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Obama, in State of the Union, highlights tax reform, community college plans Obama, in 2015 State of the Union, says crisis has passed and takes credit
(about 2 hours later)
President Obama delivered a State of the Union address Tuesday night focused on helping the middle class, highlighting his tax proposals targeting the wealthy and big banks even as Republicans voiced opposition. President Obama, who took office six years ago amid a historic recession and two U.S. wars, declared unequivocally Tuesday that the nation had clawed its way out of those dire straits, praising Americans for their resilience but also pointedly taking credit for leading the way.
“Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well?’’ the president asked a joint session of Congress. “Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?” “America, for all that we’ve endured; for all the grit and hard work required to come back; for all the tasks that lie ahead, know this: The shadow of crisis has passed,” Obama said in his sixth State of the Union address to the nation and a joint session of Congress in the House chamber.
“That’s what middle-class economics is — the idea that this country does best when everyone gets their fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules,” Obama said in a reprise of one of the key themes that animated his reelection campaign in 2012. After years of fighting with Republicans over where to take the country, Obama delivered an hour-long defense of his policies that at times sounded like a victory lap. He asserted that the brightening economic picture — including accelerating job growth, more people with health insurance and lower gas prices — had proved that he was right, and his adversaries misguided, all along.
[Live Updates: State of the Union] The president had been cautious over the past two years not to gloat over news of fitful economic growth, mindful that the economy remained tenuous and public confidence uneasy. But with the jobless rate well below 6 percent, the stock market nearing record highs and his job-approval ratings rebounding, Obama on Tuesday night dropped his veneer of reserve and appeared to delight in having proved his critics wrong.
In a wide-ranging address, the president called for tax reform that eliminates corporate-friendly loopholes, highlighted his earlier proposal for free community college and delivered a forceful zinger aimed at conservatives and other critics of his plans to tackle global warming. “At every step, we were told our goals were misguided or too ambitious, that we would crush jobs and explode deficits,” he said. “Instead, we’ve seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade, our deficits cut by two-thirds, a stock market that has doubled, and health-care inflation at its lowest rate in 50 years.”
“2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Now, one year doesn’t make a trend, but this does — 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century,’’ Obama said. “I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act.’’ “So the verdict is clear,” Obama said.
“Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what — I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and NOAA, and at our major universities. The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe.’’ At times Tuesday, Obama chided Republicans to help improve Washington’s political discourse, and he harked back to the themes of national unity that helped him get elected in the first place in 2008.
In the Republican response, Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa) also sought to focus on middle-class issues, saying that she and her GOP colleagues “see our neighbors agonize over stagnant wages and lost jobs.’’ Citing the GOP’s victory in the November midterm elections, the freshman senator called for conservative solutions and said: “We heard the message you sent in November — loud and clear. And now we’re getting to work to change the direction Washington has been taking our country.” But in doing so, he also served to remind members of the GOP of the reasons their relationship is so fraught.
The president entered the House chamber at his highest political standing since Democrats suffered a crushing defeat in the midterms, lifted by an improving economy and public approval ratings that just hit 50 percent for the first time in nearly two years. In recent weeks, Obama has toured the country trying to build momentum for the speech and put Republicans on the defensive. When Republicans jokingly applauded after Obama noted that he had run his last campaign, the president paused and broke from his prepared text to deliver a spontaneous barb: “I know because I won both of them.”
His renewed sense of confidence was reflected Tuesday night in an assertive speech designed to showcase the administration’s concern for middle-class economics and families, the excerpts showed. Among other proposals, Obama called for raising $320 billion over the next decade in new taxes targeting wealthy individuals and big financial institutions to pay for new programs designed to help lower- and middle-income families. He also proposed raising the capital gains and dividend tax rates to 28 percent for high earners; imposing a fee on the liabilities of about 100 big financial institutions; and greatly broadening the amount of inherited money subject to taxes. Obama took the spotlight in front of Vice President Biden and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) intent on proving that he would remain relevant in the final quarter of his presidency as the race to replace him next year begins.
It is those proposals, telegraphed by the administration in the buildup to the speech, that are already provoking strong opposition from Republicans. Just two months after Democrats suffered a severe blow in the midterm elections, when voters handed control of both chambers to the GOP for the first time during his tenure, Obama’s speech came amid warnings from Republicans to avoid divisive rhetoric and policies.
Even with his improved political standing at home, Obama went before a joint session of Congress at a time of rising tensions abroad, with U.S. leadership being questioned in many quarters. In response, the president defended his military campaign in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State and called for aggressive efforts against the growing problem of cyberterrorism. “Tonight isn’t about the president’s legacy. It’s about the people’s priorities,” Boehner said in a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday. “Making the government bigger isn’t going to help the middle class. More growth and more opportunity will help the middle class, and those are the Republican priorities.”
“In Iraq and Syria, American leadership — including our military power — is stopping ISIL’s advance,’’ he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “Instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition, including Arab nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group.’’ But Obama had told allies that he would not kowtow to GOP demands despite the party’s new majorities. The president announced early in his speech that he would focus less on the usual laundry list of new proposals — the White House had revealed most of them ahead of time — and instead focus on the “values at stake” for the American people moving forward.
Weeks after the administration accused North Korea of spearheading a major cyberattack on Sony Pictures, Obama said: “No foreign nation, no hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets, or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids. We are making sure our government integrates intelligence to combat cyberthreats, just as we have done to combat terrorism.’’ He framed portions of his address around a letter he received from a woman in Minneapolis named Rebekah Erler, who said that she and her husband struggled to pay bills during the recession shortly after they were married and had a son.
The president’s proposals represent a continuation of a White House tone and tenor since the midterms that has been anything but conciliatory, an approach that has raised doubts about whether the president can — or wants to — break through partisan gridlock before voters choose his successor next year. “We are a strong, tightknit family who has made it through some very, very hard times,” Obama said, quoting a letter from Erler, whom he visited during a trip to the Midwest last summer. She was among the guests in first lady Michelle Obama’s box.
Hours before the speech, leaders of the Senate’s new Republican majority said they wanted to hear an address that focuses on areas where the two parties can compromise, not the issues that divide them. They mentioned trade and energy as possible areas where consensus can be reached. The president said Erler’s story was a metaphor for the nation’s. “It’s been your effort and resilience that has made it possible for our country to emerge stronger,” Obama said. “Fifteen years into this new century, we have picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and begun again the work of remaking America. We have laid a new foundation. A brighter future is ours to write.”
“What to hope to hear tonight is an emphasis on things we can agree on,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He called for a speech “that brings us together and doesn’t push us apart’’ and criticized the president’s plan to impose new taxes on the wealthy. In the wake of the GOP rout in the midterms, the president responded by announcing a series of aggressive executive actions, including measures to protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, to work toward reestablishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and to strike a climate agreement with China.
“Another income redistribution effort, another tax increase is not what we had in mind,” McConnell said. The moves angered Republicans, who challenged the president to heed the message of voters.
Added Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio): “I hope he is listening to the results of the 2014 election. It wasn’t just about electing a Republican majority. It was also about the American people saying we want you guys to get together and get some things done.” Instead, the White House continued its strategy into the new year, rolling out the major proposals for the next year in a presidential tour ahead of the State of the Union address. Obama laid out proposals to revamp the tax code by raising taxes and fees on the wealthiest Americans and largest financial institutions — and using the money to pay for free tuition for two years of community college and for a $500 tax credit for married couples in which both spouses have jobs.
Democrats said Republicans have been disingenuous about bipartisanship, and inside the West Wing, presidential advisers said they don’t think Obama’s aggressive rollout of executive actions and new proposals would further poison the political environment or diminish his chances of working with Republicans on what could be lasting achievements. Though the White House knew the ideas have a slim chance of being approved by lawmakers, the point was to start a debate on Obama’s terms. And the president and his advisers were determined to begin to frame his legacy as having delivered on his promise to improve the lives of ordinary Americans.
Rather, aides said, the GOP will pursue bipartisan legislation when it is in the party’s best interest, pointing to Republican support for a $1 trillion spending plan last month to keep the government open. On foreign policy, Obama sought to build on the idea, first enunciated during a lengthy speech at West Point last spring, of a “smarter kind of American leadership” in which the United States balances military intervention with diplomacy and coalition-building.
White House allies have been buoyed by the president’s newly vigorous posture. After two years in which the White House often found itself on the defensive amid a series of domestic and international crises, the president and his advisers have made “a tactical change,” said Simon Rosenberg, founder of the New Democrat Network, a liberal think tank. “They’re doing a better job at creating attention around the fact that they actually have a plan, a series of things they want to do.” Obama has made the case in recent weeks, as he marked the end of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, that the nation is safer after more than a decade of combat abroad — even though he authorized renewed U.S. military operations in Iraq and Syria to combat the Islamic State militant group.
Although Obama has vetoed just two bills in his six years in office, the White House has threatened to veto five measures from Congress this month alone — including legislation that would authorize the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, tie funding of the Department of Homeland Security to a rollback of Obama’s executive actions on immigration, and impose new economic sanctions on Iran. American leadership “is stopping ISIL’s advance,” Obama said, using an acronym for the group. But such a declaration seemed premature, set against images Tuesday of two orange-clad Japanese hostages kneeling in the desert before a black-robed militant.
Obama vowed in a private meeting with Democrats last week that he will play “offense” during the final two years of his presidency, building on the aggressive executive actions he laid out over the past two months. The legislative proposals he has previewed, which also include a plan for free community college, have been based firmly on his terms, drawing objections from Republicans. Ahead of the speech, cable networks showed footage of U.S. Navy warships stationed in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, where the government was in danger of collapsing and the U.S. Embassy was potentially at risk, providing stark reminders about the threats to American values around the world.
Yet as Obama takes his case to the American public in his address, he has made clear that he doesn’t intend to cede much ground to his rivals. In addition to the annual State of the Union traditions — such as Obama’s lunch with television news anchors at the White House — presidential aides noted that Obama spoke Tuesday with French President François Hollande about the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris two weeks ago.
“Some of them are going to be legislative proposals Republicans may not love, but we’ll push them,” White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He emphasized that the administration will use “every lever we can — whether it’s with Congress, on our own or using the bully pulpit.” “The State of the Union & the State of the World are far from alignment,” Ian Bremmer, president of the risk analysis firm Eurasia Group, observed on Twitter.
But Obama was determined to project an optimistic view of the nation’s future, and he maintained faith that the country could rise above its divisions. He alluded to his own diverse upbringing in Hawaii and Chicago and cited his keynote address as an Illinois state senator at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which launched him on the national political radar as a bright young prospect for higher office.
“A better politics isn’t one where Democrats abandon their agenda or Republicans simply embrace mine,” Obama said Tuesday. “A better politics is one where we appeal to each other’s basic decency instead of our basest fears.”
The president acknowledged that he had heard the political pundits declare since he took office six years ago that he had failed to make good on his vision at a time when “our politics seems more divided than ever. It’s held up as proof not just of my own flaws — of which there are many — but also as proof that the vision itself is misguided, and naive.”
To the contrary, Obama insisted, as he pledged to keep working to change Washington, even as he was, in many ways, declaring victory over his rivals.
“I want this chamber, I want this city, to reflect the truth,” he said, “that for all our blind spots and shortcomings, we are a people with the strength and generosity of spirit to bridge divides, to unite in common effort.”