US President Barack Obama vowed to reverse a tide of economic inequality threatening the American dream on Tuesday, seeking to outflank Republicans and revive a second term blighted by self-inflicted wounds and partisan warfare.
In his annual State of the Union address, Obama promised to wield his executive powers in a “year of action” to lift up workers, improve education and clean the environment if his foes in the US Congress balked at more sweeping action.
“America does not stand still — and neither will I,” Obama said, talking past the lawmakers gathered in the US House of Representatives, directly to millions of television viewers.
Photo: Bloomberg
“Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled and too many still aren’t working at all,” he said.
“Our job is to reverse these trends,” Obama said, pounding out his points with a punchy, optimistic delivery, apparently keen to suggest that despite five grueling years he still has energy and purpose for his task.
While focusing squarely on a domestic audience, Obama strayed into foreign policy only briefly during the one hour, 16 minute speech, as his Cabinet and military brass looked on.
He vowed to support democracy in Ukraine, warned that al-Qaeda’s threat had evolved and yet again urged Congress to let him close the “war on terror” camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
However, he mostly mined a political seam that has proven rich in the past, billing himself as the champion of middle-class families fighting to overcome the worst recession since the Great Depression.
He opened on an upbeat note, saying that thanks to “five years of grit” by the American people, the US economy was finally poised for a “breakthrough.”
“The US is better positioned for the 21st century than any other nation on Earth,” Obama said, touting the lowest unemployment rate in five years and a rebounding housing market.
He said the “defining project of our generation is to restore” the promise of equality of opportunity for all US citizens.
He promised to use executive action to raise the minimum wage for federal workers on new contracts from US$7.25 to US$10.10 per hour and to create a new retirement savings “starter” scheme to help millions of Americans.
Obama called on corporate executives to pledge not to discriminate against long-term unemployed job seekers and to introduce new energy-efficient fuel standards for trucks, while working with cities and states to promote cleaner power.
However, Obama’s vows of action were likely to reach far fewer Americans than could be helped through legislation.
He called on lawmakers to “say yes, give America a raise,” but they appear unlikely to heed his call.
Such is the stranglehold Republicans have clamped on Congress that much of Obama’s second-term agenda is stillborn.
Obama’s subtext was reviving a presidency that seems to be racing toward early lame duck status after a disastrous year last year.
He also needs to shield allied lawmakers from being pulled down by his relative unpopularity — he has a 43-percent approval rating — and Democrats are in peril of losing the Senate in mid-term elections.
The president’s reputation was sullied by the disastrous rollout of his signature healthcare law, a government shutdown drama and perceived missteps abroad last year.
He admitted the Obamacare Web site needed fixing, but fiercely defended the principle of expanding coverage to almost all Americans, which Republicans have voted over 40 times to repeal.
In the official Republican response, congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers promised Americans an agenda that “empowers you, not the government.”
House Speaker John Boehner said Obama’s address showed the president is running on empty.
With power ebbing at home, second-term presidents often look for opportunity abroad.
However, with the US facing challenges from Syria to the South China Sea, there are few easy victories on offer for Obama.
He defended an interim nuclear deal with Iran, which has many skeptics in Congress, as the best way to resolve a top security challenge “without the risks of war.”
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