WASHINGTON DC -- US President Barack Obama Tuesday vowed to build a economy that is just from "top to bottom" in which the rich pay a fair share, as he sketched a populist vision to underpin his reelection campaign.
"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by," Obama said in his State of the Union address 10 months before seeking a second term.
"Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules," he said.
The president, speaking firmly and at times in a defiant tone, said the "defining issue" of our time was how to safeguard the basic "American promise" that hard work could lead to a decent lifestyle.
He mounted a staunch defense of his efforts to revive the economy, which will form the central clash of the presidential election, as Republicans argue he delayed the recovery by wasting stimulus funds and piling up debt.
He said he had created more than three million jobs in less than two years, saved the US auto industry and said American manufacturing, the engine of the economy, was rising again.
"The state of our union is getting stronger, and we've come too far to turn back now," Obama said, delivering a sharp warning to Republicans expected to block almost all of the jobs and recovery plans contained in his speech.
"As long as I'm president, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum," said Obama, staring into the ranks of lawmakers packed into the House of Representatives for the showpiece speech.
"But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place," he said to loud cheers from Democrats.
Obama stayed mostly on domestic issues, as expected in an election year, but did refer to several foreign crises -- and touched on the darkening clouds of the nuclear showdown with Iran.
"Let there be no doubt. America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal," he said.
"But a peaceful resolution of this issue is still possible, and far better, and if Iran changes course, and meets its obligations, it can rejoin the community of nations."
And Obama hailed the killing of Osama bin Laden last year by a US special forces team in a daring raid into Pakistan and his promise kept to end the Iraq war as election year proof of his credentials as commander-in-chief.
Among a sheaf of job creation and economic measures, Obama demanded millionaires pay at least 30 percent tax, tapping into public anger at low rates paid by many millionaires, including his possible Republican general election rival Mitt Romney.
The president also pledged to keep up pressure on China over intellectual property piracy and promised to new measures to combat fraud in the finance industry and the mortgage sector.
But the president's tone on taxes set up an immediate clash with Republicans, given his demand for higher taxes for the wealthy.
"Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that does the same," Obama said before millions of television viewers in a speech punctured by multiple standing ovations.
"It’s time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: no bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts. An America built to last insists on responsibility from everybody."
Obama's vision ran into immediate criticism from his Republican foes, including those who seek to consign him to the ignominy of a one-term presidency in November's election.
In a new advertisement, Romney, who earlier said Obama's State of the Union must be his last, compared the hope whipped up by the president in 2008 to his actual job performance.
"Three years ago, we measured candidate Obama by his hopeful promises and his slogans. Today President Obama has amassed an actual record of debt, decline and disappointment," Romney said.
And Mitch Daniels, the Indiana governor chosen to give the official Republican response to Obama's address, accused the president of adopting divisive election year tactics.
"No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels said, according to excerpts of his speech.
"If we fail to shift to a pro-jobs, pro-growth economic policy, there will never be enough public revenue to pay for our safety net, national security, or whatever size government we decide to have."
source: interaksyon.com
