Obama's State of the Union Message: An Advance Copy

'Publius' in London indulges in a bit of serious speculation:

Advisers to Barack Obama are concerned that there will be little time to prepare the vital State of the Union message, so an early draft has been prepared. We are privy to its content. Naturally, the speech may be entirely different:

Madam Speaker, Vice President Biden, members of Congress, distinguished citizens and my fellow Americans: Every year, by law and by custom, we meet here to consider the state of the union. This year we gather in this chamber, deeply aware of the challenges we face, both foreign and domestic.

Habitually, the President announces that the state of the union is strong. I hope that when I deliver this message in 2010, I shall be in a position to confirm such strength. In all honesty, I cannot do so this year. Despite the majorities enjoyed by Democrats in these chambers, it has to be said that the Union is deeply divided and has been so for many years. My administration hopes to change these divisions so all our citizens, black or white or Hispanic, rich or poor, young or old, gay or straight, feel part of a United States again.

We live in a global world, something that all Americans need to understand. All over the world, people are now interdependent. We can no longer take an isolationist stance in our domestic and foreign politics. It doesn’t work.

Abroad, we have been challenged in Georgia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, our occupation of Iraq is not welcomed by the international community, and our alliances have been weakened through our arrogant attitudes to leadership for the past eight years.

Domestically, we have many crises facing us. We have placed a band-aid on our financial markets but our economy is as weak as it has been since the 1930s. We have a national debt which is almost beyond redemption and we must bring it within bounds now if future generations of Americans are not to suffer economic blight. We trade in a global market. We have to be ready to challenge our global competitors by using our brains. We have the best technology but our goods are expensive. We must find ways to compete and win.

We have so many other issues to face. We have to prepare for the potential consequences of global warming, caused by our own indiscriminate use of our part of the planet. American healthcare has become a scandal of international proportions. How, in 2009, can it be right that 50 million of our citizens do not have affordable access to medical treatment, a human right offered in all other countries in the West?

Americans have faced dark days before. Using our ingenuity, know-how, willingness to work and sheer strength of character, we have won through. I am determined we shall do so now but we will need a new attitude to politics. No longer can the executive branch seek to dictate, nor will it, despite our majorities in Congress. And no longer can we afford delays when Congress blocks necessary legislation for political purposes.

A new wind is blowing through Washington, one of cooperation, not confrontation and one where blue riband committees comprised of our best minds from the worlds of politics, business, the non-profit sector and academia will look at new initiatives, sacrificing partisan political ideology for the common good. It is time America walked away from the “me society” and returned to the “we society.” This is not socialism. It is simple decency.

Let me put some flesh on these bones. In terms of foreign affairs, we no longer enjoy unipolarity, nor do we have the right to impose American-style democracy on parts of the world that are not ready for it. Soon, Secretary of State Gore will begin talks with the Iraqi government to agree the terms of withdrawal of all western troops from that country. He will also enter into discussions with the Afghan government for better support but with a view to a withdrawal of our troops as soon as practicable. These countries will receive material assistance from us and, hopefully, our allies but ultimately Iraq and Afghanistan must fight for their own right to self-determination. Secretary Gore will also embark on an initiative to shore up our many alliances by indicating that an era of listening has replaced one of dictat.

I am announcing tonight a new policy on our war on terrorism. No longer will we be simply “tough on terrorism and its causes”. Instead, we will become smarter about it. We will use our considerable assets and ingenuity to defeat this enemy. Next week, I will announce the members of a new bi-partisan committee who will consider how the Homeland Security agencies can be best administered. The large bureaucracy which now exists is too cumbersome and, possibly, unable to respond quickly enough to threats to our security.

Domestically, we have so many serious problems to face that my hoped for middle class tax cut may have to be put on hold. My administration continues to look at the position closely and I have no abandoned the idea. However, there are problems in executing this policy. President Bill Clinton, my Democratic predecessor in the White House, famously announced in his first State of the Union message, “you play the cards your dealt”. We have a national debt of $11.3 trillion dollars. That is some $5,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. For every dollar we collect in federal taxation, we spend 80 cents just to pay interest on the national debt. Put simply, only 20 cents in the dollar is used to pay for all federal expenditure on services for our people. Little wonder we are unable to pay down the debt.

My prime economic concern is for us to attack and reduce the national debt. If we do not do so, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will curse us for the inheritance we give them. Next week, I shall announce the membership of a non-partisan task force to put forward solutions to this problem. I will ask them to consider a levy, which will, no doubt, be called a wealth tax by my political opponents, upon those who have benefited from Wall Street’s excesses under the previous administration. I will ask all Americans, whose net worth exceeds $10 million, to pay 2% of that excess to a fund which will be designated and ring-fenced for national debt reduction. Bearing in mind that prudent investors achieve growth well in excess of 2% annually, this should be no hardship. Former Treasury Secretary Paulson, whose personal wealth is estimated at $600 million, would pay a levy of $5.9 million. Such a sum would hardly interfere with his way of life.

Over the past eight years, many large corporations have benefited from DC “pork” in the form of tax breaks. Often the tax breaks have not been used for reinvestment and employment but instead have been drawn in dividends for shareholders, which is an improper use of federal money. So, I will ask the task force to consider imposing a windfall tax on those corporations who have used the tax breaks to line the pockets of their investors. Such windfall tax will be ring-fenced to pay down the national debt.

Other taxation measures will follow. I will do my best to free up as much of working people’s personal income as possible so they can determine their own lives but not at the sacrifice of vital programmes like defence, social security, health and education. At the same time, Americans cannot think these programmes are sacrosanct. Changes may have to be made but I pledge that I will discuss the changes with you and listen to what you say. Be prepared for a new attitude, where my administration will seek to be smarter than previous administrations in coping with problems.

In particular, we will get smarter on global warming. Last September, former Secretary of State Baker was asked how a new president should deal with this most serious of environmental issues. His response: “The president should lead on new in initiatives without interfering with the American way of life.” In other words, do nothing. I cannot and will not sit on my hands. To those who say, “wait, the science is not proved”, I say if and when the science is proved, it will be too late. I hope soon to announce the dates for an international conference whose principal aim will be to develop the Kyoto protocols in a more meaningful way. I know what I am announcing will go hard in Michigan and other heavy industrial states but I will be looking for legislation to reduce carbon emissions within the USA by 30% by the year 2015 and 50% by 2020. And I will find tax breaks to help industries invest in smarter production methods. In the last analysis, if we are to leave a healthy planet for our children and grandchildren, we have no choice. I am determined to persuade my Chinese, Russian and Indian counterparts to adopt similar targets. Yes, this may seem naïve but consider what may be lost if we and our counterparts do not lead on global warming.

I will be asking Congress to consider a new Criminal Justice plan. It cannot be right that more than one per cent of our citizens are in jail, many on three-strikes laws where the crimes committed did not involve violence. I do not seek to tread on the toes of states rights but we need a better, smarter attitude to crime. Just being tough on it doesn’t work.

Healthcare needs my administration’s urgent attention. I do not know yet if we can come up with an acceptable, universal healthcare plan for all our citizens which will not bankrupt us. My predecessor’s economic failures have limited my ability to afford change in this area. Certainly, I do not envisage a system like Great Britain’s where service at the point of delivery is free. A system like that in France is attractive where use of the health system is often accompanied by a contribution from the user. Any new system will require huge initial investment. Before the summer, membership of another non-partisan committee will be announced, with the remit that they report within twelve months on the universal healthcare plan best suited for the United States.

Finally, I must voice my serious concern at the state of our country’s education standards. Most of our teachers are hard-working people. It is the system that hurts. We need a root and branch investigation of what has gone wrong in our high schools. My administration will consider the best way forward for our youngsters. This is not a case for a blue riband committee. Instead our leadership is needed so that we can equip our kids to compete in all areas of a global world. By this time next year, I will report our progress.

There are many other areas of our lives which could use government help. The elderly, infants and the disabled could all use a helping hand from government. I say “helping hand”, not “hand-out”. We will not dole out welfare indiscriminately. But we will not see the poor and needy go without when government helps the wealthy of Wall Street retain their way of life.

In the 1930s, President Hoover praised “rugged individualism”, the ability of the individual to stand on his own two feet in face of extreme hardship. Since the 1970s, the emphasis on individualism has gone too far. It cannot be right that CEOs receive millions and millions of dollars for their work, and often their failures, when middle class Americans are earning less in real terms than thirty years ago. Our society has changed from the “We Society” to the “Me Society” and if I am a force for change, it is this that I will concentrate on.

I know it is custom at the end of this address to invoke the almighty. I believe he is watching us but I am struck with the saying that God helps those who help themselves. We have serious, life-threatening issues to resolve. I reach out to both sides of the aisle of this august body and to those outside the Washington beltway to join with us and get to work to put a broken country back together so that, this time next year, I can announce our union is stronger than now. As my fictional predecessor Josiah Bartlet would have said, "break’s over".