Thread: Obama's speech to tout plans to energize economy (amnesty)

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Washington Post
Obama's speech to tout plans to energize economy

By JENNIFER LOVEN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 26, 2010; 5:05 PM

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will try to pivot past rocky times for the nation and himself Wednesday night in his first State of the Union address, offering a skeptical public repackaged plans to energize the economy, stem a tide of red ink and strengthen anti-terror defenses.

He'll also be trying to revive his own "yes we can" image.

One year into office, Obama faces urgent challenges as he addresses lawmakers gathered in the Capitol and a prime-time television audience at home for the constitutionally mandated ritual of U.S. governing. The country has lost more than 7 million jobs since the recession began two years ago, unemployment is stuck at 10 percent and the government is grappling with a record $1.4 trillion deficit.

Obama's presidency is troubled as well. The percentage of Americans giving a thumbs-up to his performance has fallen precipitously, from 74 percent when he took office to 56 percent now. He hasn't had a breakout legislative or diplomatic victory, and he's failed to break Washington's partisanship as promised. Then last week, an upset Republican victory in a Massachusetts Senate race threw Obama's signature domestic priority, a sweeping health care overhaul, into jeopardy and shined a spotlight on the economic angst now being taken out on him.

Against that backdrop, Obama will be using one of the presidency's largest megaphones to press several themes. They will be fleshed out in greater detail afterward, as the president travels to Florida on Thursday for a post-speech focus on jobs and when he submits his fiscal 2011 budget to Congress on Monday.

Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia will deliver a televised response Wednesday night, two months after putting his state in GOP hands in one of the party's major recent election victories.

Among the freshly sharpened messages Obama intends to weave through his remarks: He's a fighter for struggling families and against wealthy special interests; he relates personally to Americans' everyday concerns; he has come far in one year but has made some errors along the way and has much more to do. And he does not intend to fling aside an ambitious agenda on health care, energy, education, immigration and other issues in favor of trimmed-down goals.

In fact, Obama will argue that his sweeping ideas for change are as much a part of putting the economy back on track as more immediate job creation and economic security proposals.

"If we don't get that stuff right, then it's going to be very difficult for us to answer the anxieties that people feel over the long term," Obama said this week in an interview with ABC News. "I am not backing off the need for us to tackle these big problems in a serious way."

Advisers say the president doesn't plan to reshape his agenda as much as better explain and defend it:

- He'll map a way forward for mired health care legislation, now facing several options for passage, all problematic. Obama will also acknowledge the long, messy debate that has soured many on the idea and try to make a far-reaching overhaul relevant and attractive again to voters. "We have to move forward in a way that recaptures that sense of opening things up more," he told ABC.

- He'll talk about why he thinks the nation's future economic health also depends on reshaping financial industry regulations to place tighter rules on Wall Street, another immediate domestic priority. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama will detail "what he would find acceptable on that."

- He'll renew his call for immigration reform, a volatile issue once considered a first-year priority but lately sent to the back burner. Obama is expected to prod Congress to craft a plan to tighten the border with Mexico, crack down on employers who exploit illegal workers and resolve the status of roughly 12 million people who live in the U.S. illegally.

- He will give specifics on how he believes Washington's combative, partisan, gridlocked way of doing business can be changed.

On national security, Obama will detail his administration's efforts to combat terrorism around the globe, which have seen some success but have been overshadowed by the attempted airline attack on Christmas Day and political difficulties in Pakistan. He also will address the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, nuclear disputes with Iran and North Korea, this month's devastating earthquake in Haiti and his larger ambition to restore the U.S. image around the world.

But bread-and-butter issues - lost jobs, difficulties paying for college or retirement, soaring deficits, anger at Wall Street fat cats - will dominate the speech.

"What he'll discuss more than anything is getting our economy moving again," Gibbs said.

The first priority is reversing persistent joblessness, and Obama is expected to push anew for job-creation proposals such as giving tax credits to small businesses to add workers and incentives to families to retrofit homes to make them more energy efficient. Neither proposal made it into a jobs bill passed by the House in December.

He also plans to propose modest new measures to help with the financial struggles of the middle class - money for child care, helping out aging parents, saving for retirement, and paying off college debt, for example.

Aware of increasing voter concern about the government's red ink, Obama also plans to talk about various efforts at what Gibbs called "a slow chipping away" at the deficit. The White House announced Obama would ask Congress to freeze spending on some domestic programs for three years - though the savings would total just $250 billion over 10 years, a tiny fraction of the annual deficit.

Other issues likely to get a mention in Obama's speech, still being crafted on Tuesday:

- A record $8.8 billion in federal funding in the next fiscal year to help military families with child care, counseling, financial services and other programs, a top priority for first lady Michelle Obama.

- The president's campaign promise, as yet unfulfilled, to lift the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

-A new plan for a better and quicker response to bioterrorism threats.

(This version CORRECTS that $8.8 billion is total for military families, not boost)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02629.html

USA Today
Jan 26, 2010
Obama's State of the Union: Immigration? Gays in the military?
02:32 PM

By H. Darr Beiser, USATWhite House press secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed a few more subjects that may surface in the State of the Union tomorrow night, including immigration and gays in the military -- but he provided few details and noted that the address is still being edited.

"Let's wait for tomorrow's speech," Gibbs said at one point.

The spokesman did say that Obama would mention immigration, but added that it's up to Congress to get the ball rolling on new legislation. Gibbs said, "we've started a process on this," and if Congress can put together "a coalition to get the way forward, then it's something we'll work through."

Gibbs also had little to add on the Clinton-era "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding gays in the military, though he did say it is under discussion at the White House. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said this week that the White House asked him to postpone a hearing on Don't Ask, Don't Tell until after the president's address.

The president also plans to discuss new bio-terrorism response plans, as Oval colleague Mimi Hall reports.

And the administration's call for a domestic spending freeze will get a lot of attention, and probably some criticism from allies.

As for tone, expect the president to be "feisty" at times, Gibbs said. "I don't doubt that at times he's going to believe that while Washington may not want to make progress in certain ways that Washington has to be pushed to make that progress," he added, "whether that's health care reform or cutting our budget."

The president also has a purpose in this speech, Obama said.

"He looks at the State of the Union as a time in which to update the American people on what's been done and where we go from here, going forward," Gibbs said. "This is not about him; this is about what we have to do, going forward, for the American people."

(Posted by David Jackson)

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... -preview/1

The liberal lefties will not give up their agenda. They must please their voters, including the Unions, with their illegal alien members, and they want the millions of new voters that amnesty will give to the Democrats. Some progressive Republicans, like John McCain, and Lindsey Graham will probably go along.

Psalm 91

I agree GP. I figured Obama would mention this in the State of the Union, and as the above article notes, we'll have to keep the pressure on Congress.

With Obama now saying that he wants to help the middle class, then obviously, logically, he should drop his plans for CIR amnesty. We'll have to point out his hypocrisy.

GeorgiaPeach wrote:
"

"GeorgiaPeach"]The liberal lefties will not give up their agenda. They must please their voters, including the Unions, with their illegal alien members, and they want the millions of new voters that amnesty will give to the Democrats. Some progressive Republicans, like John McCain, and Lindsey Graham will probably go along."

Reply:

I'm afraid there may be a whole raft of Republicans who will almost certainly go along as long as the legislation introduced into the Senate contains a Guest Worker Program backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, but missing from the ultra-left House version.

Those Republicans could include John Cornyn (TX), who may already be Charles Shumer's Republican counterpoint in drafting the Senate legislation, and his good ally in immigration-reform last time around, senior Republican policy maker Jon Kyl of Arizona. And if Cornyn backs CIR, Sen. Hutchison will follow: Texas business and agricultural interests are rabid for U.S./Mexico labor and business agreements. George Voinovitch (OH) is a socially liberal Roman Catholic Republican who has announed his retirement, so it's probable he will be a "Yes" vote. And socially liberal New England Republicans Collins and Snowe of Maine and retiring Republican Judd Gregg of New Hampshire may back it, too. These three Senators held out against committing themselves to vote "No" on CIR last time until the public outcry against it became simply deafening.

This talk of comprehensive immigration reform "energizing the economy" makes as much sense as anything else they have put forward that would supposedly energize the economy. How many times will people fall for the same nonsense?

"Yeah, right. That's what you said about the Stimulus Package, Cash for Clunkers, Government run Healthcare, etc...."

Of course immigration will energize the economy - of Mexico.

Texas2step, John Cornyn is another Republican to be included as you suggest. Will Kay Bailey Hutchison sign on to this? In her bid for Governor, would this benefit her, in her own mind?

Psalm 91

" He will renew his call for immigration reform, a volatile issue once considered a first-year priority but lately sent to the back burner. Obama is expected to prod Congress to craft a plan to tighten the border with Mexico, crack down on employers who exploit illegal workers and resolve the status of roughly 12 million people who live in the U.S. illegally" Civil war Is closer than you think.......

GeorgiaPeach wrote:
"Texas2step, John Cornyn is another Republican to be included as you suggest. Will Kay Bailey Hutchison sign on to this? In her bid for Governor, would this benefit her, in her own mind?"

GeorgiaPeach,

First, there are people who post regularly on this forum who are far more experienced with and knowledgeable about Texas politics than I. And, to her credit, Sen. Hutchison has been one of the few U.S. elected officials who has personally fought hard for increased security and for more Border Patrol agents along the U.S./Mexico border. She also has personally conducted tours of the border for the very few lawmakers whom she could persuade to personally visit there.

However, Caucasians are now a minority in Texas, the state where a local Board of Education evidently purposely brought the Pyler vs. Doe case with the express purpose of hopefully obtaining a ruling by the Supreme Court mandating that U.S. schools must educate illegal alien children at taxpayer expense. Texas and the Southwest obviously share much of their history and many of their cultural traditions with Mexico. The Rio Grande Valley is one of the largest agricultural regions growing fruits and vegetables perhaps in the world, and most of these crops (like Vidalia onions) have to be harvested by hand. Further, beside agriculture, nothing is more powerful in Texas than business interests, and it also is true that the strong pro-business climate here has helped prevent Texas from suffering from the current recession as have other parts of the country. And these business men want open borders with Mexico and Latin America, including a NAFTA highway corridor to move goods and services from ports along the Mexican west coast up through Texas and the rest of the United States to Canada; and increased legal ease in moving goods and people across the Mexican border specifically into California and Texas.

Hutchison wanted to vote for CIR the last time it was brought up if she could have found any way to get around the thousands and thousands of opposing calls, letters, emails, etc., which deluged her office 500-1 against the bill. I frankly don't know what she will do do this time. But I do know that every "population projection" about Texas she reads will show her that the majority of her near-future constituents, whether as Senator or Governor, will be Hispanic. Texas's large agricultural economy traditionally has depended heavily on Mexican labor, and now that dependence has been expanded to include construction, which continues to boom here. The Chamber of Commerce, which has a very strong base of support throughout Texas, badly wants another Guest Worker Program, and she will be under a lot of pressure from them in either capacity. I have seen some of her ads for Governor which do focus on illegal immigration, but I don't think anyone takes them very seriously - I think they're just considered "campaign talk". Under its state constitution, Texas has a very weak governor, and there may not be much she could do that Goveror that Perry has not - which has been to launch a strong state initiative to prosecute gang members, many of whom are illegal aliens, who commit crimes, and to repeatedly ask the federal government to put National Guard troops on the Texas border with Mexico. Almost every attempt at state anti-illegal immigrant/immigration legislation has been blocked in the Texas Legislature.

However, whatever either Hutchison or Cornyn wanted to do about CIR last time, they, like Chambliss and Isakson, finally bowed to the will of their consituents and voted "No". So let's all work toward making that happen again the next time a bill is brought up!

I'm sure those from Texas who disagree with what I've written will let you know.