WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers must soon decide whether President Barack Obama is leading them toward statesmanlike courage or political folly with his take-no-prisoners reassertion of an ambitious social agenda.
Obama used his first State of the Union speech Wednesday to push nervous Democrats to forge ahead on health care, despite voters’ worries and opposition from newly strengthened Republicans. Sharpening his focus on the economy, he offered a hodgepodge of tax breaks and other incentives to create new jobs.
For Republicans, Obama blended a mix of overtures and digs.
At a town meeting today in Tampa, Fla., the president told a largely friendly crowd that he wanted to get “Republicans off the sidelines.”
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were in Florida to announce $8 billion in federal grants for high-speed rail projects nationwide — part of his push to combine spending on infrastructure with job creation.
Obama’s message the night before was directed mainly at fellow Democrats, insisting they can still enact his agenda if they overcome fears fueled by events such as last week’s stunning GOP victory in the Massachusetts Senate race.
That setback may have cost Democrats their filibuster-proof Senate majority, Obama said, but “we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills.”
He accepted partial blame for the deep troubles facing his health care push, but he implored lawmakers to finish the task rather than yield to public opposition.
“The longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became,” Obama told the joint session of Congress and a nationwide TV audience. But health care problems will continue for millions, he said, and “I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should the people in this chamber.”
House and Senate Democratic leaders are scrambling to see if they can salvage the ambitious health care package, which Republicans almost universally oppose. Obama’s pep talk was a call to arms, but he offered no new strategies for overcoming the steep parliamentary and political hurdles they face.
The president devoted most of his 65-minute speech to job-creation proposals, such as eliminating capital gains taxes on small business investment and extending tax breaks for businesses to invest in new plants and equipment. But those proposals also face uncertainty in Congress, where Senate Democrats say they may need a selective, piecemeal approach to win enough votes.
Obama said Republicans share a responsibility for governing, and he proposed meeting with their House and Senate leaders monthly. But his olive branch seemed brittle at times.
Without naming George W. Bush, he pointedly noted that the previous administration left him a big deficit and a deeply troubled economy. For good measure, Obama said the United States killed more al-Qaida terrorists in 2009 than in 2008.
Obama rebuked the Supreme Court for a recent decision that “reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests” and foreign corporations to make unlimited campaign contributions. At that, conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito made a dismissive face, shook his head in disagreement and seemed to mouth the words “not true” as the president spoke.
Republicans in the House chamber generally greeted such remarks with stony gazes and smirks. The statements they issued as soon as Obama finished — or even before he finished, in some cases — were equally icy.
“We had hoped to hear a new commitment to keep his promises to govern from the center, change the tone in Washington, and work with both parties in a bipartisan way to help small businesses create jobs and get our economy moving again,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio. “Unfortunately, the president and the Democrats in charge of Congress still aren’t listening to the American people.”
Vice President Joe Biden, appearing in an interview this morning on NBC’s “Today” show, described Obama as upset with the way his program has been handled in Congress.
“One of the things that’s most frustrating to him,” Biden said, “is the obstructionist ways of the United States Senate, on the part of the Republicans, requiring 60 votes, a supermajority, for virtually every single, solitary initiative we’ve had. Now that we have 59 votes, it’s time for everybody to start taking responsibility.”
Obama has the luxury of waiting until 2012 to seek re-election, while all 435 House seats and a third of the Senate seats are up for grabs this November. Some Democrats most nervous about the election are urging the administration to slow down, especially on the health care issue that has dominated Congress’s attention for months.
Obama gave them no comfort. “Change has not come fast enough” for millions of Americans, he said. “We must answer history’s call.”
Republicans are quick to note that the deficit has soared during Obama’s year in office, and proposals such as the health care overhaul would impose new taxes on high-end medical insurance policies, among other things.
If Obama is serious about improving the economy, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said, “he will give Republicans a seat at the table. If not, then we know that this is just more spin, arrogance and a refusal to listen to the American people.”
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