Obama Cites `Season of Progress' With Tax Deal, Jobless Aid, Russia Treaty
Obama Says Recent Weeks Marked a ‘Season of Progress’
Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
Obama speaks during a news conference at the White House.
Obama speaks during a news conference at the White House. Photographer: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
President Barack Obama said the final weeks of Congress proved that Republicans and Democrats can surmount partisan divisions to find consensus on the nation’s most pressing issues.
“If there’s any lesson to draw from these past few weeks, it’s that we’re not doomed to endless gridlock,” Obama said at a year-end press conference at the White House before leaving to spend the holidays in Hawaii with his family.
Instead of political stalemate after last month’s midterm elections, “this has been a season of progress for the American people,” which is what the voters have demanded, he said.
After what he described as a “shellacking” for his Democratic Party in the Nov. 2 elections, the president can claim victories during the lame-duck session on a host of priorities.
These include Senate approval of ratifying a nuclear-arms reduction treaty with Russia, an $858 billion deal to extend tax cuts and unemployment assistance for the long-term jobless, and repeal of a law that banned openly gay people from serving in the military. Lawmakers also passed a bill that would provide $4.3 billion in additional aid for those suffering from illnesses linked to the wreckage caused by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City.
Obama said Congress had its “most productive post-election period” in decades. “And it comes on the heels of the most productive two years that we’ve had in generations.”
For the entire 111th Congress, the Obama administration can add an overhaul of the health-care system, a rewrite of financial regulations to curb Wall Street abuses that contributed to the financial crisis, and $1.67 trillion in measures to revive the economy.
Next Year’s Priorities
The president said one of his biggest regrets is that Congress failed to approve legislation known as the Dream Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for children who were brought to the U.S. at a young age by parents who were undocumented immigrants. He vowed to pursue that again with the next Congress.
“I am very disappointed Congress wasn’t able to pass the Dream Act, so we can stop punishing kids for the actions of their parents and allow them to serve in the military or earn an education and contribute their talents to the country where they grew up,” Obama said.
Obama also said he was disappointed that Congress did not agree on an annual budget to fund government operations for fiscal year 2011, which began Oct. 1, and instead passed temporary extensions.
‘Robust Debate’
“I expect we’ll have a robust debate about this when we return from the holidays,” Obama said. The debate “will have to answer an increasingly urgent question, and that is, how do we cut spending that we don’t need, while still making investments that we do need?”
Necessary investments include education, research and development and innovation to keep the U.S. competitive globally, he said.
In the next year, Obama said he wants to continue focusing on steps to accelerate the economic recovery.
Both parties must set aside partisan stances on issues such as regulation so that private industry can continue to be a “driving force” for growth, Obama said.
“Let’s make sure that we’re also protecting consumers, and we’re protecting the environment,” he said. “Let’s find ways to do business that helps business.”
The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has climbed almost 13 percent this year and 48 percent since Obama took office, a reflection of an economic rebound after the worst recession since the 1930s.
Tax Rates
Obama said he was looking forward to further debate on tax cuts for the highest earners. He and most Democrats argued that the U.S. couldn’t afford to keep the tax cuts for families with incomes exceeding $250,000 a year, which were part of a compromise package he negotiated with congressional Republicans.
“I don’t think that over the long run we can afford a series of tax breaks for people who are doing very well and don’t need it,” Obama said.
The next Congress will have to work to cut the deficit and still pay for programs to take care of veterans, improve education and fund research to keep the U.S. competitive, he said.
“We are going to have to compare the option of maintaining the tax cuts for the wealthy permanently versus spending on these things that we think are important,” he said. “And that’s a debate that I welcome.”
Republicans’ Plans
Obama will face a tougher road for his agenda over the next two years. Republicans will have control of the House and they gain ground in the Senate, where they will have 47 of the chamber’s 100 seats.
Republican Representative John Boehner of Ohio, who will become House speaker in the next session, has vowed to undertake efforts to repeal Obama’s health-care overhaul, ease financial rules and cut government spending.
Obama also must confront a stubborn 9.8 percent unemployment rate as he prepares a State of the Union address in late January and presents a multitrillion-dollar budget with a projected deficit of less than the $1.3 trillion posted in fiscal 2010.
To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net; Catherine Dodge in Washington at Cdodge1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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