Opinion

Nothing new

Opinion of The Tampa Tribune
Published: February 16, 2013

We give President Barack Obama credit for recognizing the weak economy remains the nation's biggest challenge in his State of the Union address. But he's still wedded to the big government solutions that failed to lift the nation from the fiscal muck during his first term.

In his spirited speech Tuesday night, the president saw the path to prosperity through government spending — on education, clean energy and infrastructure.

We don't dispute, despite what some segments of the tea party would say, that targeted public investments, such as the president's "Fix It First" proposal to build and repair infrastructure, can pay off. But the driving force of the economy is private enterprise. Rather than acknowledging that, the president was stuck in campaign mode, continually pitting haves against have-nots.

The president called for bipartisan solutions but made clear he would go his own way on climate change if Congress did not agree. He made a rousing call for a vote on his gun control proposals, but they have little chance of winning Republican support. His surprise plan to hasten the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is unlikely to reassure those skeptical of his foreign policy.

The speech did little to diminish the possibility of the sequestration spending cuts to the military and other federal programs, but the president was absolutely right to argue the greatest nation on Earth cannot continue "to drift from one manufactured crisis to another."

The president, of course, won the election and is not obligated to chart a middle ground. But his State of the Union speech, however well delivered, suggests the nation will remain very much divided during his second term.