DAILY SUN
FEBRUARY 17, 2013
M.
Serajul Islam
President
Obama gave his fourth State of Union address last Tuesday, his first of his
second term. With the elections out of the way, the President’s address was a
more confident one. The Constitution does not
require the President to make a personal appearance in Capital Hill to
address a joint session of the US Congress. It merely mandates that the
President must “from time to time give to Congress information of the State of
the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient.”
President
George Washington performed this constitutional obligation through annual
appearance in the Congress. His successors instead sent written statements to
the Congress till 1913 when President Woodrow Wilson re-established personal
appearance in the Capital Hill to address both Houses of the Congress for his
State of the Union Address. These days, the
State of the Union address is watched by a large number of Americans; 40
million of them watched his Tuesday’s address live on TV. The address is what
its very name suggests; it allows Americans to know the health of the country;
the problems facing it and the way the President as head of the executive
branch of the government, intends to tackle the problems. It is also a mechanism through which the
President encourages the Congress to legislate to fulfill his agenda.
In
this year’s address, President Obama underlined this necessity of cooperation
between the executive and the legislature at a time when the need of such
cooperation was brought home to every American with the fiscal cliff hanger
that the country faced just after his re-election; a crisis that has only been
avoided when the White House and Congress reached a temporary compromise early
in the year with a lasting agreement yet to be negotiated between the White
House and the Congress. He used a historical reference from President John
Kennedy’s State of the Union address 41
years ago to underline the importance of such cooperation. In that address, President Kennedy had reminded
the legislators “that the constitution makes us not rival for powers but
partners for progress….it is my task to report the State of the Union- to improve
it is the task of all.” A confident President Obama who won re-election in the
end easily after the media made it look like he was in danger of losing, made a
strong case before the Congress and the nation and left the ball to move the
country forward in the court of the legislators.
The
economy was the President central theme upon which he built his address. He
informed the nation that if he receives the “partnership” of the Congress, he
could lead the country back on rails with the economy that he said was showing
very positive signs of recovering from its worst recession for many decades. In
fact, he articulated the achievements of his first term in economic recovery in
the second paragraph of his speech. He said “after years of grueling recession,
our businesses have created 6 million jobs. We buy more American cars than in
last 5 years and less foreign oil than in last twenty. Our housing market is
healing, our stock market is rebounding and consumers, patients and homeowners
enjoy stronger protection than ever before.”
The
President not just underscored that America is stronger than when he assumed
power, he also made it abundantly clear that he would be making the American
middle class the major focus of his second administration. He stated clearly
that while corporate earnings have reached an all time high, the minimum wages
have not kept pace with it. He therefore announced a raise in minimum wages to
US$ 9 an hour. He also addressed the crucial agenda of fiscal deficit. He said
that his first administration has been able to work with Congress and reduce
the deficit by S$ 2.5 trillion “mostly by spending cuts but also by raising
taxes on the wealthiest 1% of the Americans.” He underscored that the US$ 4
trillion that the economists have said is essential for the economy to
stabilize would need bipartisan support of the Congress to his administration
and warned that unless that support is forthcoming, US 1 trillion cuts in
federal spending would automatically take effect that could “devastate priorities
in education, energy and medical research.”
The
President also spoke on manufacturing, Medicare, immigration and now the most
emotive issues of American politics, gun control. All these issues except gun
control are ones with which the President had gone to the electorate and won
their endorsement. The gun control issue became a national one with renewed
emphasis after the shooting at Newtown, Connecticut on December 14th
, where a young man gunned down 26; mostly school children in the elementary
classes that touched the soul of most Americans expect the cold hearts of the
gun lovers, the gun industry and the National Rifles Association (NRA). On gun
control, the President strongly sought variety of new legislation aimed
specifically at “military style assault weapons.” The President called upon the
Congress for swift action on immigration reform that went down with the
country’s large immigration population and ever growing whose influence in US’s
politics was quite evidently underscored in the last Presidential election.
The
President spoke on foreign affairs with significant emphasis devoting full 15
paragraphs of the subject. He said 34,000 combat troops will return home from
Afghanistan to bring to an end USA’s longest ever overseas war. He assured that
the end of the war would not mean end of US involvement in Afghanistan where
America would remain engaged in “training and equipping Afghans so that the
country does not slip into chaos and counterterrorism efforts that allow us to
pursue the remnants of Al Qaeda and their affiliates.” He also spoke on drones;
on Iran where he underscored the need for diplomacy; on containment of North
Korea; and trade agreement with Europe. Unfortunately, his emphasis on foreign
affairs did not give Middle East and the need to jumpstart the Palestine peace
process the importance that many outside the United States expected. The
underlying theme of his foreign policy references was that the United States
would not be willing anymore to fight someone else’s war abroad.
Florida’s
Senator of Cuban origin and the rising star in the party and a potential
Presidential candidate for 2016 Marco Rubio who gave the Republican response to
the President’s address criticized it on well known party lines. He said that
the President’s agenda will end in more government spending that will enhance
the federal deficit that in turn will push the country into continued
recession. He tried to answer the charge against the Republican that it is a
party of the wealthy by referring to his own humble back ground and accused the
President for having an obsession “for raising taxes.” The Senator’s rebuttal
was weakest when he said the way to deal with violence is not through weakening
the “rights of law abiding Americans” given by the Second Amendment when speaking on
the President’s emphasis on gun control but failed to give his Party’s details
on how to respond to tragedies such as the one in Newtown. Whatever the Senator
said was eventually made irrelevant by his “first truly embarrassing gaffe of
his national career” when he turned to a bottle of water to deal with a case of
dry mouth.
The
President will now take his national agenda to the people in the same way he
led his successful re-election bid by touring the country over the next few weeks.
America is now on strong rebound. Hence, the President is expected to receive
the same positive response as he did while on election trail that in turn is
likely to help him in putting pressure on the Congress on a host of issues on the economy, governments spending and cuts , healthcare
and immigration. Early indications after the President State of the Union
address are that he would have a more comfortable and successful second term
with the Congress than he did in his first.
The
writer is a retired career Ambassador and Chairman, Centre for Foreign Affairs
Studies
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