(From USA Today, January 27, 2010)
By RICHARD WOLF
In excerpts of his speech released by the White House on Wednesday evening, the president praised Americans for “great decency and great strength” in the face of economic adversity.
“After one of the most difficult years in our history, they remain busy building cars and teaching kids; starting businesses and going back to school,” Obama was expected to say. “They are coaching little league and helping their neighbors. As one woman wrote to me, ‘We are strained but hopeful, struggling but encouraged.’ “
The focus of the speech will be “getting our economy moving again,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said earlier on Wednesday. Based on the excerpts released ahead of the president’s address, he was expected to press federal lawmakers to continue to press for earmark changes. “Tonight, I’m calling on Congress to publish all earmark requests on a single website before there’s a vote so that the American people can see how their money is being spent.”
Based on those excerpts, the president also was expected to call for a crackdown on the way lobbyists do business with official Washington.
“We face a deficit of trust — deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years,” the president was expected to say in his speech. “To close that credibility gap, we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve.”
The speech continued, “It’s time to require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my administration or Congress. And it’s time to put strict limits on the contributions that lobbyists give to candidates for federal office.”
The president also will call for a three-year freeze on most domestic spending, with exemptions for defense, homeland security and foreign aid as well as Medicare and Social Security.
That’s been tried before with limited success. Domestic spending was reduced six times in the past 30 years: three times by Ronald Reagan, twice under Bill Clinton, and in 2006 by George W. Bush after Hurricane Katrina the year before had forced a temporary surge in federal emergency spending.
Obama has a similar opportunity as he prepares to unveil his 2011 budget Monday. Two years of unprecedented federal spending to stimulate the economy will have fattened agency budgets.
Obama’s deficit-reduction effort could be helped by the completion of the decennial Census, which saves $5 billion, and a plan included in this year’s budget to replace some aviation spending with nearly $10 billion in user fees.
“You’ll have a table that shows a freeze, but then the real-world impact on the programs is far less severe than that,” said Steve McMillin, deputy budget director in the Bush administration.
The White House hasn’t said which programs would be increased or reduced under the freeze proposal. Past efforts targeted housing, transportation, social services and community development. Health and education usually avoided the cuts.
Freezing federal spending was a centerpiece of GOP Sen. John McCain‘s 2008 presidential campaign. In their three debates, Obama argued against an across-the-board freeze. “You’re using a hatchet where you need a scalpel,” he said.
House Republican Leader John Boehner said Wednesday that Obama’s proposal for a partial spending freeze is a good start. But, he added that Obama should also abandon big spending proposals on health care, climate change and jobs.
Obama also will offer fresh details about how he wants to salvage an overhaul of health care.
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told congressional staff that Obama will use his speech to recommit to an ambitious health care remake, similar to the vision he outlined last September after critics seized the momentum during a summer of angry town hall meetings.
There will be some new specifics on his health care goals, but lawmakers don’t expect a detailed blueprint for breaking the legislative impasse. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Wednesday that giving up is not an option.
“I don’t see that as a possibility,” she said. “We will have something.”
Obama also will call for education changes and more money for schools.
He is expected to propose spending $4 billion more on education, a 6% increase. That includes a promise to add $1.35 billion for an extra year of funding to his Race to the Top program, a K-12 competitive grant that’s part of the larger federal stimulus.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said the funding increase shows that Obama “understands that kids don’t get a second chance to get a good education.” But she said federal budget cuts elsewhere “weaken the safety net” of families and result in “real and harmful effects on children and their families.”
Joel Packer, executive director of the Washington-based Committee for Education Funding, said it’s unclear whether higher education programs would see cuts but said he’d be “very surprised if there were any significant cuts.” Obama also wants to consolidate dozens of programs, but details weren’t immediately available.
Packer said consolidation may be politically tricky even in tough economic times. “All those programs exist because Congress put them there in the first place,” he said.
He also noted that the budget boost for Race to the Top means that a bigger portion of federal K-12 funding will be competitive. That adds a layer of uncertainty for school districts, since even with the increase, they’ll wonder, “Will I get any money?”
“It’ll be interesting to see. Will Congress start to say, ‘Too many competitive grants are creating too many winners and losers’?” he said.
While $4 billion is a relatively small increase — schools last year got $110 billion in stimulus funds to stave off closures and layoffs — Race to the Top has already changed how schools will spend the bulk of their federal Title I funding next year, said Charlie Barone, a former congressional staffer who’s now director of federal programs with Democrats for Education Reform, a political action committee. To compete for the new money, he said, they had to agree in advance to change how they evaluate teachers and intervene in struggling schools, for instance — issues that directly affect low-income children. “Title I is going to have to be spent differently,” he said.
In his speech Obama is expected to take responsibility for mistakes in his first year and follow up his speech with a dash to Florida on Thursday to announce $8 billion in awards for high-speed rail.
The $8 billion in stimulus funds would go toward grants for 13 major corridors. The announcement would be an attempt by the White House to show that the president wants to get Americans back to work and has a plan to do it.
Obama and Vice President Biden will make the announcement during a town hall meeting in Tampa. That locale means there’s a good chance that Florida’s proposal for a high-speed line connecting Orlando and Tampa is about to get some money.
California’s proposal for an 800-mile-long rail line from Sacramento to San Diego is also a strong contender, as is a nine-state proposal in the Midwest. Overall, 31 states will receive funds.
The guest list for Obama’s speech provides a rough outline of the story he wants to tell. Sitting with first lady Michelle Obama in an elevated box overlooking the floor of the House will be people with stories of success and struggles, from immigrants who started businesses to families having a hard time making ends meet.
A new Gallup Poll finds that Obama is the most politically polarizing president in recent history: 88% of Democrats approve of his job performance while just 23% of Republicans do. He has the twin political challenges of giving Democratic lawmakers an agenda they can rally around in this midterm election year, yet showing emboldened Republicans and a skeptical public that he is serious about reversing Washington’s off-putting partisanship.
Contributing: Mark Toppo in McLean, Va.; Associated Press