Obama Economy Speech: GOP Vision for U.S. 'Not the America I Believe In'
Alex Wagner
White House Correspondent
Posted:
09/8/10
President Obama flew to Ohio on Wednesday to issue a sharp rebuke to the Republican Party, present several new measures aimed at boosting the economy, and to call for an end of Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.
Speaking at Cuyahoga Community College campus in Parma, a Cleveland suburb, the president took aim squarely at the GOP and specifically at Republican House leader John Boehner of Ohio, who had visited the state last month to criticize the White House economic strategy. Obama cited Boehner by name several times and called Republican prescriptions for the country, "not the America I know" and "not the America we believe in."
Obama proposed four major pieces of legislation focused on helping businesses and creating jobs: an increased and permanent tax credit for businesses conducting research and innovation in the U.S.; a business tax write-off for the full value of new equipment purchases through 2011; a six-year infrastructure plan to rebuild and repair American roads, runways and railroads; and a small business bill -- stalled in Congress by GOP leaders -- that would give tax breaks, and increase funding and lines of credit available to small businesses.
The president also firmly stated his belief that the Bush-era tax cuts, set to expire on Jan. 1, should be permanently extended for the middle class (that is, families making less than $250,000 a year) but revert to higher, 2001-era levels for wealthier Americans. For Democrats in Congress waiting to see whether a compromise -- such as extending the cuts for both middle class and higher-income Americans -- might be a possibility, the answer was clear.
Drawing a line in the sand between Democrats and Republicans, Obama noted that most of the new legislative ideas -- the details of which have been discussed in days and weeks prior to his speech -- were likely to be rejected by the GOP. "I recognize that most of the Republicans in Congress have said no to just about every policy I've proposed since taking office," he said. "And on some issues, I realize it's because there are genuine philosophical differences. But on issues like this one, the only reason they're holding this up is politics, pure and simple."
Painting the Republican Party as obstructionist and out-of-touch seemed to be as much a priority for the president as reaffirming a White House commitment to helping the economy. Indeed, the speech was one of the most partisan to date: Obama characterized Republicans as pandering to corporations, millionaires, special interests, and credit card and insurance companies. He asserted they did "not having a plan to govern" and praised the values that "we Democrats believe in."
In many ways, the speech reflected a White House that has gone on the offensive in the heightened political climate leading up to this year's midterm elections, a marked turn from the positive and bipartisan message upon which Obama rode into office. The president recalled the principles upon which America was founded -- "values of self-reliance and individual responsibility" and "a country that rewards hard work. A country built upon the promise of opportunity and upward mobility" -- and contrasted them with his characterization of the Republican attitude in Washington. "They're asking us to settle for a status quo of stagnant growth, eroding competitiveness, and a shrinking middle class."
If the battle lines were clearly outlined, the message was also memorable for the distinctly personal note that Obama struck. He recalled his own upbringing as the child of a single mother and the grandchild of a World War II veteran, and invoked the memory of the first lady's father, a city worker who stayed on the job "long after Multiple Sclerosis had made it impossible for him to walk without crutches." Turning around the American economy, as the president would have it, was fundamentally about reclaiming the American dream. Said Obama, "This country is greater than the sum of its parts -- America is not about the ambitions of any one individual, but the aspirations of an entire people and an entire nation."
Speaking at Cuyahoga Community College campus in Parma, a Cleveland suburb, the president took aim squarely at the GOP and specifically at Republican House leader John Boehner of Ohio, who had visited the state last month to criticize the White House economic strategy. Obama cited Boehner by name several times and called Republican prescriptions for the country, "not the America I know" and "not the America we believe in."
Obama proposed four major pieces of legislation focused on helping businesses and creating jobs: an increased and permanent tax credit for businesses conducting research and innovation in the U.S.; a business tax write-off for the full value of new equipment purchases through 2011; a six-year infrastructure plan to rebuild and repair American roads, runways and railroads; and a small business bill -- stalled in Congress by GOP leaders -- that would give tax breaks, and increase funding and lines of credit available to small businesses.
The president also firmly stated his belief that the Bush-era tax cuts, set to expire on Jan. 1, should be permanently extended for the middle class (that is, families making less than $250,000 a year) but revert to higher, 2001-era levels for wealthier Americans. For Democrats in Congress waiting to see whether a compromise -- such as extending the cuts for both middle class and higher-income Americans -- might be a possibility, the answer was clear.Drawing a line in the sand between Democrats and Republicans, Obama noted that most of the new legislative ideas -- the details of which have been discussed in days and weeks prior to his speech -- were likely to be rejected by the GOP. "I recognize that most of the Republicans in Congress have said no to just about every policy I've proposed since taking office," he said. "And on some issues, I realize it's because there are genuine philosophical differences. But on issues like this one, the only reason they're holding this up is politics, pure and simple."
Painting the Republican Party as obstructionist and out-of-touch seemed to be as much a priority for the president as reaffirming a White House commitment to helping the economy. Indeed, the speech was one of the most partisan to date: Obama characterized Republicans as pandering to corporations, millionaires, special interests, and credit card and insurance companies. He asserted they did "not having a plan to govern" and praised the values that "we Democrats believe in."
In many ways, the speech reflected a White House that has gone on the offensive in the heightened political climate leading up to this year's midterm elections, a marked turn from the positive and bipartisan message upon which Obama rode into office. The president recalled the principles upon which America was founded -- "values of self-reliance and individual responsibility" and "a country that rewards hard work. A country built upon the promise of opportunity and upward mobility" -- and contrasted them with his characterization of the Republican attitude in Washington. "They're asking us to settle for a status quo of stagnant growth, eroding competitiveness, and a shrinking middle class."
If the battle lines were clearly outlined, the message was also memorable for the distinctly personal note that Obama struck. He recalled his own upbringing as the child of a single mother and the grandchild of a World War II veteran, and invoked the memory of the first lady's father, a city worker who stayed on the job "long after Multiple Sclerosis had made it impossible for him to walk without crutches." Turning around the American economy, as the president would have it, was fundamentally about reclaiming the American dream. Said Obama, "This country is greater than the sum of its parts -- America is not about the ambitions of any one individual, but the aspirations of an entire people and an entire nation."