Without Congress, Obama Will Not Be Able To Accomplish Much

President Barack Obama sounded aggressive during his State of the Union, but it cannot be denied that he desperately requires the support of Congress for key measures.

Following a particularly bad year, those who expected Obama to come across as staunchly ideological during his annual State of the Union address — with much attention paid to the ever-growing income inequality in America — will have felt cheated: remarkably so since this fall brings elections for the lion’s share of Congress, during which Democrats in the House of Representatives must compete with their Republican opponents.

Voices within the left wing of his own party have long grumbled that Obama does little for liberals and progressives, that he does not fight in their corner often enough.

Headlock

He could have given them a helping hand in his speech, but, aside from an acknowledgement that he planned to increase the minimum wage for federal workers by $3 — to $10.10 — there was little of this to be seen. Moreover, these measures will only apply to new contracts.

While Obama does not require authorization from Congress for this last adjustment, it will be required in order to realize almost all his other plans. Since members of Congress and the White House have had each other in a headlock for some time now, not much has been achieved.

The president sounded aggressive and pragmatic, yet there were few oratorial triumphs.

The Centerpiece

The key area of immigration offers some hope; in particular, the focus on providing millions of immigrants without papers with a path to legal status. If not only for electoral reasons, Republicans are also beginning to admit that something needs to happen.

This could be the centerpiece in Obama’s trophy cabinet — the health insurance law is so controversial that it cannot be classed as a masterpiece just yet, and Obama’s other promise has become such a laborious issue that his renewed call for the closure of the terrorist detention camp Guantánamo Bay simply sounded gratuitous.