Obama goes big

In his jobs speech to Congress tonight, Obama, as they say, "went big." Last week, rumors were that he was going to ask for a $300 billion jobs package. Today, it was leaked that he was "going big," quoting one of his economic adivsors as saying, "If you're not going to do something real, don't do anything." And progressive criticism has been that he didn't in the past go for a big enough stimulus.

So, tonight, Obama gave a speech that had fire and grit and some of the rhetorical cadence of his campaign speeches. I thought it was terrific. Democrats in the House chamber thought so too, as their enthusiastic applause and cheering indicated.

He began by saying the everything he was proposing had been supported by both Democrats and Republicans in the past. And it will be paid for. So you should pass it right away. That last line became a chorus that he repeated six or eight times in the speech: "you should pass it right now." Adding near the end, "You should pass it, and I intend to take that message to every corner of this country." And then he called on the American people to lend your voice, let Congress know, make us pass it.

He did not mention the amount in his speech, but aides have released the figure of $447 billion, more than half ($250 billion) will be for tax cuts for small businesses, the ones most likely to create new jobs with enough incentive. It will also extend the payroll tax cuts for another year, as well as unemployment insurance and infrastructure programs that add jobs -- but only for projects that are already approved: "No more earmarks. No more boondoggles. No more bridges to nowhere," he said in the speech.

Some memorable lines:

"While they’re adding teachers in places like South Korea, we’re laying them off in droves. It’s unfair to our kids. It undermines their future and ours. And it has to stop."

Quoting Warren Buffet that he pays a lower income tax rate than his secretary, Obama said, "And he has asked us to change it." Later he said, about asking the wealthy to pay more: "This isn’t class warfare. This is simple math. These are real choices we have to make." There were some boos from the Republican side.

On regulatory reform, he acknowledged that some regulations did need to be reduced, but he rejected the notion that we had to trade off the health, safety, and welfare of the American people; so he intends to keep regulations that meet the test of those standards. And he added:
"I reject the idea that we have to strip away collective bargaining rights to compete in a global economy."

As he moved to conclude, he said:

"I know there’s been a lot of skepticism about whether the politics of the moment will allow us to pass this jobs plan – or any jobs plan. Already . . . the media has proclaimed that it’s impossible to bridge our differences. And maybe some of you have decided that those differences are so great that we can only resolve them at the ballot box.

But know this: the next election is fourteen months away. And the people who sent us here – the people who hired us to work for them -- they don’t have the luxury of waiting fourteen months. Some of them are living week to week; paycheck to paycheck; even day to day. They need help, and they need it now."

It was after this that he said he would take that message to every corner of this country.

Good speech, excellent deliver: impassioned, forceful, and crisp.

Ralph