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Opting for small steps
In our view
By its very nature, the State of the Union Address is a wide-ranging document. The president is required to elaborate on foreign threats and domestic accomplishments; to highlight proposals that will gain bipartisan traction and support those bills he favors but knows will churn forever in the back rooms of Congress. He must chide Congress to act and, in the same breath, ask them for support.
With that in mind, anyone who expected Tuesday's address to be the prelude to a "grand bargain" was misreading the tea leaves.
What President Barack Obama offered instead were mini-bargains -- proposals that will move the country forward and strengthen the middle class. To accomplish that, he staked out positions that already have bipartisan support.
Both parties claim they want to reform the tax code and reduce tax loopholes. Said the president: "Now is the time."
He pointed to the need to build facilities to provide workers with new skills and to make high school diplomas more meaningful by establishing partnerships to give teens transferable skills and knowledge. He emphasized the need to make early childhood education accessible for every child. Studies show that every $1 invested in early childhood education saves taxpayers $7 later. Republicans and Democrats have offered proposals to accomplish those goals. Now is the time to act.
Both parties acknowledge the need to reform immigration laws that threaten people with deportation with virtually no chance to return to their families in this country. It has long been a priority with Democrats and, following the last election, it is finally gaining acceptance with some Republicans.
Both parties understand the need for a strong military that takes care of its personnel not only in theaters of operation but also when they return home. And he reminded members that sequestration -- the automatic across-the-board spending cuts due to take effect in March unless a spending deal is struck -- will hurt military preparedness every bit as much as it will hurt domestic programs that liberals favor.
Although he was vague, the president said entitlements -- Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- also must be reformed. Both parties agree in principle that changes in those programs are necessary.
The president concluded by issuing a call -- to sustained applause -- for common-sense gun legislation mandating comprehensive background checks and a ban on assault-style weapons and large-capacity magazines. He made it personal, invoking the names of shooting victims Hadiya Pendleton of Chicago and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords and alluding to the 1,000 people who have died from gun violence since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings just eight weeks ago. He put lawmakers on notice by calling for a vote on those measures so the American people can see who is willing to support common-sense gun control and who is not.
Each of these minibargains -- for which common ground already exists -- pave a way for the nation to move forward.
Taken together, they provide for a different kind of grand bargain -- one that would demonstrate a willingness on the part of Congress to put national interests ahead of party interests.
Each of these minibargains -- for which common ground already exists -- pave a way for the nation to move forward.
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