Obama’s Unfulfilled State of the Union Goals
On energy, taxes, immigration and Guantanamo tribunals, President Obama has had to settle for something less than the ambitious goals he outlined in prior State of the Union speeches.
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill on Jan. 25, 2011. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais-Pool/Getty Images)
President Barack Obama's previous State of the Union speeches have pushed passage of such hallmark initiatives as the stimulus bill, health-care reform, the drawdown of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays. But some big ideas from previous SOTU addresses have been abandoned.
The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler has done a line-by-line analysis of some of the specific promises made in the 2010 and 2011 addresses, and how they've held up. Here we track the evolution of a few of Obama's promises in the SOTU addresses — and why he's struggled to keep them.
Energy and Infrastructure
Obama's speeches have pushed investment in alternative energy technology and major green infrastructure projects as a linchpin of his overall economic recovery plan, but Republicans in Congress have stymied these ambitions. Obama's 2009 speech claimed the stimulus bill would double the U.S. supply of renewable energy in three years and vowed to invest $15 billion in research and development for alternative energy and fuel-efficient cars. In 2010, U.S. energy from renewables averaged around 8 percent, unchanged from 2009; an updated figure is not yet available.
In his 2010 speech, Obama appeared to acknowledge Republican interests, mentioning “tough choices” on new nuclear power plants and offshore oil and gas exploration. But that year's climate-change bill languished in the Senate over disagreements on carbon caps and new efficiency standards.
Obama's 2011 speech kept to the theme of technological advance under the rubric “Winning the Future.” He vowed that by 2035, 80 percent of the country's electricity would be from clean energy and again called for increased funding for research and development. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce bluntly called the 2035 goal “impossible.” Obama's plan to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years has made essentially no progress. The one project that did begin — in California — since has stalled.
Obama's energy goals have run up against a Congress hostile to costly projects in general and particularly suspicious of environmental regulation. The bankruptcy of solar-panel maker Solyndra Inc., which had received a $535 million federal loan guarantee, furthered the case of critics who argued that spending on clean energy was wasteful.
Taxes
In every SOTU to date, Obama has called for a tax on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans — in other words, an end to the George W. Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 a year. Obama agreed to temporarily extend the Bush tax cuts in 2010 as part of a deal with Republicans that also extended jobless benefits. Last year, Obama and congressional Democrats abandoned plans for a millionaire's surtax in return for Republican backing to extend a payroll tax cut.
Then there is tax reform. Each year, Obama has called for a simplifying the individual tax code and for a lower corporate tax rate. Cutting the 35 percent corporate tax rate has support from some Democrats and Republicans as well as many corporations and business groups. But as Marian Wang explained last year, any effort to overhaul the tax code inevitably means opposition — from groups that benefit from loopholes and tax breaks that reformers hope to repeal.
Guantanamo
In his 2009 SOTU, Obama pronounced the closing of Guantanamo Bay a centerpiece of his foreign policy. “In words and deeds, we are showing the world that a new era of engagement has begun,” he said. As ProPublica's coverage has shown, the administration continued to make periodic calls for Guantanamo's closure but could not overcome opposition to it. In March 2011, the administration revised its stance on Guantanamo, allowing for military trials of prisoners there to resume instead of moving them to federal criminal courts.
The DREAM Act
In last year's SOTU, Obama spoke at length about the need for comprehensive immigration reform, and he expressed support for legislation to grant legal residency to some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children. The DREAM Act failed to pass Congress in 2010 or 2011. Without a new immigration policy, the administration changed enforcement strategy, and exercises “particular care” in deciding on deportations, especially in the cases of students and young people. According to The New York Times, this approach has been applied unevenly and has caused confusion among enforcers and immigrant families alike.
Get Updates
Our Hottest Stories
- Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say
- Time Out: Federal Complaint Alleges Rampant Abuse in Texas Truancy Program
- In Westchester, Progress on Housing and the Specter of Another Fight
- Worried about the Mass Surveillance? How to Practice Safer Communication
- When Interns Should be Paid: A #ProjectIntern Explainer
- Walmart Accepted Clothing from Banned Bangladesh Factories
- Without a Final Map, New York Rebuilds on Uncertain Ground
- Five Ways Congress is Trying to Curb Rape in the Military
- Objection Overruled: Top Prosecutor Must Testify in Wrongful Conviction Case
- Rape and Other Sexual Violence Prevalent in Juvenile Justice System
- Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say
- The NSA Black Hole: 5 Basic Things We Still Don’t Know About the Agency's Snooping
- Walmart Accepted Clothing from Banned Bangladesh Factories
- The Best Stories on the Government’s Growing Surveillance
- Worried about the Mass Surveillance? How to Practice Safer Communication
- Betting Against the Future: How Industry Loses When Interns Go Unpaid
- Five Ways Congress is Trying to Curb Rape in the Military
- A Father’s Day Remembrance
- Remember When the Patriot Act Debate Was All About Library Records?
- Unpaid Interns Win Major Ruling in 'Black Swan' Case — Now What?
11 comments
Steve Thompson
Jan. 24, 2012, 5:39 p.m.
Here is an article that outlines the real State of the Union and how much America has changed under the Obama Administration:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2012/01/state-of-union-in-screen-captures-2012.html
With America’s debt-to-GDP now surpassing the 100 percent level, it will be increasingly difficult for this and future Administrations to prod the economy toward sustained growth.
Emmett Smith
Jan. 24, 2012, 7:03 p.m.
Translated that Obama didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing or he was lying in order to get elected.
Renee
Jan. 24, 2012, 8:04 p.m.
I disagree. I think he has a clue but what can you do when you have a Congress that is determined to not compromise. The Congress is NOT doing what they were elected to do, which is what is best for the ENTIRE country not just themselves or a few.
Julie DiCastro-Nascenzi
Jan. 24, 2012, 8:16 p.m.
No one knows what being president will be like until they are there. But one thing is for sure, if you have a congress and senate that won’t work with you, nothing will get done. Compromise, is cripling. Unions are killing us, they need to be stopped, Illegal immagrants, need to go home and take their children under 18 with them, and those on welfare need to earn their checks, there is alot of public service that could be done by those on welfare. Single Mom’s need to support their own children, or move home with Mom and Dad, and pay their own health insurance. Those working under the table need to pay taxes. It seems quite simple to me. The only people we should be supporting is elderly and handicapped.
James Bowen
Jan. 24, 2012, 8:27 p.m.
Obama has been stymied by republicans in the Senate who vote against legislation that they have historically supported just because it comes from President Obama. They block appointments for purely political reasons including to leverage earmarks into their states.
James Bowen
Jan. 24, 2012, 8:28 p.m.
Read the New Yorker article (online) about the Obama Memos.
max
Jan. 25, 2012, 9:38 a.m.
Every program in the article has been stymied by Republicans in Congress.
Julie DiCastro-Nascenzi
Jan. 25, 2012, 11:11 a.m.
Personally, I thing we need Hillary and Bill. He knows how to reduce deficits, get welfare people to work,etc.
John
Jan. 25, 2012, 11:36 a.m.
Do we really count the Iraq withdrawal as an administration success? I’m glad we’re out, but we were ready for the next extension until the provisional government decided not to extend our immunity over there, and that only happened because of the reports (and video) of our soldiers firing on civilians and the coverup by Wikileaks. You know, the event that Obama, who campaigned on government transparency, called deplorable and much worse than the leak of the Top Secret files from the Pentagon Papers.
That, and closing Guantanamo are Congress’s problem, how? The man is the Commander-in-Chief of the military and therefore has full authority. But rather than do what he allegedly wants, he has quietly extended the worst Bush-administration abuses (signing the Patriot Act and the NDAA) while crying that nobody will be nice to him.
It’s about time to judge the man by (and demand accountability for) his actions rather than his speeches.
He has promise, but it’s the worst kind of leader who avoids the blame for problems. He needs to distance himself from the lobbyists he has taken on as advisors after announcing the end of “politics as usual.” He needs to get on the ball about transparency as promised and stop whining every time someone peeks behind the wizard’s curtain. He needs to stop signing legislation he allegedly disagrees with and maybe work against it, or at least take a public stand against it. If he wants to jumpstart the economy, he has to stop pussy-footing around “shovel-ready” and give businesses and inventors access to resources they can actually use, like Federal research. And he needs to walk the walk with his foreign policy, rather than allowing his Department of Justice to blow privacy laws apart while his Department of State preaches privacy to others.
(I also think that, rather than calling for taxes on people who merely earn money, he should focus on taxing people who make money without producing anything. Tax investments and options that either shelter or simulate income, not “the rich.” Not that he’d get much support from Congressmen on that, given their insider-trading positions.)
You can’t govern by insinuation.
He’s got another four years, clearly, but right now, it’s because the Republican candidates are so absurdly cartoonish, rather than because of his own merits. So it’s time he stops acting like a figurehead or Prime Minister and use the powers of his office (as head of the Executive Branch) to set the example, rather than pointing at Republicans for not passing the right laws.
After all, this is politics. People follow who they think will win, and a man who accepts a law in the dark of night (like the NDAA) and blows it off with a statement that his administration doesn’t have plans to use it? Well, it’s a clear sign that you’re definitely not the alpha dog.
Right now, I don’t support Obama because he hasn’t lived up to this, even with the capabilities at his disposal. I didn’t support his candidacy because my judgement of his character was pretty much that his promises were empty and he’d repeat Bush’s mistakes. But I’d also love to be proven wrong instead of rewatching footage of him singing.
Julie DiCastro-Nascenzi
Jan. 25, 2012, 3:40 p.m.
We need change. So what else is new? How do we go about making change.
John
Jan. 26, 2012, 11:23 a.m.
Julie, individually, we probably can’t change much. As a group, though, check the SOPA and PIPA numbers in other articles, here. That protest and petitioning of Representatives didn’t kill the bill (such things are impossible), but Congress flinched when we stood up and the lobbyists tipped their hand in panic.
To make policy change, we need control of our representatives (municipal, state, your Congressman, two Senators, and the President), and to do that, we need to make sure they’re hearing us. I’m not going to say roll up your sleeves and go do empowering things, because not all of us have the luxury of time and energy to spare. But a polite, clear letter to your representatives (and potential representatives) and a visit to their offices on a regular basis can impact policy, especially if it’s multiplied throughout the population.
I’ve been lax in this, myself, relying on “slacktivism” of the occasional e-mail that was probably crossed the line of passion into abrasiveness, but I think it’s a good time to start.
There’s an old joke about a farmer who has a mule that can do math, but every time the farmer asks it a question, he bashes the animal’s head with a wooden post. When a bystander complains about the abuse, the farmer admits that any stubborn mule can learn, but first, you need to get its attention.
After a few years of Wikileaks, the Tea Party, the Occupiers, the Arab Spring, and the Internet-wide protest, I think we might just have Washington’s attention. Not capitalizing on it would be foolish.
Commenting on this story is closed.