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Politico...
Obama State of
the Union speech: ‘No bailouts, no handouts and no cop-outs’
By Jennifer Epstein
1/25/12
President Barack Obama called economic fairness “the defining issue of
our time” in his State of the Union address Tuesday, casting himself as
a defender of middle-class Americans and setting the agenda for his
reelection campaign.
“It’s time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no
handouts and no cop-outs. An America built to last insists on
responsibility from everybody,” Obama told a joint session of Congress.
“Let’s never forget: Millions of Americans who work hard and play by
the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that
does the same.”
The election-year address gave Obama a high-profile platform to counter
the GOP presidential candidates who have been pummeling him, virtually
unanswered, for months. That included defending his support of Warren
Buffett’s proposal that his secretary should not be taxed at a higher
rate than he is.
“You can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire
to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would
call that common sense,” Obama said.
After touting accomplishments such as the end of the war in Iraq, the
killing of Osama bin Laden and the successful restructuring of General
Motors, Obama shifted to his main message, picking up the economic
inequality themes first sketched out in his Teddy Roosevelt-channeling
speech in Osawatomie, Kan., last month: an economy in which each
American “gets a fair shot, does their fair share and plays by the same
set of rules.”
The president stood before a sharply divided Congress and asserted that
he “will work with anyone in this chamber” to improve the economy, but
he won’t stand for gridlock.
“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,” he warned.
“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,” he
said. “Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot and
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.”
Obama’s proposals fall into four major areas: manufacturing, skills,
energy and values.
He introduced incentives aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing,
including ending tax deductions for companies that outsource jobs and
creating new tax credits for companies that shift jobs onto U.S. soil
from overseas. He also proposed a global minimum tax, which would tax
American companies at a consistent rate on profits earned overseas.
In the interest of what he characterized as fairness for all Americans,
Obama called for an end to government subsidies and tax deductions for
Americans making $1 million annually, while reiterating his pledge not
to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000. “Send me these
tax reforms and I will sign them right away,” he said.
Obama reiterated his call for Wall Street to play by the same rules to
which other Americans must abide, announcing the creation of a new
Mortgage Crisis Unit to be headed by New York Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman, who was one of the first lady’s guests at the speech. The
unit will investigate mortgage misconduct and illegal activities. He
also announced the creation of a Financial Crimes Unit that enables
U.S. attorneys to pursue large-scale financial fraud, and called on
Congress to approve tougher penalties for fraud so that companies no
longer see fines as simply a cost of doing business.
Obama in recent months has derided a “do-nothing” Congress, launching a
series of modest “We Can’t Wait” initiatives that he has enacted alone.
He also infuriated Republican lawmakers by ramming through the recess
appointments of Richard Cordray — who was another of the first lady’s
guests for the speech — to lead the nation’s new consumer watchdog
agency and three new members of the National Labor Relations Board.
In response, he called for a ban on “insider trading” by members of
Congress, up or down votes on presidential nominations within 90 days
and other efforts to “lower the temperature” of partisan divide in
Washington.
To strengthen the U.S. workforce, Obama called for a consolidation of
job training programs. “It’s time to turn our unemployment system into
a reemployment system that puts people to work,” he said.
Building a better workforce begins with primary and secondary
education, and Obama wants to incentivize teachers to do a good job and
to give schools flexibility. He called on states to require that all
students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18.
He called on Congress to keep interest rates on student loans from
doubling, and extend the tax credit for middle-class families paying to
put their children through college. While the Obama administration has
made efforts to expand federal financial aid programs, colleges must
also do their part, Obama said, and keep costs down. “Let me put
colleges and universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from
going up...
Read the rest of the story at Politico
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