OBAMA TO RECAST AGENDA TO FOCUS ON JOBS, DEFICIT
27 enero 2010
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Published by Reuters-Yahoo! News
Washington (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will vow to create more jobs and tame budget deficits in an address to the American people on Wednesday that will recast his agenda after his worst political setback since taking office.
Obama's annual State of the Union speech to Congress at 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Thursday) follows the loss by his Democratic party of a pivotal U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts. His own poll numbers are down from once-lofty levels.
He will display a feistier side with ideas like slapping new curbs on Wall Street and offering tax credits to struggling middle-class families.
The speech will also reflect a starkly different political reality for Obama, who took office a year ago promising wholesale change in Washington but must now salvage a legislative agenda left in tatters by the Massachusetts loss.
Obama will aim to tap into public discontent while buying time to regroup. "The president's going to explain why he thinks the American people are angry and frustrated," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told ABC's "Good Morning America.
He must outline how efforts to overhaul the healthcare system can proceed. The reform faces possible failure now that Democrats no longer hold a "supermajority" of 60 votes in the Senate that would overcome Republican procedural hurdles.
"The big mystery to me is, what on earth does he say about healthcare?" said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Obama has sent mixed signals about whether he intends to try to salvage the sweeping legislation or seek a scaled-back bill.
Another priority, setting caps on carbon emissions to fight climate change which alongside healthcare dominated the domestic agenda last year, is expected to be pushed aside for now, though Obama will still discuss it in his speech.
This year, when congressional elections loom in November and many of Obama's Democratic allies fear losing their seats, he will emphasize job creation, fiscal restraint and tighter financial regulations.
Obama will highlight economic improvements and try to deflect criticism that the healthcare push shifted his focus. The economy was shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month when Obama took office but it has begun to slowly grow again, though unemployment remains high at 10 percent.
Deficit worries
Countering Republican criticism that he is a big spender, Obama is expected to propose a three-year freeze on many domestic spending programs and outline other measures to rein in the U.S. budget deficit.
The spending freeze will not be across the board. For example, education will see a 6.2 percent increase this year.
Obama will also call for the creation of a bipartisan panel to recommend how to rein in the deficit, which soared to $1.4 trillion in the 2009 fiscal year.
"The president has made it clear that he believes that we need a bipartisan process to help put the nation back on a fiscally sustainable path. He will have more to say about that tonight," said Kenneth Baer, spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The deficit is forecast at $1.35 trillion in 2010, near its highest levels as a percentage of gross domestic product since World War Two, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
In a symbolic gesture, Obama will also call for freezing salaries of senior White House officials and other political appointees for a savings of $4 million in fiscal 2011, according to a senior administration official.
White House aides have played down the idea of "rebooting" the Obama presidency, but experts said he needs to correct his course in order to help his party avoid crushing losses in November's congressional elections.
"It would be political malpractice not to adjust to changing circumstances," said William Galston, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton.
"I would expect the president to reboot, not by announcing a lot of new initiatives, but by focusing his agenda more sharply (on the economy)," he said.
After his speech, Obama will take his retooled message on the road. His first stop will be Tampa, Florida, on Thursday, where he will announce $8 billion in awards for high-speed rail projects, a plan which a White House official said would create or save tens of thousands of jobs.
The foreign policy portion of Obama's address is expected to be short and will focus on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
"He is not going to use this occasion to launch any new foreign policy initiatives," Galston said. "There are already so many out there in various stages of progress or nonprogress."
Washington (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will vow to create more jobs and tame budget deficits in an address to the American people on Wednesday that will recast his agenda after his worst political setback since taking office.
Obama's annual State of the Union speech to Congress at 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Thursday) follows the loss by his Democratic party of a pivotal U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts. His own poll numbers are down from once-lofty levels.
He will display a feistier side with ideas like slapping new curbs on Wall Street and offering tax credits to struggling middle-class families.
The speech will also reflect a starkly different political reality for Obama, who took office a year ago promising wholesale change in Washington but must now salvage a legislative agenda left in tatters by the Massachusetts loss.
Obama will aim to tap into public discontent while buying time to regroup. "The president's going to explain why he thinks the American people are angry and frustrated," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told ABC's "Good Morning America.
He must outline how efforts to overhaul the healthcare system can proceed. The reform faces possible failure now that Democrats no longer hold a "supermajority" of 60 votes in the Senate that would overcome Republican procedural hurdles.
"The big mystery to me is, what on earth does he say about healthcare?" said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Obama has sent mixed signals about whether he intends to try to salvage the sweeping legislation or seek a scaled-back bill.
Another priority, setting caps on carbon emissions to fight climate change which alongside healthcare dominated the domestic agenda last year, is expected to be pushed aside for now, though Obama will still discuss it in his speech.
This year, when congressional elections loom in November and many of Obama's Democratic allies fear losing their seats, he will emphasize job creation, fiscal restraint and tighter financial regulations.
Obama will highlight economic improvements and try to deflect criticism that the healthcare push shifted his focus. The economy was shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month when Obama took office but it has begun to slowly grow again, though unemployment remains high at 10 percent.
Deficit worries
Countering Republican criticism that he is a big spender, Obama is expected to propose a three-year freeze on many domestic spending programs and outline other measures to rein in the U.S. budget deficit.
The spending freeze will not be across the board. For example, education will see a 6.2 percent increase this year.
Obama will also call for the creation of a bipartisan panel to recommend how to rein in the deficit, which soared to $1.4 trillion in the 2009 fiscal year.
"The president has made it clear that he believes that we need a bipartisan process to help put the nation back on a fiscally sustainable path. He will have more to say about that tonight," said Kenneth Baer, spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The deficit is forecast at $1.35 trillion in 2010, near its highest levels as a percentage of gross domestic product since World War Two, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
In a symbolic gesture, Obama will also call for freezing salaries of senior White House officials and other political appointees for a savings of $4 million in fiscal 2011, according to a senior administration official.
White House aides have played down the idea of "rebooting" the Obama presidency, but experts said he needs to correct his course in order to help his party avoid crushing losses in November's congressional elections.
"It would be political malpractice not to adjust to changing circumstances," said William Galston, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton.
"I would expect the president to reboot, not by announcing a lot of new initiatives, but by focusing his agenda more sharply (on the economy)," he said.
After his speech, Obama will take his retooled message on the road. His first stop will be Tampa, Florida, on Thursday, where he will announce $8 billion in awards for high-speed rail projects, a plan which a White House official said would create or save tens of thousands of jobs.
The foreign policy portion of Obama's address is expected to be short and will focus on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
"He is not going to use this occasion to launch any new foreign policy initiatives," Galston said. "There are already so many out there in various stages of progress or nonprogress."
