Obama: What he said vs. What he meant
POLITICO decodes the rhetoric in Obama's final State of the Union address.
By Darren Samuelsohn
Politico
January 13, 2016
President Barack Obama used his final State of the Union speech Tuesday night to opine on the shape he wants to leave the country in for his successor. Without mentioning 2016 hopefuls like Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz by name, he joked at the start of his address about lawmakers “ansty to get back to Iowa.” Indeed, the campaign for the White House provided the backdrop for much of the speech.
Here’s POLITICO’s guide to what Obama said — and what he actually meant:
What he said: “Let’s talk about the future, and four big questions that we as a country have to answer — regardless of who the next president is, or who controls the next Congress.”
What he meant: “I’d sure like Hillary and a Democratic-led House and Senate be the ones who answer these questions.”
Obama’s domestic and foreign policy legacies stands a much better chance of surviving beyond this year if his party holds the key levers of power in Washington. Come this fall, the president is sure to be on the campaign trail telling voters just that. There will be political challenges in making this case, like trying to avoid sending the impression Hillary Clinton would really just be a third Obama term. But he worries that everything from Obamacare to the Iran deal could be in jeopardy if Republicans take control of the White House and maintain their majorities in Congress.
What he said: “For the past seven years, our goal has been a growing economy that works better for everybody. We’ve made progress. But we need to make more.”
What he meant: “Remember how George W. Bush’s second term ended? I've done a whole lot better than that!”
Wall Street may have been falling since the start of the year. Oil prices keep hitting new lows. Americans’ wages remain flat, too. But each one of these indicators are still a far cry from the Great Recession that he inherited from Team Bush. After all, Obama has plenty of positive economic signs to point to, including an unemployment rate that has leveled out at 5 percent for three straight months, as well as U.S. automakers who are cranking out popular new models and last year boasted of record sales.
What he said: “The future we want… is within our reach. But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates. It will only happen if we fix our politics.”
What he meant: “Hey Donald, you’re hurting America.”
The billionaire front-runner for the Republican nomination is tapping into something potent on the campaign trail with his fiery rhetoric about Muslims, immigrants and women. Whether it actually leads to electoral success will be proven once the voting starts in Iowa. But even Trump's GOP rivals have shifted to the right and started campaigning in ways that seem far beyond the bounds of what typically happens during a wide-open presidential primary. The fallout? Hard to believe, but Washington could be even more dysfunctional after Obama leaves office.
What he said: “As we speak, Iran has rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and the world has avoided another war.”
What he meant: “Here’s another BFD!”
Obama has plenty of critics from both parties in Congress who have denounced his nuclear deal. But he didn’t let that political reality, or even a last-minute diplomatic crisis involving 10 U.S. Navy sailors taken into Iranian custody earlier Tuesday, derail his plans to talk about the nuclear agreement that will give Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief so long as it dismantles its centrifuges and opens up its facilities to inspectors.
What he said: “I think there are outdated regulations that need to be changed. There’s red tape that needs to be cut.”
What he meant: “Um, Republicans, not those regulations.”
The GOP has a long list of controversial policies it’d like to see rolled back, namely rules implementing the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank financial reform. But those aren’t the ones Obama is talking about. The president still insists on keeping public health and safety at the top of his agenda, and the kinds of changes he’s talking about are far less controversial. As a model, look to his 2011 ‘regulatory reform’ effort that led to EPA no longer treating saccharin as a dangerous chemical and a new FDA approach for approving medical devices.
President Barack Obama used his final State of the Union speech Tuesday night to opine on the shape he wants to leave the country in for his successor. Without mentioning 2016 hopefuls like Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz by name, he joked at the start of his address about lawmakers “ansty to get back to Iowa.” Indeed, the campaign for the White House provided the backdrop for much of the speech.
Here’s POLITICO’s guide to what Obama said — and what he actually meant:
What he said: “Let’s talk about the future, and four big questions that we as a country have to answer — regardless of who the next president is, or who controls the next Congress.”
What he meant: “I’d sure like Hillary and a Democratic-led House and Senate be the ones who answer these questions.”
Obama’s domestic and foreign policy legacies stands a much better chance of surviving beyond this year if his party holds the key levers of power in Washington. Come this fall, the president is sure to be on the campaign trail telling voters just that. There will be political challenges in making this case, like trying to avoid sending the impression Hillary Clinton would really just be a third Obama term. But he worries that everything from Obamacare to the Iran deal could be in jeopardy if Republicans take control of the White House and maintain their majorities in Congress.
What he said: “For the past seven years, our goal has been a growing economy that works better for everybody. We’ve made progress. But we need to make more.”
What he meant: “Remember how George W. Bush’s second term ended? I've done a whole lot better than that!”
Wall Street may have been falling since the start of the year. Oil prices keep hitting new lows. Americans’ wages remain flat, too. But each one of these indicators are still a far cry from the Great Recession that he inherited from Team Bush. After all, Obama has plenty of positive economic signs to point to, including an unemployment rate that has leveled out at 5 percent for three straight months, as well as U.S. automakers who are cranking out popular new models and last year boasted of record sales.
What he said: “The future we want… is within our reach. But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates. It will only happen if we fix our politics.”
What he meant: “Hey Donald, you’re hurting America.”
The billionaire front-runner for the Republican nomination is tapping into something potent on the campaign trail with his fiery rhetoric about Muslims, immigrants and women. Whether it actually leads to electoral success will be proven once the voting starts in Iowa. But even Trump's GOP rivals have shifted to the right and started campaigning in ways that seem far beyond the bounds of what typically happens during a wide-open presidential primary. The fallout? Hard to believe, but Washington could be even more dysfunctional after Obama leaves office.
What he said: “As we speak, Iran has rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and the world has avoided another war.”
What he meant: “Here’s another BFD!”
Obama has plenty of critics from both parties in Congress who have denounced his nuclear deal. But he didn’t let that political reality, or even a last-minute diplomatic crisis involving 10 U.S. Navy sailors taken into Iranian custody earlier Tuesday, derail his plans to talk about the nuclear agreement that will give Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief so long as it dismantles its centrifuges and opens up its facilities to inspectors.
What he said: “I think there are outdated regulations that need to be changed. There’s red tape that needs to be cut.”
What he meant: “Um, Republicans, not those regulations.”
The GOP has a long list of controversial policies it’d like to see rolled back, namely rules implementing the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank financial reform. But those aren’t the ones Obama is talking about. The president still insists on keeping public health and safety at the top of his agenda, and the kinds of changes he’s talking about are far less controversial. As a model, look to his 2011 ‘regulatory reform’ effort that led to EPA no longer treating saccharin as a dangerous chemical and a new FDA approach for approving medical devices.
What he said: “But even if the planet wasn’t at stake; even if 2014 wasn’t the warmest year on record — until 2015 turned out even hotter — why would we want to pass up the chance for American businesses to produce and sell the energy of the future?”
What he meant: “Hey Republicans! Fat chance trying to dismantle this part of my legacy.”
The president’s climate policies are already on the books and there really aren’t too many realistic ways to undo them. Automakers have already responded to tough new fuel economy limits Obama’s EPA installed during the first term. And while two dozen states and coal companies are suing Obama over his Clean Power Plan, and the Supreme Court may very well get a say on it, that major new regulation has already sent some pretty strong market signals to the energy industry that it’s time to clean up. It also wouldn’t be very diplomatic for the United States to abandon the Paris climate deal when it's already well on its way to meeting its emission-cutting pledges. And as George W. Bush experienced when Washington’s allies condemned his moves against the Kyoto Protocol, and used it as a reason to balk at some of his post 9/11 coalition building, Obama’s success can surely expect international condemnation if it walked back from Paris.
What he meant: “Hey Republicans! Fat chance trying to dismantle this part of my legacy.”
The president’s climate policies are already on the books and there really aren’t too many realistic ways to undo them. Automakers have already responded to tough new fuel economy limits Obama’s EPA installed during the first term. And while two dozen states and coal companies are suing Obama over his Clean Power Plan, and the Supreme Court may very well get a say on it, that major new regulation has already sent some pretty strong market signals to the energy industry that it’s time to clean up. It also wouldn’t be very diplomatic for the United States to abandon the Paris climate deal when it's already well on its way to meeting its emission-cutting pledges. And as George W. Bush experienced when Washington’s allies condemned his moves against the Kyoto Protocol, and used it as a reason to balk at some of his post 9/11 coalition building, Obama’s success can surely expect international condemnation if it walked back from Paris.
What he said: “We just need to call them [ISIL] what they are — killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed.”
What he meant: “ISIL truly is the JV team.”
Obama is trying to tamp down the World War III rhetoric emanating from cable news channels and the GOP campaign stump. While he took plenty of heat in 2014 for likening ISIL to junior varsity basketball players wearing NBA uniforms, he’s arguing that bands of radicals operating from failed states hardly pose the existential threat to America that Germany and Japan did in World War II, or that the Soviet Union did during the Cold War. That's not an argument getting much traction on the campaign trail, for either party.
What he said: “Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there. We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon.
What he meant: “Can we do some big things again? Please?”
It’s been a good while since Washington functioned the way it’s supposed to. It can barely pass a budget, let alone shoot for the moon. And the country’s problems keep mounting: from the national debt to the future of entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. NASA wants to send humans to Mars by the 2030s, but that’s going to require sustained funding commitments that it hardly feels like it has right now.
What he said: “That is why I will keep working to shut down the prison at Guantanamo. It’s expensive, it’s unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies.”
What he meant: “I have one last big campaign promise from 2008 and I’m going to do everything I can to get it done — after the election.”
Congress has been blocking the president’s attempts to shut down the military prison in Cuba since he first arrived office. As he heads for the exits, Obama will spend 2016 making this happen bit by bit. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told lawmakers in December that 10 detainees would be moved at the start of this year, and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told Fox News Sunday that Obama “feels an obligation to the next president” to close Guantanamo." Betting on when the final order will go down? How about Nov. 9?
What he meant: “ISIL truly is the JV team.”
Obama is trying to tamp down the World War III rhetoric emanating from cable news channels and the GOP campaign stump. While he took plenty of heat in 2014 for likening ISIL to junior varsity basketball players wearing NBA uniforms, he’s arguing that bands of radicals operating from failed states hardly pose the existential threat to America that Germany and Japan did in World War II, or that the Soviet Union did during the Cold War. That's not an argument getting much traction on the campaign trail, for either party.
What he said: “Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there. We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon.
What he meant: “Can we do some big things again? Please?”
It’s been a good while since Washington functioned the way it’s supposed to. It can barely pass a budget, let alone shoot for the moon. And the country’s problems keep mounting: from the national debt to the future of entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. NASA wants to send humans to Mars by the 2030s, but that’s going to require sustained funding commitments that it hardly feels like it has right now.
What he said: “That is why I will keep working to shut down the prison at Guantanamo. It’s expensive, it’s unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies.”
What he meant: “I have one last big campaign promise from 2008 and I’m going to do everything I can to get it done — after the election.”
Congress has been blocking the president’s attempts to shut down the military prison in Cuba since he first arrived office. As he heads for the exits, Obama will spend 2016 making this happen bit by bit. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told lawmakers in December that 10 detainees would be moved at the start of this year, and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told Fox News Sunday that Obama “feels an obligation to the next president” to close Guantanamo." Betting on when the final order will go down? How about Nov. 9?
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