President Obama speaks about the economy in the 2010 State of the Union Address. - Photo White House
President Barack Obama on Tuesday delivered a State of the Union, which addressed the nation on the focus of compromise; America is enduring greatness and the shared values of all lawmakers.
With Democrats and Republicans sitting among each other as described as “Date Night”, displayed a sign of bipartisan communion. Obama told the new Republican majority in the House, “We will move forward together or not at all.”
The President also laid out some concession of his own, like trade deals, a reworking of the tax code and a ban on earmarks he once balked. He also did not get tough on hot issues that may have ignited his GOP critics, topics like gun control and climate change.
Obama also embraced spending cuts that have been a recent priority of Republicans.
“I recognize that some in this chamber have already proposed deeper cuts, and I’m willing to eliminate what we can honestly afford to do without. But let’s make sure that we’re not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable,” Obama said.
There was also talk of new spending, including more stimulus-like infrastructure projects to put Americans back to work.
“I think talking about new government spending is to have missed the message that the voters sent on Nov. 2,” said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican.
Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who has become the unofficial Senate leader of the tea party movement said the speech should have been called “State of the Stimulus,” and the president should have acknowledged that the stimulus program failed.
“Two years after the President’s nearly trillion dollar government stimulus, unemployment has increased and remains high, families and businesses are still struggling and our national debt continues to skyrocket,” DeMint said.
According to The Harris Poll, a survey of 2,066 American adults, only 29% of Democrats state the country is doing well and in a positive state compared to 8% of the Republicans. When it comes to economic issues on creating new jobs, strong social security benefits and fair taxes, over 76% gave negative remarks. While there is civility in Washington with party leaders sitting next to one another, one thing the American public has in common is the stability of the economy despite the rise of the stock market.