In address to Congress, Obama likely to focus on economy, guns, immigration | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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In address to Congress, Obama likely to focus on economy, guns, immigration

FILE – In this Jan. 24, 2012, file photo President Barack Obama reaches out to shake hands after giving his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. Obama will center his upcoming Feb. 12, 2013, State of the Union address on boosting job creation and economic growth, underscoring the degree to which the shaky economy threatens his ability to pursue other second-term priorities, including immigration reform and climate change. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday night on the condition of the United States will likely focus on cajoling recalcitrant lawmakers into bending to his second-term agenda on such issues as immigration reform, reducing gun violence and increasing taxes.

The annual State of the Union speech, which is closely monitored as the presidential blueprint for his goals for the year, is expected to push again for the ambitious progressive plans Obama outlined in his second inaugural address just three weeks ago. The president's priorities also include easing back on spending cuts and addressing climate change.

Aware of the continuing partisan gridlock gripping Washington, Obama is banking on his popularity and the political capital from his convincing re-election victory in November to call on Americans to join him in persuading opposition lawmakers to stop stonewalling his vision for what he calls a fairer America with greater opportunity for all.

With Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and exerting influence in the Senate, Obama intends to employ all the tools at his disposal in an effort to win over the public to put pressure on Congress.

To that end, Obama plans immediately afterward to make a two-day, three-state to North Carolina, Georgia and his home state of Illinois to take his message directly to the American people. Congress fought the president to a near standstill on virtually every White House initiative during his first term — though he succeeded in overhauling the health care system. In his second term, Obama has decided that he may stand a better chance of moving his agenda through Congress by garnering support from outside the capital rather than from within.

Massive federal spending cuts that will hit the U.S. economy on March 1 if a compromise isn't hammered out with Congress will surely colour Obama's speech like nothing else. Some economists predict those cuts, known as the sequester, could push the United States back into recession even before it has fully recovered from the Great Recession — the most serious economic downturn in more than 70 years.

The cuts will slice deeply into spending for the Pentagon and a range of social programs. Obama has indicated some readiness to compromise. For example, he has said he would curb some spending on the Medicare health insurance program available to Americans at age 65, but he is pressing Republicans to give ground on taxes. Obama says he wants "a balanced approach" to tackling the spiraling deficit with a mix of increased tax revenues and cuts in spending.

The opposition declares it will not give ground on raising taxes. Speaker of the House John Boehner insists that revamping the tax code to close loopholes that benefit the wealthiest Americans and the corporate sector are not open for consideration.

"He's gotten all the revenue he's going to get," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said Monday. "Been there, done that."

And while the sequester, which grew out of a failure to reach a deal in 2011, was conceived as a budget bludgeon unacceptable to both parties, some Republicans now are threatening to let it go forward if Obama does not agree to big cuts in the so-called social safety net programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, which provides health care and other assistance to the elderly and poor, as well as Social Security retirement benefits.

Obama also was expected to refocus on creating jobs in a country where the unemployment rate remains at nearly 8 per cent. He failed to address the issue in any depth in his inaugural address, leaving his political opponents an opening to criticize the re-elected president for ignoring an issue of over-riding importance. He is likely to push an economic blueprint that embraces manufacturing, energy development and education.

Obama also is deeply invested in pushing for new laws aimed at curbing gun violence. Spurred by the mass shooting in December at a Connecticut elementary school that killed 20 children and six adults, Obama and like-minded Democrats are pushing for tougher regulations requiring universal background checks for gun buyers and bans on military-style assault weapons and high-volume ammunition magazines. He will no doubt return to the issue Tuesday night and again in his travels over the next two days in the face of angry opposition from the National Rifle Association gun right lobbying group, many Republicans and even some moderate Democrats who claim any change in gun laws would violate the Constitution's 2nd Amendment guarantee of the right to bear arms.

To underscore the president's position, first lady Michelle Obama will sit with the parents of a Chicago teenager shot and killed just days after she performed at the president's inauguration. Twenty-two House members have invited people affected by gun violence, according to Democratic Rep. Jim Langevin, who pushed the effort. And Republican Rep. Steve Stockman says he's invited rocker Ted Nugent, a long-time gun control opponent who last year said he would end up "dead or in jail" if Obama won re-election.

Another presidential priority — and possibly the most likely to succeed in getting passed by Congress — is granting illegal residents a pathway to citizenship as part of an overhaul immigration reform. The initiative is deeply unpopular in many House Republicans' districts. But it has the support of some prominent Republican lawmakers who understand that their party needs to soften its stance on immigration if it is to win crucial Hispanic votes.

The Democratic and Republican plans differ on when and how citizenship might occur, with border security a central issue. Resolving these differences may determine whether a major law is enacted in the coming months.

Obama will instead face continuing opposition to any proposal he puts forward in an effort to curb climate change. Given that any major climate bill is unlikely to pass the divided Congress, the White House has said Obama intends to move forward on issuing rules to control carbon emissions from power plants as a central part of a second-term effort to slow down climate change, which the president rarely talked about after global-warming legislation failed in his first term. Obama is expected to rely increasingly on his executive authority to achieve whatever progress he makes on climate change.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a fast-rising Republican star, was picked by the party's mainstream leadership to give its traditional response immediately after Obama speaks. That's an honour typically reserved for the party's most impressive rising figures. The first-term Cuban-American senator has been touted as a potential 2016 presidential candidate. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul of the Republicans' tea party wing, a loose amalgam of lawmakers determined above all else to shrink government and lower taxes, plans to give an unofficial response.

News from © The Associated Press, 2013
The Associated Press

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