Obama Echoes Occupiers: Pushes Economic Justice in State of the Union

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

President Obama gives the State of the Union address. As Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner look on. White House Photo 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Obama used his last State of the Union speech before the November election to paint himself as the champion of economic justice by demanding higher taxes for millionaires and tighter reins on Wall Street.

Although not calling the movement by name, he echoed Occupy Wall Street, which is protesting economic and social inequality, in addition to corporate dominance at the expense of 99 percent of the population. Pushing economic justice, he said, “We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by.

Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them.”

Taking advantage of a huge national platform to make the case for his re-election, President Obama on Tuesday night defiantly defended his record after three years in office and laid blame for many of the country’s woes at the feet of banks and what he called an out-of-touch Congress.

He proposed sweeping changes in the tax code and new remedies for the U.S. housing crisis, setting as a central campaign theme a populist call for greater economic fairness. He mentioned taxes 34 times and jobs 32 times during his hour-long speech, emphasizing the two issues are at the heart of this year’s presidential campaign.

Standing before a joint session of Congress, the president said, “Washington should stop subsidizing millionaires” as he proposed a minimum 30 percent effective tax rate on those who earn a million dollars or more.

President Obama said he would ask the attorney general to establish a special financial crimes unit to prosecute those persons and parties charged with breaking the law and whose fraud contributed to the 2007-2009 financial crisis that plunged

the United States into recession. President Obama’s message could resonate in the 2012 campaign following the release of tax records by Mitt Romney, a potential Republican rival and one of the wealthiest men ever to run for the White House. He pays a lower effective tax rate than many top wage-earners. Democrats have hammered Republicans in Congress for supporting tax breaks that favor the wealthy. Republicans staunchly oppose tax hikes, even on the richest Americans, arguing they would hurt a fragile economic recovery.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in December— and the black jobless rate is twice that percentage. No president in the modern era has won re-election with the rate that high.

President Obama’s rhetoric and his audience’s response was more overtly partisan than last year when both sides sought a tone of civility in the aftermath of an assassination attempt on Democratic Arizona lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords.

In the most emotional moment of the evening, President Obama warmly embraced Rep. Giffords as he made his way to the podium. The congresswoman, who has made a remarkable recovery after being shot in the head, retired from Congress on Wednesday. The response to Rep. Giffords was one of the few moments of bipartisan enthusiasm in a Congress rife with antagonism.

Democrats rose en mass to cheer, while Republicans stayed seated in stony silence, when President Obama vowed to “oppose obstruction with action.” But both sides applauded when the president called for developing all domestic energy sources.

President Obama used the speech to revive his call to rewrite the tax code to adopt the so-called “Buffett rule,” named after the billionaire Warren Buffett, who says it is unfair that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

Those making more than $1 million a year would pay an effective tax rate of at least 30 percent and their tax deductions would be eliminated under the proposal.

To underscore his point, Mr. Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, was seated in the first lady’s box in the House of Representatives for President Obama’s address.