During his 2008 campaign, one of Barack Obama’s standard stump speech lines was that he wanted to “turn the page.” At the time, the line was meant to tie into his broader message of change — promising to move the nation on from partisan politics and the wars of the Bush era to a post-partisan paradise. In Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech, Obama returned to the metaphor, this time essentially declaring “mission accomplished.”
Obama opened his speech by saying, “We are fifteen years into this new century. Fifteen years that dawned with terror touching our shores; that unfolded with a new generation fighting two long and costly wars; that saw a vicious recession spread across our nation and the world. It has been, and still is, a hard time for many. But tonight, we turn the page.”
He went on to proclaim, “The shadow of crisis has passed.”
Listening to Obama speak, it was as if the Islamic State didn’t control large stretches of territory, that the U.S. weren’t still involved in Iraq, the Taliban didn’t have a strong presence in Afghanistan and the terrorist threat was no longer a concern.
On one hand, Obama talked about how great the economy was doing as a result of his policies, but on the other, he asserted that Americans could not accept an “economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well” — as if wage stagnation evidently has nothing to do with his policies.
Obama’s attempt to return to the 2008 campaign mode was also exhibited by how he promised to deliver generous benefits without a discussion of the tradeoffs involved.
He pushed “a bold new plan to lower the cost of community college — to zero” that would actually cost taxpayers $80 billion over the next decade. He spoke about increasing infrastructure spending, boosting child care subsidies and increasing student aid. There was less talk of his plan to raise $320 billion by raising taxes on investments, retirement savings, and college savings plans.
Obama proposed mandating paid leave, saying, “We’re the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers.” But this neglects basic economics. Because employers are mainly concerned with their total cost of compensation, businesses would simply respond to such a policy by reducing workers’ salaries. In effect, the proposal would be a mandate on individuals to accept more of their compensation in the form of sick leave as opposed to cash wages.
It was a fitting tribute to the contrast between the promise of his campaign rhetoric and the reality of his presidency that toward the end of his speech, Obama called for “debates worthy of this body and worthy of this country.”
Shortly after, Obama said, “I have no more campaigns to run” and Republicans cheered. Obama snidely shot back, “I know because I won both of them.”
Maybe he wasn’t quite ready to turn the page after all.
