This is an archive article published on January 22, 2015

Opinion State of disunion

Obama lays out principles, rather than policies, in a surprisingly defiant address.

January 22, 2015 12:36 AM IST First published on: Jan 22, 2015 at 12:36 AM IST

When the Democrats got their second shellacking in the US mid-term polls under President Barack Obama’s watch in November 2014, losing control of the Senate in addition to the House of Representatives they had lost in November 2010, nobody would have predicted the defiant tone Obama struck in Tuesday’s State of the Union address — his penultimate, and his first to a fully Republican-controlled Congress. In retrospect, it’s easy to see why — Obama has no campaign left to run, he’s no longer held back by vulnerable red-state Democrats. He has little to lose. Obama’s confidence owed to more tangible factors too — an economy on the rebound, with unemployment trimmed to 5.6 per cent, and fairytale gas prices.

Despite the headlines that events outside the US grabbed through last year, Obama’s focus was domestic. He challenged Republicans to raise taxes on the rich and threatened to veto legislation against his key policies, including fresh sanctions on Iran. Insisting that government has a role in ensuring equal opportunity, Obama proposed using the money from higher taxes for free community college tuition and new tax credits for childcare and double-worker households. He rebuked climate-change deniers, and called for stronger cyber security and consumer protection. He asked for Congressional approval for using force against the Islamic State.

Given the Democrats’ lack of influence on the Hill, Obama’s sixth State of the Union address must be seen to be more about principles than policies. Little of what he proposed, as on taxes, is likely to pass the Republican Congress. The “lame duck” president is now looking to convey his legacy and re-branding the Democrats for the 2016 presidential election, evident in his emphasis on “middle-class economics”. One of the very few areas where bipartisanship persists is trade, with Republicans supporting Obama’s push for deals with Europe and the Asia-Pacific. On the eve of his Republic Day visit, it’s just as well that India remains another point of bipartisan consensus.