President Obama will deliver his first State of the Union Address on Wednesday, January 27th and many commentators have said that deficit reduction will form the centerpiece of his address.
Top White House officials today said that, Obama proposes to implement a freeze on discretionary spending aimed at reducing the federal deficit between $10 billion to $15 billion in 2011 and which would save $250 billion over the next decade. Officials said that homeland security, veterans affairs, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security would not be part of the spending freeze.
Obama has come under increasing criticism from Republicans, Independents and some in his own party, regarding the rising budget deficit, which is over $1.4 trillion, hence his hasty announcement to freeze spending. Some economists however, suggest that this is not a good idea, as consumers are not spending, businesses have little or no money to invest and economic recovery is still very tenuous.
In a symbolic gesture, the administration also announced today too that, the salaries of top executives would be frozen at a certain level.
Within the context of Obama’s spending freeze, most observers expect his address will also focus on job creation, which the president has said is his top priority for 2010. With a too high national unemployment rate of 10.0 percent, many jobless Americans would be listening keenly to how Obama’s proposes to get them working again.
As to health care reform, many pundits believe that the president would make mention of this is his address. But, as it stands, reform legislation is stuck at the “process” level, given that Democrats no longer hold a super-majority in the Senate owing to their recent Massachusetts defeat. And the question is, how are they going to get the bill out of the Congress. So, the president is expected to cheer lead for health care reform, as part of his deficit reduction plan.
The president would discuss terrorism, most observers anticipate, although it is the view that its treatment would not be extensive. Interestingly, a recent Pew Research Center poll suggests that Americans ranked terrorism as second to economic issues in terms of priorities, followed by the deficit and health care, respectively.
Whatever Obama focuses on in his State-of-the Union address, with a population growing increasingly frustrated–millions have lost their jobs and see little prospects for re-hiring in the near term–and approval ratings below the majority level, he has an opportunity to win back the support of some Americans who no longer approve of the job he is doing.  Much will depend on the quality of his speech.
