President Obama gave his constitutionally mandated Congressional talking-to last night. According to Richard Neustadt, a political scientist noted for his study of the American presidency, Obama was exercising his power of persuasion. Neustadt believes that the president's ability to persuade Congress, other political operators, and the American public is the president's most important and useful power. True, the president is required to meet with Congress "from time to time", but last night's speech wasn't really to Congress. Granted, they were sitting in the room, looking mildly interested (except you, Boehner), but Obama was speaking to the American public. From the bully pulpit, the president can attempt to persuade the public to pressure their representatives to support his initiatives. Depending on the political setting, this can be more effective than trying to persuade the legislators themselves.
I think Obama did a fair job of exercising his power of persuasion last night. It wasn't Obama's greatest speech, but it was good, and he said quite a few things that needed to be said. Given the lost Democratic majority in Congress, Obama needed to make an opening for some teamwork, which was nonexistent in the last Congress. By stating his willingness to compromise and interest in pursuing issues of concern to Republicans, he put the ball in their court. This step, however ineffective it may turn out to be, was very important. Obama is going to have to run for election, and since thus far he hasn't been able to change the political tone of Washington, he's going to need to be able to point to the Republicans and say "Hey, I tried. Those guys are just assholes." In fact, Obama has demonstrated his willingness to compromise many times in the last few years, much to the chagrin of some on the left, but Republicans have been much more effective playing the PR game, stirring up incoherent, irrational anti-government sentiment in Fox News viewers across the country.
I'll go through his main objectives, and discuss how he might be able to achieve them through formal or informal means.
Energy and Climate Change
While carefully not mentioning cap-and-trade, Obama asked Congress to pass a climate and energy bill addressing offshore drilling and beginning the construction of new nuclear power plants. These objectives are essentially relegated to Obama's informal powers, since he obviously cannot make the legislation himself. Although some of his energy/climate goals may be able to be addressed by various government agencies, his most important power will be his power to persuade to garner support for the legislation. Obama also stated his intent to invest in research in areas that would create jobs for America and protect the environment, as well as introducing two goals: become the first country with 1 million electric cars by 2015, and get 80% of our energy from clean sources by 2035. These proposals are huge, and are largely an encouragement to the various industries involved, but they could also be helped along by regulatory agencies (formal power) and tax credits/laws (informal - persuasion).
Tax Cuts
Obama touted the tax relief given to 95% of working families, including the recent reduction in the payroll tax. He proposed a tax on big banks and allowing tax cuts for oil companies and those making more than $250,000 a year to expire. As with his proposed energy bill, Obama relies upon his informal powers to make this happen, since Congress controls the purse.
The Deficit
In addressing the growing budget deficit, Obama announced an upcoming proposal to reorganize the federal government in an effort to save money and increase efficiency. He also called for Congress to simplify the tax code, removing loopholes in the complex rules that allow many corporations to avoid paying sizable amounts of taxes. Instead of raising taxes, he argued, we should actually make corporations pay the ones that are already in place. Obama called for a 5 year freeze on discretionary, non-defense spending. He also pledged to veto any bill that came to his desk with pork attached. This pledge was pretty great. It's all fine and good for politicians on both sides of the aisle to rail against pork, but this is the first real stand anyone's taken against it. His veto pledge can be enforced through the former power of the veto, but the others rely on informal powers.
Healthcare
The president joked that he had heard rumors that some people weren't happy with the health care law. That said, he told Congress that repealing the bill wasn't the right way to address problems with it. He stated that he was willing to work with critics of the bill to improve it, playing the "be a bigger man" card again by making the House's repeal vote look like a petty temper tantrum. The legislation is safe, thanks to the President's veto power. Even if the Senate were to vote to repeal the bill, which they won't, a supermajority in both houses (needed to override the veto) is extraordinarily unlikely.
Education
Obama outlined his vision for bringing the American education system up to speed with the rest of the world. His goals are to train 100,000 new math and science teachers over the next 10 years and attain the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. He has some formal power over these goals through the department of education, but Obama was directly asking people in the United States to become teachers. "Your country needs you," he said - a direct use of his power to persuade. He also asked Congress to make the tuition tax credit permanent, again, informal.
