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.
A person familiar with Obama's address said he will announce that 34,000 U.S. troops will be home from Afghanistan one year from Tuesday. That's about half the U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan. The decision marks the next phase in Obama's plans to end the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The person provided the information on condition of anonymity to discuss the drawdown before the announcement.
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.
Taking message on the road
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.
Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio will deliver his party's response to President Barack Obama's state of the union address. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press) 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 is 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 eight 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.
Newtown shooting to play heavily in gun control push
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 Second Amendment guarantee of the right to bear arms.
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