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Obama Focuses on Economy, Vowing to Help Middle Class

July 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Returning to the site of his first major economic speech as a young senator eight years ago, Mr. Obama lamented that typical Americans had been left behind by globalization, Wall Street irresponsibility and Washington policies, while the richest Americans had accumulated more wealth. He declared it “my highest priority” to reverse those trends, while accusing other politicians of not only ignoring the problem but also making it worse.

“With this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington’s taken its eye off the ball,” Mr. Obama told an audience at Knox College. “And I am here to say this needs to stop. This needs to stop. This moment does not require short-term thinking. It does not require having the same old stale debates. Our focus has to be on the basic economic issues that matter most to you — the people we represent.”

The hourlong speech, one of the longest of his presidency, resembled a State of the Union address at times. The president mainly offered revived elements of his largely stalled economic program, like developing new energy, rebuilding manufacturing, spending more on roads, bridges and ports, expanding preschool to every 4-year-old in the country and raising the minimum wage.

But he and his aides hoped to use the speech both to claim credit for the progress made since the recession of 2008-9 and to position himself as the champion of a disaffected middle class that has yet to recover fully.

He chastised Republicans in Congress for not focusing on economic priorities and obstructing his initiatives. “Over the last six months, this gridlock has gotten worse,” he said.

And he challenged them to come up with their own plans. “I’m laying out my ideas to give the middle class a better shot,” he said, addressing himself to Republican leaders. “So now it’s time for you to lay out your ideas.”

Republican leaders were not impressed by Mr. Obama’s renewed push on the economy. Speaker John A. Boehner said beforehand that a speech would not make a difference. “What’s it going to accomplish?” he asked on the House floor. “You’ve probably got the answer: nothing. It’s a hollow shell. It’s an Easter egg with no candy in it.”

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican minority leader, said Mr. Obama’s speech would just be partisan rhetoric. “With all the buildup, you’d think the president was unveiling the next Bond film or something,” he said before the speech. “But in all likelihood it will be more like a midday rerun of some ‘70s B-movie. Because we’ve heard it all before. It’s old.”

Republicans said they had in fact advanced ideas for improving the economy, particularly in education, energy, tax changes and regulation. They noted that a House panel was taking up bills intended to relieve businesses of what Republicans consider burdensome regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency. “Mr. President, just get the federal government out of the way,” said Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas, the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee. “Instead of putting handcuffs on job creators, try shaking their hand for a change.”

Mr. Obama acknowledged before the speech that it would not “change any minds,” nor would it outline new proposals. Any new ideas will come in a series of other speeches in the weeks to come.

But Mr. Obama and his aides billed his second Knox College speech as an important milestone in the president’s tenure on the national political stage. They said they hoped it would reset a national economic debate that had become too mired in the bitter clashes between the parties in Congress.

The Knox College speech was the president’s first stop on Wednesday. Afterward, he was to travel to the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg for a second speech that afternoon before returning to the White House in the evening. As part of his pitch, he promised to develop in the next few months “an aggressive strategy” to tackle rising college costs.

Michael D. Shear reported from Galesburg, and Peter Baker from Washington.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/us/politics/obama-to-restate-economic-vision-at-knox-college.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Obama Takes Second-Term Agenda on the Road

February 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, as Mr. Obama took to the road and visited a Canadian engine-parts factory near here to sell his vision, Republicans and even some Democrats expressed doubt about whether plans to raise the minimum wage or provide universal access to prekindergarten would ever be enacted — especially on top of ambitious White House efforts on gun violence and immigration.

Mr. Obama chose a politically friendly corner of Republican-leaning North Carolina to promote the resurgence of American manufacturing, one of the central messages of a State of the Union speech that also included initiatives on education and energy.

“What’s happening here is happening all around the country,” Mr. Obama said against a backdrop of three hulking engine blocks. “Just as it’s becoming more and more expensive to do business in places like China, America is getting more competitive.”

The far-reaching nature of the president’s agenda took lawmakers from both parties by surprise, even though it built on his assertive Inaugural Address. Republicans, whose policies are focused on deficit reduction, reacted incredulously.

“It’s not like we’ve solved all of the problems we’re working on now so we have to be looking for other things,” said Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri. “The federal government taking over prekindergarten programs in America? The federal government deciding Washington, D.C., is the best place to administer elections? I don’t see it.”

Some Democrats counseled that the presidential wish list laid out Tuesday night should not be taken literally in a suspicious Capitol.

“You can disagree with the president, but you cannot say he has no vision, no dreams or aspirations for this country, and that’s what he was laying out,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York.

Asheville was the first of three stops in a campaign-style swing that has become a tradition after the State of the Union speech. Speaking to a sympathetic audience of factory workers, Mr. Obama played up his proposed increase in the federal minimum wage, to $9 an hour from $7.25. “If you work full time,” he said, “you shouldn’t be in poverty.”

Yet even in stronger economic times, minimum wage increases have been heavy political lifts. The last increase passed in 2007, after Democrats swept to control of Congress, and even then it had to be tacked onto an Iraq war financing and Hurricane Katrina relief law.

Republicans swiftly rejected Mr. Obama’s latest attempt, saying it would only exacerbate the jobless rate.

“I’ve been dealing with the minimum wage issue for the last 28 years that I’ve been in elected office,” House Speaker John A. Boehner said to reporters on Wednesday. “And when you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it.”

Democrats, however, said that after a first term marked by failed outreach to Republicans, Mr. Obama appears intent on marshaling support outside of Washington to bring pressure to bear inside. That could yield different results from those of the last two frustrating years, said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.

If nothing else, the president’s push gives Democratic senators something to do after they tackle gun violence and immigration. Democrats in the Senate and House said they would work together on a bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10.

“I think the Senate is hungry to do things that will help the middle class,” Mr. Schumer said.

During his 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama proposed an even larger increase in the minimum wage, to $9.50 an hour. Jason Furman, the deputy director of the National Economic Council, said the net benefit to workers would be the same, or slightly greater, because of refundable tax credits that the administration granted to working families.

As he toured the factory, owned by Linamar of Canada, Mr. Obama showcased his goal of making the United States a magnet for manufacturing. Linamar, which makes parts for heavy-duty engines, recently opened its fourth American manufacturing plant here, taking over a closed Volvo construction equipment factory. The plant has hired 160 workers and plans to take on 40 more by the end of 2013.

“A few years ago, a manufacturing comeback in North Carolina, a manufacturing comeback in Asheville, may not have seemed real likely,” Mr. Obama said. “This plant had gone dark.”

Mr. Obama has a fondness for Asheville, a picturesque town of bookshops and bed-and-breakfasts in the shadow of the Blue Ridge. He vacationed here with his family, and mentioned that he and his wife, Michelle, mused about retiring here.

Voters in Asheville broke heavily for Mr. Obama over his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, making Buncombe County an island of blue in deeply red western North Carolina.

Mark Landler reported from Asheville, and Jonathan Weisman from Washington.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/us/politics/obama-takes-second-term-agenda-on-the-road.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Obama to Open Trade Talks With E.U.

February 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

BRUSSELS — Answering pleas from European leaders desperate for a way to speed up economic growth, President Obama said on Tuesday that the United States would begin talks on a comprehensive trade agreement with the European Union.

Mr. Obama devoted a single sentence to the topic in his State of the Union address, but that was what proponents of a trade deal had been hoping for. His statement set the stage for talks to remove tariff barriers and regulatory hurdles between the United States and the European Union, which are already each other’s largest trading partners.

“And tonight, I’m announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union,” Mr. Obama said, in the process also giving the potential pact a name. He added, “because trade that is fair and free across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.”

Karel De Gucht, the E.U. trade commissioner, said completing such a trade deal could take about two years, according to an advance copy of remarks he was expected to make in Brussels on Wednesday.

Mr. De Gucht said that he wanted formal negotiations to begin before the summer and that his goal was “then to push ahead with them as quickly as possible.”

Some of the toughest negotiations are expected to focus on food and pharmaceutical regulations in Europe — but Mr. De Gucht made several pointed references to concessions that the Europeans would seek from the United States.

“First of all, we still need to dismantle any remaining traditional tariffs and then we need to make headway on market access issues in other areas, such as public procurement, services and investment,” said Mr. De Gucht, according to the advance copy of his remarks.

He said an example was “the barriers faced by European car manufacturers over their exports to the U.S.”

He added that automobile safety rules in Europe and the United States were similarly strict, so “perhaps it makes sense to look together at putting in place a system of mutual recognition.”

There are many sensitive and complex issues to overcome. On Tuesday, two powerful U.S. senators warned that any deal must open Europe to American farm products.

Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the highest-ranking Republican on the committee, said that a trade deal presented an “enticing opportunity.”

But in a letter to Ron Kirk, the U.S. Trade Representative, they also wrote, “Broad bipartisan Congressional support for expanding trade with the EU depends, in large part, on lowering trade barriers for American agricultural products.”

E.U. leaders, including Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, have been pushing for a trade deal as a low-cost way of stimulating their struggling economies. Both have called for a deal numerous times since Mr. Obama’s re-election. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and large companies like General Electric have also lobbied for an agreement.

There had been some frustration among supporters of a deal that more progress was not being made. A group of U.S. and E.U. officials has been preparing the ground for formal talks, but its report is several months late.

Mr. Kirk, the U.S. trade representative, said during a visit to Davos, Switzerland, last month that Mr. Obama was in favor of an agreement but wanted to make sure a treaty would overcome objections by some farm groups and be able to pass Congress.

Mr. Obama’s reference to talks about a possible free-trade pact with the European Union was a late addition to his State of the Union address, according to a senior administration official, because a U.S.-E.U. working group had sent recommendations to Washington only Tuesday that the two sides were close enough on various issues to pursue negotiations toward a comprehensive free-trade agreement, rather than a more limited one.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/business/global/obama-pledges-trade-pact-talks-with-eu.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Economix Blog: How Obama’s Tough Talk Plays in China

January 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

BEIJING — President Obama took a new swipe at China’s economic policies in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, and leaders here are unlikely to be surprised. China’s rulers know that Mr. Obama faces a tough re-election battle, and they know that he must address his opponents’ repeated claims that he has failed to stand up to Beijing.

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But that does not mean that they like it.  Under Mr. Obama, America-watchers here say,  the White House has swung from being too accommodating to too tough, from looking weak to putting on an unneeded show of strength. 

On Tuesday night, in addition to highlighting trade cases he had brought against China, the president went further, announcing “the creation of a Trade Enforcement Unit that will be charged with investigating unfair trading practices in countries like China.”

China’s leadership respects the president, those following Chinese-American relations here say, and appreciates the difficulties Washington faces on almost every front. But analysts say the Chinese find very little constancy in the relationship, and that unsettles them. Ratcheting up American talk toward China another notch, they say, may just reinforce that.

“President Bush gave Chinese leaders a feeling of reliability,” Shi Yinhong, who directs the Center on American Relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said this week.. “If Bush changed his mind towards China, he could do things without too many turn-downs. But President Obama seems to give the Chinese a feeling that he is too disposed to change. He’s giving leaders the image that he’s not so reliable in playing by the rules.”

Shen Dingli, who heads the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, summed up the Chinese view of Mr. Obama’s diplomacy in a phrase: “kind of unstable.”

Of course, Mr. Obama might say the same of Beijing. China shunned Mr. Obama’s early effort to enlist it as a partner in addressing global problems, then plunged relations into a deep chill over American arms sales to Taiwan, and now has tacked toward cooperation. The White House’s toughness on both economic and military matters is based in part on a new realism about what can be achieved with the current Chinese leadership.

 But the view from here is that China’s efforts in the last two years to put ties on a better footing have been reciprocated with greater pressure on its trade and currency policies, a shift of still more military assets to the west Pacific, an effort to reassert influence over China’s neighbors and — not least — more meddling in what China considers its most sensitive interests.

“The U.S. selling weapons to Taiwan over the last three years: two batches, which is unprecedented,” Mr Shen said. “Meeting with the Dalai Lama two times in three years, which is unprecedented.”

Mr. Shen said he believes the two nations have in fact cemented some important relationships, including a much-broadened annual dialogue on strategic and economic issues that sets a framework for everything else. And Mr, Obama and President Hu Jintao do share one common realization: that no matter how rocky things get, a true rupture in relations would be disastrous for both nations. Their economies are simply too intertwined to unravel, and their competing global interests too sprawling to allow a rivalry to spin out of control.

But Mr. Obama’s latest tough moves leave rulers unclear about the president’s true intentions, he said. And they raise the hackles of certain segments of China’s elite, such as the military and its political right wing, that are hard to ignore in a leadership that governs by consensus.

Then again, Beijing may look at the alternative next November — a Republican president whose party wants still tougher China policies — and consider that, well, things aren’t so bad after all.
Mitt Romney, in his response to Mr. Obama’s address, was if anything tougher.

“Chinese leaders are hoping that the actions and words from Washington are meant for the political campaign within the country,” Mr. Shen said, “because Obama seems to have to catch up with the Republicans.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0918763fe6a2990564953f15f019a9df

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