*President Obama warned in his State of the Union address Tuesday that the nation’s middle class is at risk because of growing economic inequality, and argued that the government must do more to preserve the basic American dream.
In a speech that is likely to set the theme of his 2012 re-election bid, Obama said “the basic American promise” that hard work can allow one to own a home and support a family are at risk if the government doesn’t do more to balance the scale between the nation’s rich and poor.
“The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important,” Obama declared. “We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them.”
In his third such address to the Congress, Obama’s focus was not just on the future—as he laid out broad proposals to boost an “economy built to last, where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded.”
But in a message that was unmistakably aimed at voters in the upcoming presidential election, Obama reminded his audience that the nation’s economic troubles began long before he arrived at the White House, starting with the collapse of the nation’s leading banks in 2008 due to lax regulation and “bad behavior.”
“In the six months before I took office, we lost nearly four million jobs. And we lost another four million before our policies were in full effect,” Obama said.
But he argued that the country is turning around under his policies, pointing to 3 million jobs created in the last 22 months. In a sign that Obama will campaign against the Republican-led Congress as much as a his eventual GOP presidential rival, the president indicated he will take a hard stand against lawmakers determined to block his economic agenda.
“The state of our union is getting stronger, and we’ve come too far to turn back now,” Obama insisted. “As long as I’m president, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.”
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One word for his speech “awesome”; sadly they still won’t work with him. They want that house back and will stop at nothing to get it. Let’s just hope and pray people can wade through the bullshyt come November. Otherwise we are all doomed!
Loved it Loved it Loved it!! This man is AWESOME and so was his speech.I truly believe in what he is saying and he is right. I know that some of the stupid people in Congress will dismiss his words as self serving but I don’t care what they need to do is whtat he said work together to get this done! You better listen up Black America are you looking at the people that are trying to get him out of office? Willard Romney and his 6 mansion and his 20 million tax return that he only paid 15% in taxes!!!! Do we think for a minute that he will care about the working class or Black people period! If we do we are sadly mistaken. Newt the snoot sat in Congress for years and did not do a damn thing and now he wants back in PLEASE.We better wake up becuase I have not heard one thing that one of them has said that they can do to make this county better! They are only interested in making Obama a one term President that’s all! If you think is’s bad now let them get in
Yes, Obama gave another rousing, penetrating speech.
I don’t see what the excitement is about.
This is just another typical rousing Obama speech where he seems to hit all the right notes, making all types of promises and vowing to find a way around the gridlock created by the Republicans.
But just like Bush Katrina’s speech, nothing ever gets done.
Maybe we have to consider the possibility that Obama is actually on the Republicans payroll. Either that or he is some type of a Manchurian candidate. Because at the end of the day, no matter what he promises, their agenda is what seems to get fulfilled. Even if he attempts to do any of the things he promises, the Republicans will always have a hand in making it worthless through some type of compromise. It’s like the Republicans have some unknown control over Obama which prevents him from doing right by progressives but coming through for them. How else could one explain a Democratic president signing the NDA act into law?
Seriously folks, are you really going to trust a man to do the right thing after he signed off on something like the NDA act? Everything you heard last night is just campaign rhetoric, empty promises, pandering to the base. At the end of the day, it’s the same Obama. How long folks going to allow themselves to drink the Kool-Aid? The man is under some diabolic control that he is conscious or unconscious of. Could be money, could be mind control, could just be his DNA – pro Pentagon, pro Wall Street with no transformative bone in his body on either race or class.
All I’m saying is that all I have seen from Obama for four years is change we cannot believe in.
Until I see real change, and not just empty promises, I’m not going to get excited about anything that Obama says.
Reds, what do you seriously think he can do in 4 years with the hand he was dealt with? If you can come up with a better solution or a better person who can turn this country around in 4 years or less, please enlighten us…you are ALWAYS so quick to badger the President but PLEASE explain WTH he can do to turn this around to appease you? People are so quick to point out the problems but NEVER have a solution to solving it…I simply think he understands that the middle class carry the weight of this Country. The rich can afford it, the poor don’t have to pay so what gives…the best thing about Obama is that he wasn’t born with a gold spoon in his mouth…he had student loans and his wife worked a job so that means he can relate to us that are left holding the fucking bag!
It’s not our place to have solutions. That’s why we elect politicians. Don’t you recall, we blamed bush for everything INCLUDING the high gas prices..that we now have by the way.
The problem that many vocal supporters seem to not want to ask is to what extent Obama’s policies and politics have made things better or worse. I think many of you need to read some analysis from people other than Obama lovers and Obama haters and see that he has not done everything right. There are things HE did that caused some of these ongoing problems…such as..
His propensity to work against his party to curry favor with republicans…or conservative dems.
Remember, in an effort to reach out, the cost-saving/competition-creating measure (public option) wasn’t even seriously considered.
He hasn’t done everything wrong..nor right. But it is high time we stop falling in love with his speeches over and over and over again. This isn’t American Idol…it’s real life folks.
BTW, white people have long gotten student loans and work a job, does that mean that all white people can relate to us…just because?
Stephanie, why would you believe Obama’s promise for doing something now when it was always obvious to everyone what needed to be done from way back then? For example, he is only now calling for a rollback of tax breaks for American companies that outsource jobs overseas and proposed new tax cuts for manufacturers that build their products stateside.
Come on, that shyt been so obvious for years. You trying to tell me it’s just now that Obama realize that we need to do something about all the cheap manufactured goods flooding the market from China, or all the jobs Clinton and the Republicans sent overseas with NAFTA? It’s a no brainer. You fight that shyt by encouraging manufacturing jobs at home and tax the hell out of the stuff made overseas.
Take the foreclosure mess. Last night Obama says. “Millions of innocent Americans who’ve seen their home values decline. … That’s why I’m sending this Congress a plan that gives every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage, by refinancing at historically low interest rates. No more red tape. No more runaround from the banks. A small fee on the largest financial institutions will ensure that it won’t add to the deficit, and will give banks that were rescued by taxpayers a chance to repay a deficit of trust.”
That’s what everybody been criticizing Obama for the past three years for not doing. If he didn’t do anything then, when it was at its worst, why do you think he’s going to do anything now?
As Amy Goodman says, “the way President Obama sounded when he was running for president— but that when he became president, he surrounded himself by Wall Street, I mean, epitomized by Tim Geithner, a former Republican who changed so he could, you know, be the top economic czar for the Obama administration?”
Stephanie, don’t drink the Kool-Aide. Obama ultimately answers to the Republicans and Wall Street. They didn’t allow him then, and they won’t allow him now to do anything they don’t approve of.
Stephanie you have to realize that some see Obama as some Super Hero. Who had a perfect economy and America was on the brink of a Great Depression, when he took office. Obama tried to compromise and failed with Republicans who wanted him to be a 1 Term President. The Haters also don’t realize that Obama has decided to go around the Republican’s if they don’t want Ameica to succeed. Loved his speech BTW . Haha
RALPH NADER: Well, that’s the double standard that he’s such an expert at, Obama. He says one thing and does another. Where has he been for over three years? He’s had the Justice Department. There are existing laws that could prosecute and convict Wall Street crooks. He hasn’t sent more than one or two to jail. So, it is important to strengthen the corporate criminal laws through congressional legislation, but what has he done? This financial crimes unit, that’s like putting another label on a few doors in the Justice Department without a real expansion in the budget. …
But then, when he said to the American people, “no more bailouts, no more handouts, and no more cop-outs” — but that’s what’s been going on. And it’s going on today and it went on last year under his administration.
So, obviously, State of the Union speeches are full of rhetoric, they’re full of promises, but it’s good to measure them against the past performance of the Obama administration and what his promises were in 2008. They don’t really stand up very well. …
Well, the reason why this speech was so failing, especially in foreign and military policy, the reason why it was so failing is because Obama doesn’t have to worry about tens of millions of people who call themselves progressives or liberals, because they have signaled to him that they got nowhere to go. Well, I think if they believe they got nowhere to go, that they don’t want to vote for a third party or Green Party, they can at least, in April, May, June, hold his feet to the fire and present him with a set of progressive demands, in order to tell him that they do have a place to go: they can stay home. And that’s what hurt the Democrats in 2010. People can just stay home.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/25/he_says_one_thing_and_does
Yo…….”Obie GOT IT IN”!!!!!!!! That is …….ALL! Mofo’s have NEVVA liked it, when a Black out shines dey azz! And Our POTUS is surele no exception! His “whole package” FKs with them SO muuuuuuuch! The man “doesn’t walk ‘on water”?, but…has done moe than ANYone could’ve done, with the hand he was delt. Bout “9″ MAJOR muthafkn tragedies & issues ALL AT ONCE, “on DAY !!!!! AND!!???? a FKD UP Republican party, too racist,insecure & STUpid to do the right for the “country”, B/c “Obie” would get the credit of FIXING the shyt! Now….”that’s” some “spoiled/crybaby B.S.fuh yo aaaaaass!! And as “karma, justice & fate would have/make it?, these IGnants ….for 4 fkn yeeeears were so focused ‘on hate’en Obie, they didn’t even “come up with an alternative “thought,policy,view OR CANDIDATE!!!!, to mention or run in 2012! So….the shyt is SO sweet, ain’t it!? Fk ‘em,… TWICE!!! S.I.D.!! Ps……and anyone who continues to ‘look at the shyt as-sbackwards/STUpidly/through “racist eyes”?, is….”one of “them”! I said it, YES I diiiiiiiiiid! And…..Fk “them” too! Amen!??….AMEN! Chuuuuuuuch!