Obama in Elkhart, Indiana, Explains Virtues of Recovery Bill
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Pres. Barack Obama today held a unique town-hall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana, in which he explained to a community beset with the worst unemployment rate in the country, at 15.3%, why the recovery and reinvestment bill before Congress is urgently needed and how it will work. First delivering a detailed assessment of the nation’s economic woes, then answering questions from unscreened citizens in attendance, Obama gave a vigorous defense of the unique stimulus project that blends “economic recovery” and “community reinvestment”.
Elkhart is a part of Indiana that did not vote for Obama, but Obama’s last campaign stop in November was in Indiana, and he noted this was his first community visit after becoming president. The town’s 15.3% unemployment is twice the national average, the highest in the nation, and shockingly higher than the 4.7% of just one year ago. Local politicians say they have 17 “shovel-ready” projects awaiting funding and that they could break ground within weeks of stimulus, in order to start creating jobs and cut into the swelling unemployment rates.
Republicans have demanded over $100 billion in cuts to the Democratic “recovery and reinvestment” plan, which turned out to be just enough to get 3 of their members to back the legislation. Among the cuts are $40 billion cut from education spending, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will “do violence to what we are trying to do for the future”; her stance suggests she is not willing to allow the aims of the House majority to be undermined by an effort to win the support of Senate Republicans.
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Indeed, Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter wrote in an editorial in the Washington Post today that he is supporting the stimulus bill because “The country cannot afford not to take action”. He also warned that:
Wave after wave of bad economic news has created its own psychology of fear and lowered expectations. As in the old Movietone News, the eyes and ears of the world are upon the United States. Failure to act would be devastating not just for Wall Street and Main Street but for much of the rest of the world, which is looking to our country for leadership in this crisis.
Specter’s admonition is a shot across the bow to Republican leaders, warning them that inaction, or worse, inaction resulting from Republican sabotage of the measure, would be bad for the nation, but also a stain on the party. If one or two Republican senators join the three already on board, the conference committee process will likely produce a bill that goes to the president’s desk.
It is in this environment that Obama, with an approval percentage consistently in the mid 70s, goes directly to the people to call on Congress to cease delaying action toward economic recovery. To some extent, his goal is make sure that the stimulus package he’s pushing not fail, but that maximum pressure will be on ideologically-motivated Republicans leading the opposition to the measure to recognize that blame will fall to them should the economy continue to worsen, with no comprehensive action taken on stimulus.
Asking his audience to get comfortable for a lengthy conversation, Pres. Obama said he knows that behind every economic statistic, the real truth is that “We’re talking about people… families that have lost their home… young people that ahve put that college acceptance letter back in the envelope, because they just can’t afford it”, adding that “I have not forgotten” how much he learned of that truth visiting communities across the country.
In a vital reminder to the public and to Congressional Republicans, Obama quipped that “We have inherited an economic crisis as deep and as dire as any since the Great Depression”, making sure the debate on stimulus comprehends that this is an effort to fix a crisis that started under his Republican predecessor.
A new CNN poll shows that the vast majority of the public sees Obama working hard to get Republicans on board (74%), while fully 60% say they think the Republicans are not doing enough to behave in a bipartisan way and get behind the new Democratic president. Political analysts appear increasingly convinced the Republican party is looking to its political future and the desire to say they opposed Obama, rather than to craft a viable solution.
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