WASHINGTON DC -- President Obama’s first State of the Union Address was marked with optimism amid economic turbulence, and political upheaval after his signature issue of health care reform hit the skids last week following the Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts.
“I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight,” Obama said, after speaking of the challenges the American people have faced in the last year.
It was the historic big stage before both houses of Congress and every branch of the federal government where Obama charted his course for the next year. The president issued a call for a new jobs bill focused on small businesses. It was the first new policy item out of the gate.
“I’m proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat,” Obama said.
In addition, he proposed a new tax credit for one million small businesses that hire workers or raise wages. He also wants to eliminate capital gains taxes on small business investment. The president praised the progress already made by the stimulus package.
“Economists on the left and the right say this bill has helped save jobs and avert disaster,” he said.
Obama later called for financial regulatory reform to protect the economy. He called on the Senate to pass matching reforms initiated in the House.
“If the bill that ends up on my desk does not meet the test of real reform,” said Obama, “I will send it back until we get it right.”
He wants a fee on the biggest banks, which he said contributed to the financial disaster that took shape in 2008. If those banks could afford big bonuses, he said “they could afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.”
The president made a strong push for finishing the job on health care reform, recently derailed by Republican Scott Brown’s special election to the senate seat held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
“I take my share of the blame for not explaining it (the policy) more clearly to the American people.” “I know that with all the lobbying and the horse trading, the process left Americans asking “what’s in it for me?” he said.
Reaction from both sides trickled into the NBC25 newsroom immediately following the speech. The following is a statement from United States Senator Debbie Stabenow.
”We in Michigan have benefited greatly from President Obama’s willingness to help the auto industry, to focus on Michigan as an advanced battery manufacturing leader and other clean energy manufacturing.”
“I am very pleased that he’s continued that focus in the speech this evening. The fact that he’s focused on small business, on the capital that they need to grow and expand and retain jobs and the focus on middle class families, because that’s what we’re all about in Michigan.”
Conservative groups pounced on the speech. NBC25 received this statement from the Tea Party Express, a group that does not consider itself a political party, but a grassroots political movement.
“Tonight was a night of hot air, delivered in a way too long speech that revisited pledges we've quite frankly heard from Barack Obama before. His comments in the State of the Union were similar in tone and substance to his comments made after he won the 2008 presidential election and during his inauguration.”
"But actions speak louder than words, and this administration violated its promise for increased transparency. Lobbyists were appointed by the president to positions he swore would never be filled by former lobbyists. Worst of all, we've seen out-of-control spending, and an unparalleled growth in the size and power of government.”
