Obama speech promises reforms

FACING a divided Congress and a dissatisfied nation, US President Barack Obama aimed at getting the US economy and his own presidency back on track in his first State of the Union policy speech last night.

Mr Obama’s address to Congress was underpinned by two themes — reassuring millions of Americans that he understands their struggles and convincing people that he is working to change Washington even as he finds himself working within its old political ways.

The address had enormous stakes for Obama. He rode a tide of voter frustration into office and now is getting its backlash.

Obama offered fresh details about how he wants to help businesses hire again and how he hopes to salvage an overhaul of the healthcare system.

The agenda sounded familiar. Obama says he will not retreat from the big issues he campaigned on and tried to get done in his first year, when political momentum was strong. He will push for healthcare reform, regulation of Wall Street, energy and immigration reform, and a global fight against terrorists.

Obama also prodded Congress to enact new jobs legislation, seek a freeze on some domestic spending for three years and try to blunt the impact of a Supreme Court decision that gives corporations much more freedom to influence elections through political advertising.

Meanwhile, his White House is still feeling the jolt of last week’s special Senate election in Massachusetts. When little-known Republican Scott Brown won the seat held for nearly a half-century by the late Democrat Edward Kennedy the result was widely viewed as a symbol of frustration with the economy and the government.

So Obama is trying to more sharply cast his messages to address people’s daily concerns. That starts with creating more jobs at a time of 10% unemployment but extends to the other topics he addressed, including the government’s ongoing habit of spending more money than it has.

Then again, Obama already has been trying to couch his initiatives in real-life terms.

In his first address to Congress 11 months ago, a speech too early in his tenure to be considered a State of the Union address, Obama talked of people living with the economic anxiety of sleepless nights, bills they could not pay and jobs they lost.

“It’s an agenda that begins with jobs,” Obama said that night in February. It still is, but in a much tougher political environment for him and his party.