4:31 PM PT: Okay, we're back to jobs, and off of deficits. Now he's talking about things the administration can do without Congressional action: reducing regulations ("red tape") on startups and providing help for underwater homeowners.
4:32 PM PT: Next up: free trade. President Obama wants South Koreans to drive Fords. F-350s, perhaps?
4:35 PM PT: President Obama frames the GOP point of view as:
Some of you sincerely believe that the only solution to our economic challenges is to simply cut most government spending and eliminate most government regulations.
Republicans wildly applaud. President Obama says he agrees those are laudable goals. But:
What we can’t do – what I won’t do – is let this economic crisis be used as an excuse to wipe out the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades.
That's great and all, but in the context of a speech in which he called for Social Security and Medicare cuts and only a week after his smog decision, those words don't have as much weight as they should have.
4:38 PM PT: A follow up on that thought: Since the Great Depression, Americans have also counted on government to use basic macroeconomics—econ 101—to prevent long-term economic stagnation. And while President Obama did get the stimulus through, since then we have not had nearly enough government support. Tonight's jobs proposal has many positive elements, but it's impossible to ignore the fact that it comes while we are simultaneously cutting spending, and that even if it does pass, it won't be nearly as ambitious as the plan proposed tonight.