- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
State of the Union calls for nation building, working together; Thompson praises speech
The president's annual State of the Union address laid out an ambitious set of goals to create jobs, stabilize the economy and rebuild the national spirit, and gained praised from Lake County's congressman.
President Barack Obama’s optimistic Tuesday night address to Congress and the nation called for all Americans to work together to keep the country moving forward.
“I thought it might have been one of the best State of the Union addresses that I’ve heard,” Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) told Lake County News afterward. “He said things tonight that every American knows and feels.”
Thompson said Obama outlined the country’s challenges, reminded Americans of how working together is what made America great and spoke to specifics here at home, including increasing manufacturing jobs.
The president also “had some pretty tough lines in here,” said Thompson, noting, “He was not bashful on calling Congress out.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer said the president laid out a blueprint “for building an economy that works for every American.”
Obama's “eloquent optimism,” said Boxer, “stands in marked contrast to the angry tone Americans have been hearing on the campaign trail from his opponents.”
In his 65-minute address Obama called for a number of measures to reinvigorate the economy, create jobs and rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
“There’s never been a better time to build,” he said.
Obama also promised to get rid of useless regulations, establish a financial fraud unit and wanted to stop a tax hike on 150 million Americans while the recovery is still fragile.
He urged Congress to make the tax code fairer to the lower and middle classes, noting that the country can’t keep taxes on the rich low while investing in important programs and paying down the debt.
Obama also called on Congress to address the “corrosive” power of money in politics by banning insider trading and preventing legislators from holding stocks in industries they impact.
He said the temperature in Washington needed to be lowered, and must be an end to the idea that Republicans and Democrats have to be locked in a campaign of perpetual destruction.
Obama said the country can continue making progress. “And I can do a whole lot more with your help,” he said, adding that when it’s people are working together, there is nothing the United States can’t achieve.
Anyone who says America’s influence has waned “doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” said Obama, explaining that America remains indispensable in world affairs.
Recalling the day Osama bin Laden was killed last year, Obama said in the situation room were people of all political affiliations, yet “all that mattered that day was the mission.”
He added, “No one thought about politics. No one thought about themselves.”
Obama said if the country maintained a common resolve it can continue moving forward, ending with the declaration that the state of the union remains strong.
Following the speech, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels delivered the Republican Party’s response, saying the “loyal opposition” saluted Obama for pursuing the murderers of Sept. 11 and addressing needed changes to public education.
But Daniels said that while Obama didn’t cause the nation’s economic crisis, he had failed to fix it, and argued that Obama’s policies had in fact made the situation worse.
The Republicans promoted a simpler tax code, ridding the nation of expensive new regulations and uniting to save and repair the “safety net” – Medicare and Social Security, Daniels said.
Daniels also said it wasn’t fair of Obama to accuse Republicans of creating obstacles in Congress, and accused Obama of “constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others.”
“As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat,” Daniels said. “If we drift, quarreling and paralyzed, over a Niagara of debt, we will all suffer, regardless of income, race, gender, or other category. If we fail to shift to a pro-jobs, pro-growth economic policy, there will never be enough public revenue to pay for our safety net, national security, or whatever size government we decide to have.”
Boxer said she welcomed Obama's call to action “for us to work together to strengthen the middle class, create clean energy jobs, help responsible homeowners stay in their homes, protect the environment from toxins such as mercury and rebuild America’s infrastructure.”
She added, “I will do everything I can to bridge the partisan divide and we can start right away by passing a bipartisan surface transportation bill that saves or creates millions of jobs.”
Thompson said Obama's call for rebuilding of infrastructure would provide jobs in Lake County.
The improvements needed on Highway 29 in Lake County alone could produce 900 jobs, he said, and the call for building a new economy based on energy outlines the importance of the county’s geothermal industry.
Thompson said it was important for Obama to discuss the mortgage crisis; if the nation doesn’t deal with it, it will take forever to get the economy back in shape.
Last week Thompson and Democratic members of the California Congressional Delegation sent Obama a letter asking him to immediately address the foreclosure crisis, as Lake County News has reported.
“This is not our first bite of the apple on the mortgage issue with the administration,” said Thompson.
In the address Obama had mentioned a plan to allow homeowners to refinance at current, lower interest rates, which Thompson said is the right thing to do and is estimated to put an additional $3,000 in qualifying homeowners' pockets each year.
Obama’s significant goals, such as tax code changes, will require Congress to work together, he said.
As for whether Obama can accomplish his goals in the deeply partisan atmosphere – and in the midst of an election year – Thompson said he’s the eternal optimist.
He said he’s going to continue to work as hard as he can to make sure some of the president’s goals can be accomplished.
Thompson said he hopes the address ultimately will mean more than just pomp and circumstance.
“The truth is, it’s up to all of us to make it happen,” he said.
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