Obama Takes Crack At GOP For Not Applauding Tax Cuts (VIDEO)

President Barack Obama started his State of the Union address Wednesday night by going after the low-hanging political fruit: declaring the bailout of the banks to be as popular as a root canal, urging a tax on Wall Street institutions, and touting the tax breaks his administration provided to working families.

For this effort he got applause from just one half of the bicameral gathering of Congress.

The Republican lawmakers in attendance sat on their hands while the president discussed policy provisions that, ostensibly, are very much in their philosophical wheelhouse. When Republicans didn't even applaud on behalf of his tax cuts, Obama pointed to the GOP side of the chamber and expressed surprise: "I thought I'd get some applause on that one," he said.

So, apparently, did others. A Democratic strategist quite pleased with the chilly Republican reception emailed the Huffington Post the following: "Footage of every Republican sitting when Obama talked about bank tax is going straight into every 2010 ad."

WATCH:

HERE IS THE RELEVANT PORTION OF OBAMA'S SPEECH:

Our most urgent task upon taking office was to shore up the same banks that helped cause this crisis. It was not easy to do. And if there's one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans, it's that we all hated the bank bailout. I hated it. You hated it. It was about as popular as a root canal.

But when I ran for President, I promised I wouldn't just do what was popular -- I would do what was necessary. And if we had allowed the meltdown of the financial system, unemployment might be double what it is today. More businesses would certainly have closed. More homes would have surely been lost.

So I supported the last administration's efforts to create the financial rescue program. And when we took the program over, we made it more transparent and accountable. As a result, the markets are now stabilized, and we have recovered most of the money we spent on the banks.

To recover the rest, I have proposed a fee on the biggest banks. I know Wall Street isn't keen on this idea, but if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again, they can afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.

As we stabilized the financial system, we also took steps to get our economy growing again, save as many jobs as possible, and help Americans who had become unemployed.
That's why we extended or increased unemployment benefits for more than 18 million Americans; made health insurance 65% cheaper for families who get their coverage through COBRA; and passed 25 different tax cuts.

Let me repeat: we cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95% of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college. As a result, millions of Americans had more to spend on gas, and food, and other necessities, all of which helped businesses keep more workers. And we haven't raised income taxes by a single dime on a single person. Not a single dime.

Comments

[JasonTromm]

01:50 PM on 03/08/2010

One-time tax credit != tax cut

Unless you're cutting my tax rate, you haven't cut my taxes at all.

[Bronxdude]

01:13 PM on 01/29/2010

The average American refuses to accept that republicans are at war with the working-class, which is why they support the status quo and vehemently oppose healthcare reform, public education, government oversight, minimum wage hikes, worker rights, access to higher education, middleclass tax relief, and, in general, any legislation that would jeopardize the continuation of a credit-dependent, employer exploited, unhealthy, downtrodden, politically marginalized, underpaid, debt-laden, undereducated and permanent class of laborers. Similar to exploited sharecroppers, it’s in the best interest of republicans to keep the working-class hopeless, oppressed, misinformed and undereducated. Republicans staunchly supported the Wall Street bailout to protect their own assets, but opposed the automobile industry bailout, which employs thousands of middleclass Americans. The republican aristocracy opposes any kind of governmental oversight that will interfere with their pursuit of exploitive capitalism, which is why they want to abolish the EPA and FDA and the Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Interior, and Education. Anything that protects the worker must go. Just like feudal lords, the Republican Nation requires a formidable army to protect their financial interests, which is why they defend unrestrained military spending. The Iraq War will cost $2.6 trillion over 10 years, while health insurance for every American for the same time period would cost $1 trillion. Republican fear mongers want to keep America angrily divided by class and race. Universal health insurance would provide hope and elevate the standard of living for working-class Americans, something republicans vehemently oppose

[Bronxdude]

01:12 PM on 01/29/2010

Treasonous republicans grandstand in front of their Birther and Teabag constituents about not wanting stimulus money, and then secretly grab the money, while simultaneously deriding the Obama stimulus package. Hypocrites! While only being in office for six months, two-faced republicans complain that President Obama has failed to fix the mess it took Bush and self-serving republicans 8 years to create. Lying republicans and the morally corrupt insurance and drug companies that bankroll them do not want the public option or any type of healthcare reform. Republicans could care less about consumer protection rights or anything that would reduce profits for big business. In stark contrast to the monopolistic charade now being perpetrated by republicans and their corporate whores, the public option would create real competition, control costs, and keep parasitic health insurers like UnitedHealthcare honest. The health insurance industry and their bankrolled republican whores are the ones breaking America, not President Obama – the only one trying to fix the financial chaos left behind by Bush. Generational debt paid for WWII, Vietnam, social security, Medicare and the $900 billion Prescription Drug Bill republicans fast-tracked through Congress, which benefited Big Pharma, not working-class Americans. Fact: The top 1% control more wealth than the bottom 95% combined. Money = power; power = political control; political control dictates everything.

[Tom Joad]

01:02 PM on 01/29/2010

FoxxNoos will excerpt this headline:

"Obama takes Crack, GOP Applauds Tax Cuts"

[littlenorma]

09:17 AM on 01/29/2010

Ok here is the plan.

Phase 1 Have a state of union address where we let the american people know
that the republicans have become the party of no. / completed

Phase 2 Look for signs of change within the republican party. If ther are no changes
then start putting names to the faces of the pary of no. semi-completed

Phase 3 Start looking at every race that there is a republican looking to un-seat
a dem and do all we can to keep the dem in office.

Follow this plan and we should see some results.

[blizb]

08:51 AM on 01/29/2010

The GOP ever since Reagan has supported "tax cuts for the rich" and the "trickle down" economic theory which has been proven not to work.

Bush and the GOP policies they supported like deregulation and lack of enforcing rules eventually crashed the economy and Bush came up with the bailout plan before leaving office in an attempt to save his legacy.

Bush supported big corporations with tax cuts and those corporations did not reinvest in America or provide jobs. Instead they took the tax cuts and shipped jobs overseas or downsized collecting the job savings as huge profits for the top executives.

Now that efforts are being made to reverse course and provide relief in stimulus and tax cuts for Main Street the GOP is even showing bad sportsmanship by not applauding the efforts made for their own constituents.

The GOP is the party of big business and always has been.

The GOP only wants to be elected to go back to "business as usual" which will only hurt America.

The GOP wants to continue supporting Big Business, Big Insurance, Big Banks, and their own political campaigns.

[austinro]

11:50 PM on 01/28/2010

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism

[audit]

10:25 PM on 01/28/2010

What tax cuts did Obama sign?

[Non Sibi]

12:35 AM on 01/29/2010

You really should have been paying attention this past year.

[SkyTalker]

10:00 PM on 01/28/2010

A smart democrat running for re-election in a conservative district could take a collection of video shots from last night, and campaign successfully against the party of no. I am sure the same republicans we saw last night will be touting the tax cuts they refused to acknowledge as their campaign promise.

[Dosadi]

05:25 PM on 01/28/2010

Some whites will never follow a black man as their leader. This is something this country claims to have gotten past but evidently we haven't. The anger we see is sometimes about political issues (which are basically propaganda) but too often we see racists being given a national platform to spill their filthy rhetoric.

[Nekowolf]

07:23 AM on 01/29/2010

Okay, honestly? I think it's far more ideological than racial. It is becoming the Republican's ideology to absolutely stall and defeat anything Democrat/liberal/they are just generally against. I think it could've been a white Democrat president doing all this, and they still would have tried just as hard to do everything they can to stop it.

[greeneye31]

05:10 PM on 01/28/2010

At First I thought Obama's cooperation comments were good,
but then I am sure that it will NEVER EVER work.
We have a failed system!!!
Dems just go for what YOU and WE want!!!

[LeFlaneur]

04:34 PM on 01/28/2010

How much more clear can they make it for him? Bipartisanship is a joke. It doesn't matter if he does everything they want, they'll still hate him.

[sweetwhine]

07:36 PM on 01/28/2010

That's not the point.
The more Obama reaches out to the Republicans the worst the Republicans look. I say it's working out very well.

[Elyriaohio]

06:38 AM on 01/29/2010

Give 'em enough rope to hang themselves.

[Schmaltzy the Golem]

03:16 PM on 01/28/2010

Sore loser Repubs did the same thing with Clinton. They think they have a right to the Presidency,and react with mindless and destructive obstructionism every time they loose that power.

[RetiredArmy04]

04:53 PM on 01/28/2010

Lol November will be a good month. Lets see what the majority of Americans think. I bet the Democrats lose a whole lot of seats and it surely won't be the Republicans fault. Why do you people think a party should vote for something they don't believe in. If your democrats in congress had stuck together like the Republicans do on issues you would have gotten your Health care abomination of a bill passed without the Republicans vote.

[Schmaltzy the Golem]

05:43 PM on 01/28/2010

Republicans stick together on the wrong issues,which is why they don't own the Presidency,and won't anything else for a long,long time.November will be a good month,for Democrats.

[Nekowolf]

07:25 AM on 01/29/2010

And if the Democrats take more seats? What you gonna say then?

[JasonTromm]

03:05 PM on 01/28/2010

If Obama has cut my taxes at all, I haven't seen the extra money in my paycheck.

[Elk Hunter 1]

03:31 PM on 01/28/2010

My taxes went up about 300 a year, from FICA and Federal. Now I'm gonna have to pay more for a health care plan too, and im going to loose money in my 401k because Obama wants to punish the banks. It's a joke.

[sym09250]

03:52 PM on 01/28/2010

You left out a bunch of details regarding your financial status there Elk Hunter!!!!

[sym09250]

03:56 PM on 01/28/2010

Your 401K was a result of the financial meltdown resulting from the devastating deregulation and tax cuts during the last 8 years..or don't you want to know the facts????

[RetiredArmy04]

04:47 PM on 01/28/2010

I have seen a rise in my taxes also at about 400.00 for the year.

[Andman0121]

05:14 PM on 01/28/2010

$400 over 12 months = a whopping +$33 a month

yowza you poor guy

[sugarfree]

03:01 PM on 01/28/2010

As i watch the speech, i am looking at the Dems, and Repubs, you know these people are in it for the money, they don't care about us.
President Obama can talk until he get blue in the face and these people will never work together, they want power and are too Greedy.
Unless we get a (3) party to vote into office, we are stuck with these guys who should "RETIRE" to day. Harry Reed look like it was well pass his bed time, and Nancy P. was bouncing around like a "pea" in hot water.
The Republicans look like the "MOFFIA" ready for war, and been in Washington to long.
I am tried of voting for these people who fight more than little "KIDS" as if the voters belong to them.