From the archives, 13 February 2013 –

Jeff Madrick on the president’s policies and his State of the Union Address:

… the president’s State of the Union address last night offered an admirable if weak laundry list of proposals. …

… Obama proposed a high-quality system of pre-kindergarten education in partnership with the states. He also talked about infrastructure spending (though only of enacting a previous proposal), and mentioned in passing that cutting spending during sequestration could hurt the economy. His tone was so quiet on the latter issue that I doubt the public understood its importance. It ought to have been his focus.

The economy could be making progress right now, but the president’s opponents are holding it back with unreasonable demands for cuts in social spending and threats to vote against the next debt-ceiling increase. If the economy grows slowly this year, Obama might have said, we know whose fault this will be. But, sadly, he didn’t go to battle, instead falling into his Procrustean bed. None of his new proposals, he made sure to say, would add to the deficit.

Herein lies the problem. With no way to finance his pre‑K program, for example, why should anyone take it seriously? Nor did he offer a strong defense of social programs in the face of proposed cuts. To the contrary, he said he’d reform Medicare along the lines suggested by the Bowles–Simpson commission, which was conspicuously free of specifics.

The economy needs more government spending — or at least a hold on spending cuts — in order to grow and to reduce unemployment. It needs bolder investment programs.  Perhaps Obama thinks speaking quietly is the path to credibility on the economy. With unemployment still hovering around 8 percent, he appears not to want to risk adopting forceful policies, yet his modest, compromised actions to date have failed to get the recovery on track. He and his team failed to implement bold mortgage relief, to back a strong public option in Obamacare, and to advertise how well their stimulus program had worked, which made it difficult to come back for a second one.