Congress is off to prom

The media is obsessed with the senior-prom nature of this year’s State of the Union
address. My friends in press shops on Capitol Hill say that without a doubt, the
most frequently asked question from the media this week is: “Who is your boss’s
date for the speech?”

With two unpaid-for wars going on, a federal budget deficit and debt threatening
to bankrupt our nation, a seemingly never-ending Bush recession putting millions
of Americans out of work, a renewal of secret meetings between Congress and major
corporations given unfettered access to set policies that enhance their bottom line
while endangering public health, all the media can focus on is who will be the SOTU
prom king and queen.

Though he has called for more civility in our public discourse and will likely include
several passages on this theme in his address, President Obama is looking beyond
the corsages and taffeta and putting solid ideas for America on the table.

The president is expected to outline an aggressive plan to put people to work in
the new innovation economy. He will outline investments in clean technology, renewable
energy and innovative American companies that are manufacturing ideas, products
and jobs. He has tapped a new leader of his council on innovation and job creation
and is focusing like a laser on how to incentivize investment, growth and job creation.

While members of Congress hold hands under the table, the president is dropping
a challenge on top of it. After the speech, on Wednesday morning, will this new
spirit of civility, spawned by an awful act of violence in the American Southwest,
take hold and produce results for America?

Hard to say. But there are some warning signs that the civility ends when the prom
dresses come off.

Republican leaders have indicated that their definition of bipartisanship is the
president doing what they tell him to do. This isn’t surprising. This form of bipartisanship
is how President Bush governed and successfully passed the economic policies that
created the worst recession since the Great Depression. Maybe it’s arrogance or
it’s the flood of power rushing to his head, but there have been reports this week
that newly minted Republican Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) has refused invitations
from the president to meet at the White House to discuss how they can work together
on the important issues facing the country. That’s not very civil.

Then there are the outside groups, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that spent
more than $100 million last year alone lobbying against this president, attacking
his policies, and undermining the administration. That’s $100 million spent by the
Chamber and its member companies that didn’t create a single job in America, unless
you count all the lobbyists on their payroll. One report I saw indicated the Chamber
is approaching $1 billion in lobbying expenditures over the past 10 years. That’s
a lot of corporate cheese not being invested in the economy or creating jobs.

So you see, the president is facing some serious challenges. He pulled the American
economy back from the brink, ended unfair policies by health insurers, extended
access to healthcare for 32 million Americans, provided massive tax relief to all
Americans, reversed the severe job losses of the last administration and now will
spur additional job creation and economic growth by supporting America’s innovative
and creative companies. Let’s hope that Congress stops wasting time fighting the
legislative battles of the past and joins him in his effort to put Americans back
to work.

David
Di Martino is the CEO of Blue Line Strategic Communications Inc. The views expressed
in this blog are his and do not necessarily represent Blue Line’s. Follow David:
@bluelinedd.