Thursday, February 26, 2009
Editorial: Harsh truths, a hopeful vision
President Obama was honest about the severity of the nation's problems, but he laid out a path for returning to prosperity.
From the RoundTable blog
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President Obama delivered a clear-eyed assessment of the nation's grim economy to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. His overarching message, though, was upbeat and confident: We can do better than simply endure a deepening worldwide recession; we can come out of it a better nation.
The president struck a balance between the painful honesty the times require and the hopes he has inspired.
He issued an urgent call to turn a crisis into an opportunity to address festering national ills: dependence on foreign oil, an unsustainable health care system and an education system that continues to leave many children behind.
"The day of reckoning has arrived," he said with calm assurance, "and the time to take charge of our future is here." Congress willing.
Obama presented a bold vision Tuesday that closely matched his winning campaign themes. He continues to ride high in public opinion polls. His success, though, rests with Congress and its willingness to follow his lead.
Lawmakers must be willing to pass enabling legislation, to embrace the president's budget priorities and rewrite the tax code, all the while resisting the pleadings of interest groups and the natural inclination to keep doing business as usual. That's a daunting challenge, even for a president working with a Congress dominated by his own party.
More daunting still is that it comes in already tumultuous times, while major financial institutions teeter on the brink of insolvency, consumer confidence has hit rock bottom and the only promise economists can make is that things will get worse before they get better.
Obama proposes to use the recession, a time when government spending is an essential lubricant for a stalled economy, as a means to tackle intractable problems head on. Is success assured? By no means. But Americans have seen what doesn't work.
Obama showed a refreshing candor Tuesday night about the seriousness of the problems the nation faces and noted: "Given these realities, everyone in this chamber -- Democrats and Republicans -- will have to sacrifice some worthy priorities for which there are no dollars. And that includes me."
Perhaps that explains the absence of any mention of universal health care, the major disappointment of the evening.
Just how far Obama will push his future-oriented agenda will be more evident today, when he is scheduled to release his administration's budget blueprint.
The philosophical framework he outlined Tuesday night broadly identified problems that will weaken the nation if they continue to be left unaddressed. No American should wish the administration anything but success in meeting them.
