2010 State of the Union: A Preview of possibilities

2010 State of the Union: A Preview of possibilities

As President Obama is planning to give his first true State of the Union address on Jan. 27 to a joint session of Congress, some themes may be expected in his speech.

Though it may be difficult to predict everything the president will discuss, some common themes that have been coming from the White House and the president himself in speeches since his presidency began can be expected.

The address has historically been a forum for sitting presidents to tout their successes, to talk about their future plans and budget and as an agenda setting platform of the president for the House and Senate. President Obama delivered a State of the Union address in 2009, but since he had only been in the White House briefly, it was not considered a true State of the Union address.

Obama may use the forum to call for unity in completing common goals like President Gerald Ford did in his Jan. 15, 1975 address when facing hard economic times.

“We can do this by fashioning a new partnership between the Congress on the one hand, the White House on the other, and the people we both represent, “ Ford said. “Let us mobilize the most powerful and most creative industrial nation that ever existed on this Earth to put all our people to work.”

Without the ability to tout the great success of health care reform passage, Obama may have to use the “Ford method” as a call to arms for bi-partisanship. Since Democrats recently lost their super majority due to the loss of the Massachusetts Senate race to replace Ted Kennedy’s seat, which they had been relying on to get the health care reform bill passed without a filibuster, President Obama is likely to speak about the need for bi-partisanship and partnership between Congress and the presidency in efforts to pass important legislation like the health care bill.

As it was during President Ford’s presidency, the state of the economy has been a major issue in the U.S. for several years now, and Obama will undoubtedly speak of his successes and future plans of improving the economy.

The U.S. Government’s official Web site used to track the money spent through the grants, loans and contracts of the economic stimulus package has a ticker boasting the 640,329 jobs created or saved and a bar graph showing over $158 billion already awarded in funds. Obama will most likely cite these figures as a measure of how he is working to help the economy.

Spending is one theme, but the Obama White House has been mentioning plans to cut the deficit in the near future, so he may outline some plans to accomplish this goal. Peter Orszag, White House budget director, gave the following statement to POLITICO.

“The President strongly believes that as the recovery strengthens and job growth returns, we will have to take the tough steps necessary to return our nation to a fiscally disciplined and sustainable path,” Orszag said, “We recognize that the projected medium-term deficits are too high, and as part of the FY 2011 budget process, we are committed to bringing them down.”

One topic in deficit reduction President Obama may discuss is his plan to appoint a bi-partisan panel to produce a deficit reduction plan. According to a Jan. 20, 2010 Associated Press article in the Los Angeles Times, Obama has shown the White House is willing to work towards dealing with the deficit this year. It also stated the panel allows him show compromise without offering specifics that would offend key interest groups.

On Jan. 17 President Obama announced he had told White House aides and federal agencies to not give any new work to government contractors who had not paid taxes. Citing studies by the Government Accountability Office, President Obama said such contractors owed $5 billion in taxes. Though $5 billion is a nothing compared to the $1.3 trillion deficit an article in The New York Times said the administration inherited, it seems likely President Obama will point to such initiatives as efforts to combat the deficit.