President Obama reaffirmed his economic philosophy in the State of the Union address -- a government that works, invests, delivers opportunity, and that we can believe in. It is a lean government, not a big government. It is not a problem, but a problem-solver. The approach that Obama laid out for infrastructure and clean energy investment is emblematic. I describe it in my book: Obama's Bank: Financing a Durable New Deal.
Rather than looking to 2012, the State of the Union Address returned to 2008, on the campaign trail in Janesville. In front of an audience of workers at the GM Plant, Obama first set out his economic philosophy. The GM plant would not survive to see his inauguration; however, the approach that Obama set forth in Janesville was the template for the State of the Union address. What Obama said in Janesville in 2008 is far more inspiring and durable than Paul Ryan's rebut tonight.
Importantly, the Janesville speech -- and the State of the Union -- start off by reminding us that our crisis has been decades in the making. In other words, our crisis did not emerge in the subprime mortgage market, and it will note be solved there. Instead, we have divested from our real economy for decades. In the meantime, our new competitors -- China, etc -- have invested in state-of-the art infrastructure. As a result, we risk loosing our competitive edge.
In other words, we do not have the state-of-the-art infrastructure that makes companies like GE see the US as an attractive place to do business. Enlisting Jeffrey Immelt in our recovery effort is valuable for exactly this reason -- he knows what it takes to insource jobs, repatriate the operations of American firms, draw money out of the TARP banks and into our real economy.
And, just as in Janesville, Obama explained how we can co-invest with the private sector to return the country to its prestige place. The State of the Union spoke of the types of co-investments that happened during the Cold War that produced the Internet. Forget about the controversial shovel ready projects, few would deny that Obama's examples tonight of entrepreneurs who benefited from a little federal help -- not a lot -- have excelled in the midst of the crisis. Certainly, this is the story of GE in Schenectady.
When it came to infrastructure investment, Obama too returned to Janesville. We have a long term deficit in the infrastructure field. Our bridges crumble. The American Society of Engineers awarding us a D. Obama once again explained how we have to bring private investment into US infrastructure to solve this problem. Government lends a hand, but only as honey to attract private sector money.
And, it's all about the importance of opportunity -- from the nod to Biden and Boehner and their uniquely American stories to the need to invest in infrastructure not only to make our powerhouse metropolitan regions even more competitive. But instead, to make sure that the off-ramps of the high speed rail and our highways that we build today become the on-ramps of vibrant cities and towns tomorrow. This was the benefit of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Eisenhower national road system, and the Internet. This is the essence of not only the Progressive Movement, but also America Dream
Mark Penn: State of the Union: Did Obama Win His Future?
Mitchell Bard: Paul Ryan's Fiction-Filled SOTU Response: Will America Buy It?
http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/17/news/economy/private_prisons_economic_impact.fortune/index.htm
http://bucknakedpolitics.typepad.com/buck_naked_politics/2007/12/privatizing-int.html
http://www.cic.nyu.edu/staff/docs/bah/sherman/sherman_pubcost.pdf
"The reality, as Mr. Obama understands, is that the country is headed for fiscal catastrophe unless it does some politically unpopular things: unwind the Bush tax cuts, including for the middle class; reduce projected Social Security benefits for future retirees, exempting the poor and disabled; rein in the cost of health care; limit popular income tax deductions. Mr. Obama knows this, but last night he did little to prepare Americans for any of it."
Failure to perceive the danger and provide competent strategy for remedial action compounds the crisis.
A national security crisis exists: the Federal government must fund the 50 states, or the total collapse and dissolution of the US will ensue. Can you imagine each state cutting its' own deal with the bankrupt private sector? A lunatic Confederacy is born!
Hyper-inflation and speculation is now in the food supply; Hunger, homelessness, foreclosures, bankruptcies, loss of health-care, unemployment, and contraction of production are still expanding, threatening the population as all out war.
Specific crisis economy formation measures must be implemented now, starting with the reenactment of the Glass-Steagall standard in US banking as the imperative, for the protection of the population, the defense of the nation.
Statecraft demands the termination of the usurious monetary system: Reenact Glass-Steagall in US banking, put the Fed into bankruptcy protection, recover the bailout trillions, banks that qualify will join the US National Bank. Then fund the necessary facilities that enhance our standard of living.
No other options exist.
The US citizenry must be given the mission to create the necessary higher order of existence humanity demands.
Don't pay any attention to the president's party affiliation; look at his actions. Our president is actually a repulican and his economic plan is to destroy the middle class.
You bought the pipe dream.
WHO Obama surrounds himself with shows where this WH's priorities are. His wonderful oratory and his excellent ideas (which I support strongly) stop having any REAL meaning when he does not take the physical action steps required to attempt to implement them with integrity.
At this point I focus almost entirely on the economic side of things, as I feel most everything else will flow from there. All of Obama's spoken agenda is in jeopardy if the economic situation we are in is not addressed intelligently. Obama has, in my opinion, already missed the primary chances he has had to make real change (bank regulation, healthcare, being the two biggest), he has given away the farm without a fight. The cake is already baked. Some aspects of what we are going to experience economically as a nation (the people, not the corps. - let's not confuse the two) are already totally assured. Timing may be a question, but some very ugly economic realities are already 'when's not 'if's. Obama has capitulated to entrenched power rather than risk his presidency and really take them on. And so the people will lose a lot, and the corps will consolidate power, and on this nation will march.......................further away from our potential.
So stupid it makes me want to pull my hair out. When on top of these realities I have to see Boehner crying it is truly more than my brain can handle and I have to go get myself on a trout river......
Kindly cut out the bullsh*t and bloviating. There is nothing 'uniquely American' about Biden and Boehner's stories. Tens of thousands of Europeans have risen from their poor beginnings in a similar manner, including my English husband, who made sandwiches after achool and on weekends to earn a few bob. (His mother took in a lodger to make ends meet.) He became a biochemist and founded a successful software company.
Or our friend who grew up without electricity or running water in his family's farmhouse in rural Ireland, and never saw a £10 note until he cashed his first army paycheque. He now owns a successful construction company in England.
Then there is old Henry in Glasgow, born in 1933, who grew up in one of Glasgow's worst slums, but attended Glasgow Uni and became a chartered engineer. (That's like a P.E. in the US.)
There is nothing uniquely American about opportunity and success.
Bright, ambitious people have had more opportunity over here for many years, with free uni education available. (Only recently did the Labour government impose their so-called 'top up' fees for uni education in England and Wales. Uni education is still free in Scotland.)
Uni is free in France, Ireland, and in most of the EU. These educated people begin their professional lives free of debt. Couple that with a lifetime of free healthcare. Now that is real opportunity.
So simple..............yet seemingly unattainable.