The All of the Above President
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Going into last night’s high-stakes State of the Union Address,
the political world was wondering how President Obama would
respond to a series of political setbacks that culminated with
Republican Scott Brown’s surprise victory in last week’s
Massachusetts Senate race.
Would he move to the center or try to rally his liberal base?
Would he retreat from comprehensive health care legislation or
dig in his heels? Would his tone be feisty or conciliatory?
As is often the case with Obama, the answer turned out to be: all
of the above.
In a flatly-delivered, 70-minute speech, Obama made several nods
to conservatives by talking tax and spending cuts, while at the
same time refusing to abandon the liberal agenda items he
outlined last year.
When it came to the economy, Obama endorsed many conservative
criticisms of his policies. “[T]he true engine of job creation in
this country will always be America’s businesses,” he declared.
He called for earmark reform. And in an affront to Keynesians who
argue that deficit spending is necessary to boost an ailing
economy, he said, “families across the country are tightening
their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government
should do the same.”
Yet he continued to talk up government spending as a means to
spur economic growth, and called for a second stimulus bill.
Obama urged the Senate to follow the lead of the House and pass
legislation aimed at limiting carbon emissions, but only after
calling for building nuclear power plants and increasing offshore
oil drilling.
While he spent most of his first year in office pushing health
care legislation as his top domestic priority, in last night’s
speech it was relegated to second-class status. Still important,
yes, and still worth fighting for — but one priority amid a
laundry list of goals that typically make up State of the Union
speeches.
It took him nearly a half hour to raise the issue, and he glossed
over it quickly, only dedicating roughly 7 percent of the speech
to the topic, based on the word count of his
prepared remarks. One could interpret his actual comments on
health care either as defiant or defeatist.
On the one hand, he gave hope to liberals who were worried he was
eager to abandon the issue after Brown’s win threw a monkey
wrench into Democrats’ plans to pass legislation. Speaking of
those struggling with the current health care system, Obama said,
“I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should
the people in this chamber.” He later added, “Do not walk away
from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way
to come together and finish the job for the American people.”
Yet at the same time, he acknowledged that “this is a complex
issue, and the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people
became” and suggested that there may need to be time to let
“temperatures cool” before people take another look at the
legislation. He also claimed that he was still open to new ideas
from those in “either party.”
The idea of restoring bipartisanship was part of a broader theme
of his speech, and he proposed monthly meetings with Republicans.
But he pinned most of the blame for the polarized climate on
Republicans, lashing out at them for abusing the filibuster. He
said that “if the Republican leadership is going to insist that
sixty 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.”
While Obama’s speech may poll well initially, as is always the
case with Obama, the reality will soon undermine his rhetoric.
He can’t claim to be a tax cutter while pushing for a national
energy tax, promoting a health care bill that hikes taxes on the
middle class through the individual mandate, and allowing for a
massive tax increase when the Bush tax cuts expire. He can’t tout
his economic policies if job losses continue to mount and
unemployment remains higher than he promised when he sold
Americans on the stimulus bill.
It’s easy to talk a big game about deficit reduction during the
State of the Union Address, as presidents often do, but it’s
another thing to actually make difficult choices and take action
to limit spending. And stories will continue to emerge that will
contradict his promises of fiscal restraint. Just this week, for
instance, the Congressional Budget Office revealed that the
economic stimulus bill would cost
$75 billion more than initially projected, and that the
federal deficit would be $1.35
trillion in 2010.
When it comes to health care, Obama will either exert pressure on
reluctant Democrats to get the bill across the finish line, or
he’ll recognize the difficulty of doing so and let the initiative
wither and die. If he chooses to push ahead, the most talked
about option among Democrats right now is for the House to pass
the Senate bill, while making changes in a separate bill using
the reconciliation process that requires just 51 votes in the
Senate. This would mean that after telling the nation that he
wanted to work together with Republicans and integrate their
ideas, the response would be to cut Republicans out of the
process entirely and ram the bill through in the most partisan
way possible.
In his annual speech to Congress, Obama was able to choose all of
the above. But during the year, he’ll actually have to make
decisions, and Americans will continue to judge him based on the
results.
