Citizen Power

President Obama Confident with a Focus on ENERGY, Healthcare, and Education

President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress Tuesday night and did all he could to calm our fears and give us a vision for the future, and he knocked it out of the park. He spoke with confidence of our economy (much more confidence than I feel) and of America’s ability to tackle great problems and find solutions. I especially liked the part about focusing on 3 things (besides the economy and jobs) in the future: Energy, health care, and education. Notice there is no longer any paranoid focus on terrorism, or war, or “national security”. Also noticed he managed to give an entire speech without using the words “war on terror” or the WWII Nazi-like word “homeland”, a word I absolutely despise. (I do not live in a “homeland”, I live in my country, known as the U.S.A. My home is in Minnesota.) The text of his speech in its entirety can be found here, and there is video there also. The speech also went over well with viewers. According to the Huffington Post:

“…a poll on CNN showed that 68 percent of respondents — who skewed a bit Democratic — viewed the speech positively, 24 somewhat positively, and only eight percent not positively. Eighty-two percent supported the president’s economic plan as outlined in the speech, while 17 percent opposed it.”

It was a speech that was light years more calm, confident, adept, knowledgeable, and wise than anything his predecessor could have given on his best day. If this speech doesn’t take care of banks and investor attitudes, there is no hope for them. Yet he he made very clear that we must make clean energy a top priority, that we have to get off foreign oil, and that we have to “save our planet from the ravages of climate change”. Here are some of the energy related excerpts:

“We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before….

Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. . . .

The recovery plan and the financial stability plan are the immediate steps we’re taking to revive our economy in the short-term. But the only way to fully restore America’s economic strength is to make the long-term investments that will lead to new jobs, new industries, and a renewed ability to compete with the rest of the world. The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil….

We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril, and claimed opportunity from ordeal. Now we must be that nation again. That is why, even as it cuts back on the programs we don’t need, the budget I submit will invest in the three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future: energy, health care, and education.

The specifics on clean energy and climate change action:

“It begins with energy.

We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century. And yet, it is China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient. We invented solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it. New plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea.

Well I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I know you don’t either. It is time for America to lead again.

Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years. We have also made the largest investment in basic research funding in American history — an investment that will spur not only new discoveries in energy, but breakthroughs in medicine, science, and technology.

We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country. And we will put Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions of dollars on our energy bills.

But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. And to support that innovation, we will invest fifteen billion dollars a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.

As for our auto industry, everyone recognizes that years of bad decision-making and a global recession have pushed our automakers to the brink. We should not, and will not, protect them from their own bad practices. But we are committed to the goal of a re-tooled, re-imagined auto industry that can compete and win. Millions of jobs depend on it. Scores of communities depend on it. And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.

None of this will come without cost, nor will it be easy. But this is America. We don’t do what’s easy. We do what is necessary to move this country forward.”

Everyone who voted for President Obama can now pat themselves on the back. This degree of intelligence and understanding of our problems has not been evidence in Washington for years — at least 8 of them. President Bush cared nothing for our climate or fighting climate change and he was more beholden to the fossil fuel industries than he was to the American people. He wasted 8 long years of time in fighting climate change and did nothing to get us off foreign oil and other fossil fuels, and we will never get those years back. But it’s now clear we have a new person in charge and that things will be different in the future. Maybe not drastically different in every way, but in ways that matter, like clean energy, the two presidents are night and day. I’m so grateful we are now about to go to work on clean energy and climate change. And yes, I’m relieved.

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