Obama Optimistic on America's Future

George Wenschhof

"..Bipartisan cooperation is needed and Republicans just saying no is not leadership.." was one of the stronger lines delivered by the President tonight in his State of the Union address and came toward the end of his speech.

In a wide ranging address to the nation, the President acknowledged mistakes while pointing out the successes in his first year in office. More importantly, he connected with Americans who were frustrated with government bail outs of banks while unemployment stands at ten percent.

The main theme throughout his speech, regardless of the topic, was the need to come together to solve the problems facing Americans today. President Obama did not shy away from pushing legislation which has been passed by the House, only to be stymied by obstructionist Republicans in the Senate.

He began by focusing on the economy and giving a short, but well explained history lesson of how the country got into the mess it was in when he took office. The national deficit doubled in the two terms under the George W. Bush administration from 5.4 trillion to 11.3 trillion and the budget went from a surplus of 200 million in 2000, to a one Trillion deficit when Obama was sworn into office.

He admitted he was also angry at having to bail out the banks, but supported the proposal offered under the George W, Bush administration as he felt it was necessary to avoid a major financial meltdown.

Obama admitted to adding one trillion to the budget deficit, primarily through his Stimulus program, but pointed out the markets have now stabilized and that the banks have paid back most of the money lent to them. He also spoke of the new fee he has proposed for the larger banks to receive the remainder of the money even faster.

Here is where he proposed his spending freeze on domestic programs across the board and in a clever manner pointed out the money saved over these three years would pay for the Stimulus program he had initiated last year.

He spoke of the need for financial reform which would keep banks from becoming too big to fail and place limits on the size of their deposits and the ways in which they can invest those deposits. The House has passed and the Senate now needs to pass this bill.

He also spoke of a bipartisan commission he will establish by executive order which will be charged with submitting to him by the end of the year, recommendations to reduce the debt. He pointed out his action was needed after the Senate failed to pass proposed legislation creating this commission.

The first order of business is he wants a jobs bill which the House has already passed which includes a small business tax credit, a targeted jobs tax credit, the elimination of capitol gains on small businesses and putting Americans to work building the infrastructure of tomorrow such as rapid rail.

He added the need to pass the Climate Control bill already passed by the House and pushed his "Race to the Top" education program that rewards success.

He also did not leave out the need to finish health care reform and urged members of congress to reach consensus and encouraged them to submit to him any ideas they felt were better than those proposed.

A proposal popular with the average voter, was to create a single website where all members of Congress would list their proposed earmarks on legislation which would provide transparency for all Americans. This is a good idea and if passed would most likely result in many frivolous earmarks not being requested.

The President also addressed the controversial recent Supreme Court decision pertaining to corporate financing in elections and promised Congress will act to address concerns Americans have with corporations buying elections.

He even added the need to fix our broken immigration system. This action is desperately needed but it is doubtful Congress will take it on during an election year.

On the war front he continued his pledge to keep America safe. He spoke of the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, the need to stabilize Afghanistan and the ongoing war on terrorism. Most importantly he spoke of the need to support the troops when they return home and his efforts to strengthen the VA. He also called for the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law dealing with gays in the military.

He concluded by saying they were all elected to do what was right and what was needed and warned they should not worry about the upcoming elections. He was optimistic about America's future. He said "We don't quit, I don't quit.... let's move forward to strengthen the nation..."

All in all, a good speech. He did a good job early on at describing how we as a nation got into this budget mess and how little his administration has contributed to it. The budget freeze was a good move as he was also able to show how over the next three years the money saved would pay for the 787 billion Stimulus bill which was needed to stabilize the economy.

He showed many examples of bills being passed by the House and stopped by the Republican Party of "No", including the recent bill calling for a bipartisan committee to recommend actions to reduce the deficit.

I still would like more specifics from the President as to what he supports in health care reform and what action he supports from Congress to obtain this approval. As he said tonight, we are closer than we have ever been in a century in providing health care reform, we can not afford to let the legislation die.

However, his optimism is what carried the night. You may recall many of his speeches last year were sobering and honest speeches about the tough economy. Now, he is beginning to say the worst is behind us, the financial markets have stabilized and we are going to move forward.

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