea.

If you wanted a full outline of how Barack Obama thinks about issues, this is the speech to hear or read. It also provides the background to the country's current situation and how the deficit got so large. In my view he left the Republicans the issue of torture, Gitmo, tax cuts for the rich and large corporations and leaving the health system as it is. That's not a great place politically for them to be.

I expect the conservative and republicans to totally ignore this speech and carry on as they have before. There will not be any tapering off of the lunatic rhetoric. Conceptually I believe they will fall deeper into the swamp. If they resist Obama on a jobs bill, then November 2010 will look alot different than all the pundits have said. I think he rocked them back off their feet tonight because he basically took ideas which they would support if their base wasn't crazy and made them his own.

He also put forward support for Immigration reform tonight, which would seal the fate of the Republicans in 2012. Progressives should be somewhat disappointed that he didn't come out for the bill to enhance the ability for workers to unionize. Could he have done something else on the jobs and economic end? I don't think so because the jobs needed for today are no longer the type of work of the CCC and other FDR programs. They have to be generated by the private sector, especially small businesses. Our larger corporations have not created a single job in a decade.

Look to see a Jobs Bill, Financial Reform and Health Care Reform again and soon. Those of you who watched the Republican answer know the score.