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By Edward Luce in Washington
Published: February 25 2009 05:22 | Last updated: February 25 2009 05:22
In the build up to Barack Obama’s congressional address on Tuesday night, the White House put it about that the speech would convey optimism about America’s future – be Reaganesque even. Mr. Obama certainly fulfilled that element. “We will rebuild,” he said. “We will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
But the speech was a great deal more Reaganesque than a mere expression of optimism. The key fact about Ronald Reagan was that he changed the paradigm of American politics. “The era of big government is over,” Mr. Reagan said. Promising boldness and declaring that the “day of reckoning” had arrived following years of growing indebtedness and irresponsibility, Mr. Obama said that the “time to take charge of our future” had arrived.
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| ©Lee Woods, Trail Marker / Acrylic on canvas |
“I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves; that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity,” said Mr. Obama. “We cannot consign our nation to an open-ended recession….. Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – not only to revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity.”
Where Mr Obama’s inaugural address last month was at times poetic and often bleak, Tuesday night’s performance packed a strong oratorical punch behind a relentlessly pragmatic message. Many Republicans, among them Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, who gave the opposition’s official response, will punch back over the next few days against the higher taxes on the wealthy and the strong role Mr Obama envisaged for the federal government.
But as the one-hour speech progressed and the virtuosity of Mr. Obama’s performance unfolded, the Republican caucus gradually began to join with the Democratic standing ovations. At first the opposition show of support was reluctant. But at some moments, such as when Mr.Obama promised to tackle the mounting public debt, and even when proclaiming that healthcare reform could wait no longer, the Republicans merged quickly with the applauding majority.
On a practical level the speech aimed to balance three intuitively contradictory headline goals: first, the need for economic stimulus and a financial sector bail-out to restore the economy to growth; second, the need to invest in longer-term projects to lift America’s growth rate, and third to combine these with a plan to restore fiscal discipline and honest accounting to America’s fiscal process.
Judged as a speech that set out a leadership stall and a plan of action to go with it, the ratings are likely to be high. Whether in practice Mr. Obama’s audacious sets of plans – and the attached paradigm shift towards an unapologetic role for government in the economy – actually succeeds is another matter. Part of the answer may come in reaction to the ten-year headline budget that Mr. Obama’s White House will unveil on Thursday.
But the most serious near-term test will come within a few weeks when Mr. Obama returns to Congress to ask for more money to bail out the financial system, as he hinted strongly in his speech he would. Mr. Obama did not use the word “nationalisation”. But he came very close.
“When we learn that a major bank has serious problems, we will hold accountable those responsible, force the necessary adjustments, provide the support to clean up their balance sheets, and assure the continuity of a strong, viable institution…,” he said.
Likewise Mr. Obama did everything but request more funds to stabilize the financial system, saying that the federal government would need “probably more than we’ve already set aside”. He added: “While the cost of action will be great, I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater. And I refuse to let that happen.”
Shortly after the election, Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama’s chief of staff, said that the Obama administration would not let a serious economic crisis go to waste. On Tuesday night Mr. Obama revealed the full meaning of that sentiment with an audacious programme of action that took in reform to education, energy, healthcare and the financial system. Whether the bulk of Mr. Obama’s programme sees the light of day or not, history will record that it at least started on a convincing note.
SOURCES:
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Foto: "Trail Marker" from Lee Woods // Acrylic on canvas
http://www.leewoods.com/originals.html
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