Laundry-list speeches have one advantage in that they are bound to have something that almost anyone can applaud, although you'd hardly know it from the GOP congressional response tonight. How Republicans, who have been demanding one tax cut after another for the past 60 years, could sit on their hands while President Obama was talking about cutting capital gains taxes - capital gains! - is truly beyond comprehension. Well. Not really. To them bipartisanship still means "what we say when we say it."
When the time comes to restore those capital gains taxes, or to make the income tax system more progressive with additional brackets for people who make more than 90% of Americans, then you can expect to hear from them, loud and clear.
Full Text of the State of the Union
So tonight, I’m proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat. I am also proposing a new small business tax credit – one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment; and provide a tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment. ...
You see, Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse. Meanwhile, China’s not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany’s not waiting. India’s not waiting. These nations aren’t standing still. These nations aren’t playing for second place. They’re putting more emphasis on math and science. They’re rebuilding their infrastructure. They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs.
Well I do not accept second-place for the United States of America. As hard as it may be, as uncomfortable and contentious as the debates may be, it’s time to get serious about fixing the problems that are hampering our growth.
One investment in the future that the President mentioned tonight, and will be speaking about in detail Thursday in Tampa, is the high-speed rail effort. Sadly, the Tampa to Orlando route will take a big chunk of the pitiful $8 billion that Congress has appropriated. A noted earlier today, a far more visionary plan is what's needed in this realm, with 25 times the federal investment and triple that, at least, in state and private investment. But it is what it is for the moment and the President's announcement of the grants for 13 high-speed rail corridors is excellent news.
And it ties into the President's line about America not being in "second place." But while his talk about making trade policy more fair was good to hear, missing was any focus on a desperately needed industrial policy. He spoke adamantly about getting the Senate to get cracking on putting job legislation on his desk along the lines of the $155 billion bill the House passed in December. That's a needed push, too. But missing was any plan for the direct creation of jobs through a modernized Civilian Conservation Corps or Works Progress Administration. With 8 million jobs lost in the past two years - not 7 million - and many more people working part-time or dealing with mandated furloughs, the current jobs bill will not be enough to make more than a dent, and it will not produce results soon enough.
Putting recovered TARP funds into local and regional banks was one of the best ideas laid out by the President - one of those things that doesn't take any of those hand-sitting Republicans to approve. The question that immediately comes to mind is whether there will be requirements that the money - all of it - be lent out quickly so that job-generating private-sector projects can get under way.
Most crucially missing was any mention of aid to the states - which expect to see $350 billion in revenue shortfalls over the next 18 months. That could be the largest job killer of 2010 and 2011.