Obama invokes 'fairness' in State of Union speech
WASHINGTON — Calling it “the defining issue of our time,” President Barack Obama last night urged that America keep alive the promise from the past of an economic system “where everyone gets a fair shot” and “everyone plays by the same set of rules.”
Delivering his third State of the Union address against the backdrop of what is expected to be a divisive presidential election, Obama told lawmakers that he wants to “apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts and no copouts.”
“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,” Obama said. “Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone gets their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”
With his speech, Obama laid out his legislative agenda for the year. But he also attempted to frame the November election as a choice between economic fairness for the middle class or a system that he argued has allowed a small group of Americans to accumulate a greater share of the national wealth.
He peppered his speech with references to fairness, speaking of “a return to the American values of fair play and shared responsibility.” He said he would not permit a return “to the days when Wall Street was allowed to play by its own set of rules.” And he pledged to get tougher with foreign competitors, saying that “if the playing field is level, I promise you, America will always win.”
With the national unemployment rate hovering at 8.5 percent, Obama enters this election year with just 44 percent of American voters approving of his performance, according to a Gallup Poll released yesterday.
But at the same time, Americans harbor far greater disapproval of the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate, with a CBS News/ New York Times poll last week showing that just 13 percent of voters approve of the job Congress is doing.
In addition, Republicans are engaged in a divisive presidential primary between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia. Democrats are hopeful that if that bitter GOP campaign continues, it could boost Obama’s re-election chances.
Obama outlined a handful of proposals that he called on Congress to pass, including a one-year, $160?billion cut in the Social Security payroll tax for middle-income Americans. He called for assistance to small companies through fewer regulations and expanded tax relief.
And while he called for greater federal assistance to the development of clean energy, Obama said his administration “will take every possible action to safely develop” the exploration and drilling for natural gas.
He pointed out that “we have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years,” and “the development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper.”
The White House sprinkled the House chamber with none-too-subtle symbols of its plan to make economic fairness the theme of the president’s re-election campaign.
Obama noted the presence of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, who now heads the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying that “American consumers finally have a watchdog in Richard Cordray with one job: To look out for them.”
Next he referred to billionaire Warren Buffett’s assistant, a guest of first lady Michelle Obama. The president pointed out that under current U.S. tax laws, Buffett’s assistant pays a higher income tax rate than Buffett, who derives much of his income through investments that are taxed at the capital gains rate of 15 percent.
“Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households,” Obama said.
Obama said anyone making more than $1 million a year should pay at least 30 percent in taxes. “ Now you can call this class warfare all you want,” Obama said. “But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.”
Without mentioning his name, Obama also was clearly delivering a dig against Romney, a wealthy former private-equity executive who yesterday made public his 2010 tax returns, showing he paid 13.9 percent of his total income in taxes.
Obama contended that the U.S. economy is slowly recovering from the 2008 recession, saying that in the past 22 months, American companies have created more than 3 million jobs.
In particular, he cited the rebound of the Detroit automakers, pointing out that his administration in 2009 pushed for billions of dollars in government assistance to General Motors and Chrysler.
To help the president drive home that message, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, had as a special guest Elizabeth Williams, an autoworker at the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and a single mother of two.
Republicans seemed eager to accept the debate Obama outlined, arguing that voters prefer having the economy expand rather than worry about economic fairness.
They point out that the wealthiest individuals pay by far the largest share of all income taxes. Even paying at a rate less than 15?percent, Romney paid $6.2 million in taxes for 2010 and 2011.
In the Republican rebuttal, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said that “no feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others.”
Many Ohio lawmakers invited guests to the speech. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, brought Angela King, 26. The Galloway native, now a junior at Ohio State University, completed three tours with the Navy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, beginning in 2006.
Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, invited Army Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Gorsuch of Wauseon. Gorsuch has served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
Rep. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek invited Pickaway County Sheriff Dwight Radcliff, a Democrat who is the longest-serving sheriff in the United States. He’s been sheriff since 1965.
And Mrs. Obama also invited Dr. Hiroyuki Fujita, founder and president of Quality Electrodynamics in Cleveland.
