Desperation

President Barack Obama will speak on Thursday to a joint session of the U.S. Congress about the ways in which he intends to resolve the asphyxiating unemployment problem his country suffers from. He is expected to expand upon his plan to abate unemployment, which is now around 10 percent. In an increasingly polarized environment, he will have to choose a side, as his neutrality has only favored the status quo.

Obama’s speech is expected to reflect, once and for all, who will benefit from his economic and social policies. On the one hand, those who voted for him have watched with dismay as the hope of promised change dissolves with each decision ceding to the pressures of his most conspicuous opponents, headed by the fanatics of the tea party. Health, taxes and the environment, among other issues, have been sacrificed at the altar of a never-achieved consensus. On the other hand, there are those who hope that the conservatives’ politics of blackmail conclude with the president’s already scarce will for the promised change.

The announcement of lower taxes, major reductions in governmental intervention in the economy and fewer regulations to contain corporate voraciousness are some of the statements that this group would like to hear and would be the crowning glory of the conservative offensive announced the same day Obama took office. Lastly, there are those who fear that the president will again be inclined toward a bipartisan solution in accordance with his politics of consensus. This would not leave anyone satisfied and thus would further prolong the impasse that the nation entered into some months ago, the most apparent effect of which is the deterioration of the quality of life for the majority of the population, one aspect of which is the high level of unemployment.

More than one left-wing economist has complained about the president’s lack of decisiveness to take more drastic measures to shore up the economy and avoid entering another recession. Greater resources designated for the construction sector, especially spending on infrastructure, and greater monetary and fiscal stimulus spending for the middle class and the poor form part of the proposals from this group of specialists.

This may perhaps be one of the last opportunities for the president to burnish his deteriorated image, siding with those who supported him in 2008 and ending concessions to the increasingly draconian measures that his opponents are proposing to reduce the deficit, one of which is the layoff of tens of thousands of federal employees.

A public employee jumped from the city hall of Costa Mesa, a city in Southern California, when, along with half of the city’s government employees, he received a layoff notice as part of austerity measures imposed by the local government. Obama should not ignore that it is just one example of the desperation in which millions of other workers are living.