PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address attempted to present an image of a presidency that was capable of achieving something for the US workers, despite the fact that it is bound hand and foot by a Congress that is determined to savagely attack the working class and the poor to resolve the US economic crisis.
The US bankers and bosses are even now in crisis over the fact that they will not be receiving $85bn a month ‘quantitative easing’ money for ever, and that it is due to be trimmed back and then abolished, a process that will bankrupt banks and bring stock markets crashing.
Obama began by stating that ‘for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; America is.’
He failed to say that if this is so it is because US wages have fallen drastically as have pensions and that millions of American workers and youth are on the breadline. This US minimum wage of $6 an hour is a starvation wage, while millions of workers had their unemployment relief cancelled in the last Obama-Congress cuts deal to ‘save the US economy’.
He had to admit that the notion ‘that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead’ is very difficult to accept and ‘has suffered some serious blows.’
He continued: ‘Over more than three decades, even before the Great Recession hit, massive shifts in technology and global competition had eliminated a lot of good, middle-class jobs, and weakened the economic foundations that families depend on.
‘Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged.
Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead.
And too many still aren’t working at all.’
He added: ‘Our job is to reverse these trends’.
With Congress at his throat he admitted: ‘It won’t happen right away, and we won’t agree on everything. But what I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class, and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class. Some require Congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still – and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.’
He admitted that he is stymied by a Congress that is demanding massive cuts in all social expenditure to stop the US going broke, with a new showdown with Congress threatening a new shutdown next month.
With Congress at his throat the future is ‘partnerships’ like the ‘Let’s Move partnership with schools, businesses, and local leaders has helped bring down childhood obesity rates for the first time in thirty years.’
He continued that there are ‘millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments, and are moving this country forward.’
The way forward is to ignore Congress and make deals with local employers! The emperor really does have no clothes.
However he was forced to deal with reality stating: ‘I’m also convinced we can help Americans return to the workforce faster by reforming unemployment insurance so that it’s more effective in today’s economy. But first, this Congress needs to restore the unemployment insurance you just let expire for 1.6 million people.’
He appealed to bosses to raise the minimum wage. ‘Many businesses have done it on their own. Nick Chute is here tonight with his boss, John Soranno. . . . John just gave his employees a raise, to ten bucks an hour – a decision that eased their financial stress and boosted their morale. Tonight, I ask more of America’s business leaders to follow John’s lead and do what you can to raise your employees’ wages.’
When the Democratic party President has been reduced to making charitable appeals to bosses to pay a minimum wage the time has come for the US trade unions to break with the Democratic Party and establish a Labour Party that will fight for a socialist USA. There is no other way forward.
