Obama: 'I will not walk away from these Americans'

SEE ALSO: Austintown bar patrons grade president’s speech

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, staking a new commitment to fiscal restraint while renewing his bid for an overhaul of the nation’s health care system, called on Americans Wednesday to repair “a deficit of trust.”

The president, addressing the nation and a joint session of Congress in his first State of the Union address, suggested that the nation’s budget deficit is not the only problem confronting Americans.

“We have to recognize that we face more than a deficit of dollars right now,” the president planned to say, according to prepared remarks released by the White House. “We face a deficit of trust — deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years.”

With this address, in the aftermath of a special election in Massachusetts that cost his party a super-majority and thus real control of the Senate, the president was attempting a delicate political pivot.

“Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it’s time for something new,” the president planned to say. “Let’s try common sense.”

After a first year in office focused on a $787 billion economic stimulus act, recession recovery and pursuit of a health care overhaul that could cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years, the president now is touting fiscal restraint.

The president — who plans to for a three-year freeze in discretionary spending apart from national security in the 2011 budget that he proposes on Monday — also is creating his own budget commission to examine spending and taxes in the aftermath of the Senate’s rejection this week of bipartisan commission.

With national unemployment running at 10 percent, the president also is proposing new initiatives to help the middle class, with additional aid for college loans and additional tax credits for children.

And he is promoting new tax cuts for small businesses as well as breaks for all businesses that the White House says should result in a 10 percent reduction in taxes that corporations pay this year and next.

Obama, who last year called on Congress to pass health-care legislation, issued a new call for health-care reform without adding any specific direction that leaders might heed.

“By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance,” Obama said. “I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should the people in this chamber.”

Obama reaffirmed his commitment to the fight against terrorism. He addressed the wars in Afghanistan, which he is escalating, and Iraq, where he is scaling back, and the challenge of containing the nuclear ambitions of Iran.

And the president, reiterating a promise made before, said he would call on military leaders to finally find a way to repeal a policy of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” for gays and lesbians serving in the armed forces.

In the midst of continuing controversy over bonuses that bailed-out Wall Street investment companies have awarded, Obama is pressing for new federal regulation over banks aimed at averting another credit crisis like the one that prompted a federal rescue of failing banks last year.

But he attempted to strike an optimistic tone about the prospects for recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression.

“I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight,” Obama said.

“Despite our hardships, our union is strong. We do not give up. We do not quit.”

The political environment surrounding this address was fraught with challenges. Obama, who promised to “change the way things work in Washington,” faces a Congress sharply divided since his party’s loss of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts this month.

“We face big and difficult challenges,” Obama said.

“And what the American people hope — what they deserve — is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences, to overcome the numbing weight of our politics.”

The formal Republican response to the address comes from Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, whose election victory last year was part of a GOP sweep that continued in Massachusetts this year.

“The president’s partial freeze on discretionary spending is a laudable step, but a small one,” McDonnell said.

“The circumstances of our time demand that we reconsider and restore the proper, limited role of government at every level.”

Reactions || Valley, Ohio politicians

Ohio politicians react to President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address, delivered Wednesday:

U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson of St. Clairsville, D-6th, “The President talked directly to the American people about restoring security for middle- class families. This past year we brought the economy back from the brink of a depression. Now, President Obama has outlined his vision to rebuild our economy... [Wednesday night] the President called on Congress to pass a jobs bill to jumpstart private-sector job creation with investments in small businesses, energy, and infrastructure. I look forward to working with my colleagues to come up with a common sense bill that achieves those goals.”

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th’s communications director was ill and Ryan’s office didn’t issue a statement.

Republican U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, “The American people are speaking loud and clear: they want their government to work together in a bipartisan fashion to solve the problems, meet the challenges, and take advantage of the opportunities our nation has before it. I look forward to hearing how the president plans to bring Republican members to the table – not just to ask for our votes, but to sit down and discuss what we can agree on and how to move forward.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, “President Obama reaffirmed to the American people [Wednesday night] that he is fighting for the middle class. His speech draws a clear contrast to the previous administration’s eight years of economic policies that saw wages fall, jobs shipped overseas, and left our economy on the brink of collapse. This happened because the fox was guarding the chicken coops – from Wall Street to K Street.”

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland: “President Obama laid out a robust job-creating agenda to help middle-class families. The economic meltdown can be traced to Wall Street, but it continues to devastate everyday Americans across the country and here in Ohio. That’s why I am encouraged by the President’s call for a new jobs bill that will build on the progress spurred from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and jumpstart private sector growth and investments in small businesses, energy, and infrastructure.”

Source: Statements from respective elected officials.