Entering the arena: President Obama prepares to enter the House
chamber to deliver the 2013 State of the Union address.
Infused with New
Confidence, Obama Takes No Prisoners (Corriere Del
Ticino, Switzerland)
"His
re-election for a second term has infused Barack Obama with confidence. In less
than four years, the president leaves the White House. He could from now on
adopt the gait of a lame duck. After all, he never has to win the consent of
the voters again. ... But his agenda is ambitious, and Obama will defend it
with the air of one who has decided to attack and is able to look beyond the politics
of the moment."
No longer with humble voice and outstretched hand, and in
search of an impossible compromise with his opponents, as it was in his first State
of the Union address in 2009. His re-election for a second term has infused Barack
Obama with confidence. In less than four years, the president leaves the White
House. He could from now on adopt the gait of a lame duck. After all, he never has
to win the consent of the voters again.
But his agenda is ambitious, and Obama will defend it with
the air of one who has decided to attack and is able to look beyond the politics
of the moment. But doesn't this discount any chance of compromise with a Republican
majority in the House of Representatives? It doesn't matter, reasons the president.
First come reforms at any cost, advocated warmly and fought with the vigor and
determination of a man who doesn't conceal having an extraordinary objective: to
say goodbye to the presidency, but pass into the annals of history - like
Lincoln.
This was clear last night, when Obama delivered his annual
speech on the State of the Union to a joint session of Congress - his first as
a re-elected president. The economy, nuclear weapons, gun control and
immigration reform: these are the themes that were the cornerstones of the
president's pitch. And there were three critical economic points.
The need to stimulate the labor market and avoid the
negative impact of automatic cuts in federal spending (defined as the "sequester"),
which will come into force on March 1st in the absence of Congressional action.
Save public money, but don't strike at the beating heart of the economy, namely
the middle class, which was the topical workhorse of the last presidential
election. And furthermore, after overcoming the "fiscal cliff," the
umpteenth bid to raise taxes on higher income earners.
Not easy proposals, but Obama has been able to frame them in
the context of a recovering economy, with slight a improvement in the housing market
and of other economic indicators, and in spite of an unemployment rate that shows
little sign of dropping much below 8 percent.
There was news, too, on the military and strategic front. Dramatically
reduce the nuclear arsenal, with a cut of over a third of U.S. warheads. Obama
is convinced that with the steep cuts he is proposing, America could save a lot
of money without compromising the nation's security.
The president has two weapons of persuasion for reaching an
informal agreement with Vladimir Putin: a common framework for cuts, thus
bypassing the need for Congressional ratification; and secondly, convincing Putin
that in the field of armaments, the legacy of the Cold War should no longer
carry weight.
After all, the challenges of the 21st century are called
North Korea and Iran. The first announced just yesterday that it has carried
out its third nuclear test, and the second is developing the technology to build
a bomb. To cope with these dangers, the White House doesn't think it makes
sense to maintain resources for a so-called first strike against an opponent,
such as Russia, which has a destructive capacity equal to that of the United
States.
As for gun control, after the mass killings of children that
have taken place in American schools, the issue is more timely and delicate
than ever. The challenge here is complicated. It is a matter of defending the validity
of the Second Amendment, which gives every American the right to obtain arms, while
simultaneously battling the opposition of those who are against any regulation
whatsoever, as many Democrats are, and in particular, the National Rifle
Association, which encompasses all of those who make, sell and buy weapons in
the United States.
Here, too, Obama intends to be shrewd, and in order to win
the support of Congress, he hasn't hesitated to circumvent the powerful gun
lobby, gaining the support of Wal-Mart and other large weapons retailers.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Finally, there is immigration reform. In 2011, "illegal
aliens," that is, immigrants hiding in the shadows, reached the figure of
11.5 million. They are offered an arduous path to full citizenship, but even on
this issue, Obama has demonstrated that he knows how to pull the right levers and
close the sale. The Republican Party says it is open to immigration reform,
especially to redress the demographic unbalance that cost them so badly in the
last election, when 70 percent of Hispanics voted for Obama. But the GOP
demands some guaranties.
On this, Obama doesn't skimp: stricter controls at the
border, fines for companies that hire undocumented workers, and requiring all
illegal immigrants to pay back taxes for the time they have worked in the United
States. And that isn't all. Obama, in order to sell his reform, will use an incontestable
weapon: the legalization of undocumented immigrants will raise the nation's GDP
by 0.8% per year over the next decade.
