| US President Barack Obama. AFP PHOTO |
WASHINGTON, D.C.: US President Barack Obama wants large tax hikes on millionaires to finance a fair economy for all, a populist vision aimed at convincing crisis-weary voters to give him a second White House term.
In his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning in Manila)—which, this year, served as a grand kick-off of his 2012 re-election campaign—Obama played on rising anger over inequality in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis.
“We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by,” Obama said.
“Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules,” he added, as part of a wide-ranging speech mainly focused on domestic policy priorities.
Obama kicked off the annual ritual—his best chance for months to directly reach millions of voters—by recalling two of his biggest achievements: killing al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and ending the nine-year war in Iraq.
Later, he touched on the deepening nuclear showdown with Iran, which has exposed him to charges of weakness from Republican White House hopefuls.
“Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal,” Obama said, earning a standing ovation in the House of Representatives.
“But a peaceful resolution of this issue is still possible, and far better,” he added.
The US president said that the “defining issue” of our time was how to safeguard the basic “American promise” that hard work could provide a decent living, defending his efforts to revive the economy, the central issue of the campaign.
Closing the gap
He proposed using the power of government to close the gap between the super-rich and the middle class, throwing down a gauntlet to Republicans who charge that he stifled the recovery with burdensome regulation.
Obama touted the creation of more than three million jobs in less than two years, said that he had saved the US auto industry and predicted American manufacturing—the engine of the economy—would rise again.
“The state of our union is getting stronger, and we’ve come too far to turn back now,” Obama said, delivering a sharp warning to Republicans, who are expected to block almost all of the jobs and recovery plans contained in his speech.
“I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place,” he added to loud cheers from Democrats and mostly icy silence from Republicans.
Obama held up the heroism of the Navy SEAL (Sea, Air and Land) team that killed bin Laden in a daring Pakistan raid last year as a metaphor for the way feuding US politicians should join together in the interest of national renewal.
“The mission only succeeded because every member of that unit trusted each other—because you can’t charge up those stairs, into darkness and danger, unless you know there is someone behind you, watching your back,” he said.
“So it is with America,” he added.
Among job creation and economic measures, Obama demanded millionaires pay at least 30 percent tax rates, tapping into public anger at low rates paid by the rich, including his possible Republican election foe Mitt Romney.
Romney also on Tuesday reported income of $21.7 million in 2010 from investments and an estimated $20.9 million in 2011—and in 2010 paid just over $3 million in taxes, or 13.9 percent.
The US president also pledged to keep up the pressure on China over intellectual property piracy and promised to new measures to combat fraud in the finance industry and the mortgage sector.
Speech savaged
Republicans expectedly savaged the speech.
In a new advertisement, Romney compared the hope whipped up by Obama in 2008 to his actual job performance.
“Three years ago, we measured candidate Obama by his hopeful promises and his slogans. Today, President Obama has amassed an actual record of debt, decline and disappointment,” Romney said.
Romney foe Newt Gingrich complained that Obama argued “that his big government is built to last and should be paid for with higher taxes.
“But bigger government and higher taxes will not lead to jobs and growth,” he said.
And Gov. Mitch Daniels of the US state of Indiana, who was chosen to give the official Republican response to Obama, accused the US president of adopting divisive election year tactics.
“No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others,” Daniels said.
Looking abroad, Obama hailed the demise of Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi—implicity rebutting Republican criticisms that he “led from behind” in the crisis—and warned Syria’s Bashar al-Assad that his regime’s days were numbered.
And he said that anyone who said that American power was in decline did not know what they were talking about, adding, “America remains the one indispensable nation in world affairs.”
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