President Barack Obama hit the road Wednesday to sell his vision of a reinvigorated nation that embraces distributive "middle class economics", after a combative State of the Union address. Obama will head West to Idaho and Kansas, where he will reprise the key themes of his penultimate State of the Union - namely that the United States has turned a page on years of economic suffering. With damage from the Great Recession easing, an emboldened Obama on Tuesday called for a new chapter of American politics, one focused squarely on addressing inequality.
"The shadow of crisis has passed," he told a Congress now controlled by his Republican foes during the showpiece event of the American political calendar. "We have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth. It's now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next fifteen years, and for decades to come." He made a populist pitch for taxes on rich that would help pay for aid to the middle class, daring Republicans to oppose his plans ahead of 2016 elections that will decide his successor.
"Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?" he asked. Republicans quickly said the speech was more about politics than leadership, vowing to use their new-found majority in both houses of Congress to make sure the plans never become law.
Republican Senator Joni Ernst, who was tasked with rebutting Obama's speech, decried his "failed policies" and a "stale mind-set" that led to "political talking points, not serious solutions." She also said Americans are still suffering from "stagnant wages and lost jobs." Mitt Romney, past and potential future Republican presidential candidate, said that, "true to form, the President in his State of the Union speech is more interested in politics than in leadership."
He added: "More intent on winning elections than on winning progress, he ignores the fact that the country has elected a Congress that favours smaller government and lower taxes." For six years Obama's presidency was often subsumed by an economic crisis that stymied efforts to narrow inequality and put other liberal policy priorities on the back burner.
Hillary Clinton, also expected to run for president, said in a tweet minutes after the speech, "BarackObama SOTU pointed way to an economy that works for all. Now we need to step up & deliver for the middle class." In recent months, Obama has used his executive authority - opponents would argue he has stretched it to the limit - to circumvent Republican opposition, imposing and opposing some policies by decree.