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2010 State of the Union address to Congress, plus the Republican Response: Jan. 27, 2010

Pres. Obama used this speech to summarize his first year in office, and focused on the economic woes of the deep recession as well as the cynicism in the electorate resulting from those woes. The cynicism was expressed most dramatically by the election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, which is usually a "safe" Democratic seat. The special election to replace Ted Kennedy happened to be held one week prior to the State of the Union speech, and Senator-Elect Brown was alluded to by Pres. Obama, and cited by name in the Republican response. Brown's election makes passage of Obama's healthcare reform much more difficult, and indicates that the public is dissatisfied with how the Congress has ignored the voice of the people on this issue and others.

Obama's remedy for public cynicism is to call for a reduction in partisanship. However, he then points out that the Democrats still have a large majority in the Senate (59-41 even with Brown) and that they need to get healthcare done, i.e., without Republican input. Obama then calls for Republicans to join in the healthcare process and calls for their input -- implying that they have not offered any constructive suggestions. In the Republican response, the Governor of Virginia lays out the two standard Republican ideas on healthcare reform: allowing cross-state insurance purchasing, and tort reform. Indeed, the Republicans have been pushing those ideas for years -- and if Obama truly cared about Republican input, he would call for those two ideas to be included in the healthcare reform bill. Obama instead sounds partisan -- both on healthcare and on cynicism -- despite his call for a reduction in partisanship.

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, Jan. 28, 2010