Guns, taxes, and immigration top Obama proposals

President Barack Obama set up high-stakes clashes with Republicans over guns, immigration, taxes, and climate change in a state of the union address that showcased his determination to mark his legacy.

Republican Paul Ryan said Obama could better achieve his goals if he would get out of “campaign mode”.

At the centre of looming confrontations in Washington is a fight over the very role of government, with Obama pushing a raft of new initiatives to improve pre-school programmes and voting, boost manufacturing, research, and development, raise the minimum wage, and lower energy use. “It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many and not just the few,” he said.

Republicans who control the House of Representatives and hold enough votes to stall legislation in the Senate were just as quick to declare that the government helps best by getting out of the way.

Ryan, the Republicans’ vice-presidential candidate last year, said Obama’s leadership style stands in the way of bipartisan efforts to resolve problems like the ballooning deficit. “He seems to always be in campaign mode, where he treats people in the other party as enemies rather than partners,” he said.

Ryan was asked if he supported House speaker John Boehner’s remark that he didn’t believe Obama “has the guts” to stand up to liberals in his own party on spending cuts. “That’s why the congressman makes remarks like that,” Ryan said of Boehner.

Ryan’s comments came just hours before Obama was to set off on a three-state trip to sell to voters the programmes he outlined in his address. Obama hit the road frequently in campaign-style trips in December to appeal directly to voters for the approach that he favoured, including new taxes, to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

Republican critics said the president should stay home and focus his attention on dealing directly with Congress on these issues.

In the formal Republican response to Obama’s address, Florida senator Marco Rubio said, “More government isn’t going to help you get ahead. It’s going to hold you back. More government isn’t going to create more opportunities. It’s going to limit them.”

“And more government isn’t going to inspire new ideas, new businesses and new private sector jobs. It’s going to create uncertainty.”

Uncompromising and aggressive, Obama pressed his agenda on social and economic issues, declaring himself determined to intervene to right income inequality and boost the middle class.

He called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for 11m illegal immigrants, far-reaching gun control measures, and a climate bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He threatened to go around Congress with executive actions on climate change if it fails to act.

But Obama cannot count on willing partners on those issues, any one of which could tie Congress in knots for months with no guarantee of success. Gun control, which Obama made a focus of his speech, faces dim prospects on Capitol Hill. The prospect for immigration legislation is better, but no sure thing. Climate change legislation is given no chance of success.

Obama briefly addressed looming fiscal crises including the deep automatic spending cuts or “sequester” to take effect on Mar 1, followed by the government running out of money to fund federal agencies on Mar 27.

He made clear he will continue to press for the rich to pay more in taxes, a position Republicans reject.

Republicans, meanwhile, made clear they’re in little mood to co-operate.

“We are only weeks away from the devastating consequences of the president’s sequester, and he failed to offer the cuts needed to replace it,” Boehner said.

“In the last election, voters chose divided government which offers a mandate only to work together to find common ground. The president, instead, appears to have chosen a go-it-alone approach to pursue his liberal agenda.”

Earlier, Boehner said immigration is about the only item on Obama’s list that has a chance of passing this year.

He said the president is more interested in getting a Democratic majority in both chambers next year.

Obama did reiterate his willingness to tackle entitlement changes, particularly on Medicare, though he has ruled out increasing the eligibility age for the popular benefit programme for seniors.

“Those of us who care deeply about programmes like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms — otherwise, our retirement programmes will crowd out the investments we need for our children and jeopardise the promise of a secure retirement for future generations,” he said.

“But we can’t ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and most powerful.”

On immigration, a bipartisan group of negotiators in the Senate is working to craft legislation embracing Obama’s call for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants but making such a path contingent on first securing the border, a linkage Obama has not supported.

But there’s no guarantee the Senate bipartisan plan will find favour with the full Senate or the House. The first test was to come when the Senate judiciary committee opened its hearings on a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

Deep fault lines emerged even before the hearing began, with a leading committee Republican Jeff Sessions calling Obama’s remarks on immigration “deeply troubling”.