Obama speech to focus on economy, guns
President Barack Obama
will be looking across a vast partisan divide on Tuesday night as he reports to
congress and the nation with his annual State of the Union speech, which is
closely monitored as the blueprint for his goals for the year. They include job
creation and a push for the ambitious progressive plans he outlined in his
second inaugural address three weeks ago.Obama hopes he can encourage lawmakers
to join him in reforming laws on gun ownership and immigration and boosting
taxes to raise government spending power. The president's priorities also
include easing back on spending cuts and addressing climate change.He'll also
address the news from North Korea, which said it successfully detonated a
nuclear device on Tuesday in defiance of UN warnings. The White House said the
president would make the case that the nuclear programme had only further
isolated the impoverished nation.Aware of the partisan gridlock gripping
Washington, Obama is banking on his popularity and the political capital from
his convincing re-election in November as he calls on Americans to join him in
his vision for what he calls a fairer country with greater opportunity for
all.With Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and exerting
influence in the Democratic-controlled Senate, Obama plans immediately
afterward to make a two-day, three-state foray to take his message directly to
the American people. Congress fought the president to a near standstill on
virtually every White House initiative during his first term - though he
succeeded in overhauling the health care system.In his second term, Obama has
decided that he may stand a better chance of moving his agenda through congress
by drawing support from outside the capital rather than from within.Massive
federal spending cuts that will hit the US economy on 1 March if a compromise
isn't hammered out with Congress will surely colour Obama's speech like nothing
else. Some economists predict those cuts could push the US back into recession
even before it has fully recovered from the Great Recession - the most serious
economic downturn in more than 70 years.The cuts will slice deeply into
spending for the Pentagon and a range of social programmes. Obama says he wants
"a balanced approach" to tackling the spiralling deficit with a mix
of increased tax revenue and cuts in spending.The opposition declares it will
not give ground on raising taxes.While the deep cuts, which grew out of a
failure to reach a deal in 2011, were conceived as a blow to the budget that is
unacceptable to both parties, some Republicans are threatening to let it go
forward if Obama does not agree to big cuts in the so-called social safety net
programmes such as Medicare and Medicaid, which provide health care and other
assistance to the elderly and poor, as well as Social Security retirement
benefits.Obama also was expected to refocus on creating jobs in a country where
the unemployment rate remains at nearly 8%. He failed to address the issue in
any depth in his inaugural address, leaving his political opponents an opening
to criticise him for ignoring an issue of over-riding importance.Obama also is
deeply invested in pushing for new laws aimed at curbing gun violence. Spurred
by the mass shooting in December at a Connecticut school that killed 20
children and six adults, Obama and like-minded Democrats are pushing for
tougher regulations requiring universal background checks for gun buyers and
bans on military-style assault weapons and high-volume ammunition magazines.He
will no doubt return to the issue on Tuesday night in the face of angry
opposition from the National Rifle Association gun rights lobbying group, many
Republicans and even some moderate Democrats. They say any change in gun laws
would violate the Constitution's Second Amendment guarantee of the right to
bear arms.To underscore the president's position, first lady Michelle Obama
will sit with the parents of a Chicago teenager shot and killed just days after
she performed at the president's inauguration. Twenty-two House members have
invited people affected by gun violence.On the other side of the issue,
Republican Representative Steve Stockman says he's invited rocker Ted Nugent, a
long-time gun control opponent who last year said he would end up "dead or
in jail" if Obama won re-election.Another presidential priority - and
possibly the most likely to succeed in getting passed by congress- is granting
illegal residents a pathway to citizenship as part of an overhaul immigration
reform. The initiative is deeply unpopular in many House Republicans'
districts, but it has the support of some prominent Republican lawmakers who
understand that their party needs to soften its stance on immigration if it is
to win crucial Hispanic votes.Obama will face continuing opposition to any
proposal he puts forward in an effort to curb climate change. Given that any
major climate bill is unlikely to pass the divided congress, the White House
has said Obama intends to move forward on issuing rules to control carbon emissions
from power plants as he relies increasingly on his executive authority
instead.Senator Marco Rubio, a fast-rising Republican star, was picked by the
party's mainstream leadership to give its traditional response immediately
after Obama speaks. The first-term Cuban-American senator is seen as a
potential 2016 presidential candidate. Senator Rand Paul of the Republicans'
tea party wing, a loose collection of lawmakers determined above all else to
shrink government and lower taxes, plans to give an unofficial response.
Global body warns G20 on financial unity
The global banking
industry on Monday urged the Group of 20 economic powers to deliver on pledges
to harmonise financial regulation, warning their commitment appears to be
fraying. The Institute of International Finance said its members were "deeply troubled" by the current trend
toward "increasingly fragmented financial regulation. "The tendency
of nations to act to protect their own financial service sectors and taxpayers
against future global risk "is threatening to undo decades of cross-border
cooperation," the IIF said in a statement. "If we fail to preserve
the spirit and the fact of international harmonisation of financial regulation,
we run the risk of inhibiting the global economic regeneration so desperately
needed by people everywhere. "In a letter to G20 finance ministers and
central bankers to meet on Friday and on Saturday in Moscow, the IIF, which
represents more than 450 financial institutions around the world, called on the
G20 powers to renew their willingness to work together for the good of the
global economy. "We believe the G20 must reinvigorate the policy
coordination process and recommit to the cooperative spirit of the London and Pittsburgh G20 Summits,"
the letter said.
Dutch minister wants banking pay cuts
Dutch Finance Minister
Jeroen Dijsselbloem wants all bank employees to take a pay cut in return for
the state support that has been given to most of the country's biggest banks,
he told a local newspaper in an interview published on Monday.Dijsselbloem, who
is also chair of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, nationalised the
Netherlands' fourth-largest bank and insurance group, SNS Reaal, ten days
ago.ABN AMRO was nationalised and both ING and Aegon were bailed out by the
state in 2008. The bank rescues and high salaries earned by senior bankers have
prompted a public outcry at a time of budget cuts and austerity
measures."We have saved jobs partly thanks to state support. Therefore I
think it is reasonable for employees to also make a contribution,"
Dijsselbloem told De Telegraaf, the Netherlands' largest circulation newspaper."It is true that banks' collective
labour agreements are quite generous, also for regular employees. I think there
is every reason for banks' collective labour agreements to be more sober, and
it really has to happen now," he said. Dijsselbloem wants the labour
agreements between unions and employer groups, which usually cover one or
several years, to be severed and adjusted, he told the paper.Dijsselbloem has
no power to lower salaries in a specific sector. He can levy specific taxes on
banks, though not their employees."I want the sector to take action on its
own. Society wants a clear signal. I will put pressure on this," he said.Dijsselbloem
last week defended in parliament the annual salary of €550 000 ($735 900) for
the newly appointed SNS Reaal chief executive, Gerard van Olphen, saying the
pay was needed to attract a qualified banker.
North Korea sends nuclear message
North Korea's nuclear
test may be aimed at showing its foes it can deliver a missile with a warhead
but it is still a long way from being able to threaten the US, experts say. The
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), an international
monitoring agency in Vienna, said an "explosion-like" event that North Korea described as a nuclear test had a seismic magnitude of 5. This was
bigger than similar tests it carried out in 2006 and 2009.CTBTO executive
secretary Tibor Toth said the action "constitutes a clear threat to
international peace and security and challenges efforts to strengthen global
nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation". North Korea said the test,
which drew swift international condemnation, had used a miniaturised device.The
secretive Asian state is widely believed to be trying to develop a device that
is compact and light enough to fit on top of a ballistic missile
"something that has long been considered out of the North's technical
reach," the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri)
said.A successful test would bring it one step closer to having the capability
of building a long-range ballistic missile that could deliver a nuclear weapon,
Sipri said.Nuclear proliferation expert Mark Fitzpatrick of the International
Institute for Strategic Studies in London said: "It won't be possible to
confirm from afar, but the claim of a successful miniaturised device is
consistent with expectations that the test would be of a warhead that can fit
in the nose cone of one of its missiles."Jim Walsh of Massachusetts
Institute of Technology said: "It seems as if Pyongyang wants to send the
message true or not that it can employ a missile with a nuclear warhead and
that previous problems with their nuclear tests have been
overcome."However, North Korea still had a long way to go before it could credibly threaten the US with nuclear weapons,
said Daryl Kimball from the Arms Control Association, a US-based research and
advocacy group."It is likely to be years away from fielding an ICBM
(Intercontinental Ballistic Missile), which could deliver a nuclear warhead to
the US mainland. There is still time to halt and reverse current trends before
North Korea's nuclear capabilities become more substantial."An international
test-ban treaty was negotiated in the 1990s but has not yet taken effect
because not all holders of nuclear technology have ratified it. The
Vienna-based CBTBO monitors possible breaches, looking out for signs of atomic
tests, including seismic waves and radioactive traces.Experts say it can take
days or more to detect possible radioactive signs that would confirm with
absolute certainty that a nuclear test had taken place.Seen as a cornerstone of
efforts to free the world of atomic bombs, the test ban treaty enjoys wide
support around the world. But of the five officially recognised nuclear weapon
states, the US and China have yet to ratify it."Though confirmation will take some time,
given the seismic signature and the important fact North Korea has never lied
when it comes to nuclear tests, I think we can take them at their word and
assume this was the explosion of a nuclear device," a Western diplomat in
the Austrian capital said. Kimball also said the test was an embarrassment for China's leadership and Pyongyang may have jeopardised
the aid and diplomatic support it receives from Beijing.China criticised the
previous tests but did not roll back on aid. But Beijing had signalled that if
North Korea undertook further tests, it would not hesitate to reduce assistance."Indeed,
Beijing could do much more to apply pressure. Past Chinese diplomatic and
economic support has allowed North Korea to ignore world opinion, in spite of the desperate state of its economy
and hunger-ravaged population. It is important that Beijing now demonstrate its
last warning was sincere," Kimball said.
No comments:
Post a Comment