State of the Union Redux
President Obama Scolds Donald Trump for Focus on Muslims. Time: “President Obama had some strong words for Republican candidates—especially party frontrunner Donald Trump—who have been warning that Muslims pose a threat in the United States. ’We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion’” he said. ‘This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong.’ Trump proposed a temporary ban on all Muslims from entering the United States after the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., and he often mocks the positions of his opponents as ‘politically correct.’”
Obama turns his back on Congress. Politico: “President Barack Obama still has a year left in office but his final State of the Union address felt like an early wave goodbye to Capitol Hill. The 5,400 word speech included just four direct asks of Congress: more money for combating malaria, a new authorization for waging war on the Islamic State, an end to the embargo against Cuba and approval of a sweeping trade deal with Pacific Rim countries. … It’s relatively rare for a State of the Union address to include so few congressional requests. Historically, the annual address is filled with lofty policy goals and sweeping requests for legislation. But after years of disappointment, failed deals and bitter partisan fighting, Obama seems to have had enough of trying to work with Congress, even as he’s pursued executive actions on immigration, environmental regulations and guns.”
Slate’s Jamelle Bouie hears the president’s plea to heal our politics: “More than anything else, President Obama’s final State of the Union address was a plea for cooperation and compromise—an appeal to America’s citizenry, not just its public. ‘[D]emocracy does require basic bonds of trust between its citizens,’ said Obama at the conclusion of his address. ‘It doesn’t work if we think the people who disagree with us are all motivated by malice, or that our political opponents are unpatriotic.’ All of this speaks to Obama’s particular view of American exceptionalism, where America is shorthand for its people, and their ability—and willingness—to confront America with its ideals and push the nation to achieve them. With this final State of the Union address, Obama is asking Americans to do just that. To live up to the traits that make them exceptional.”
Matthew Yglesias writes that Obama declared victory in the culture war in his final State of the Union: “Obama said not only that he favored equal marriage rights for gay and straight couples, but that such rights had already been achieved and not just achieved but achieved as the crowning example of the spirit that underlay all the accomplishments of his administration. And Democrats stood and clapped for it. Not just the ones from New York and California but the ones from Missouri and Virginia and Ohio, too. The underlying structure of public opinion on this issue has completely transformed over the course of Obama’s relatively brief time in the national limelight, and paired with the historic election of a black president it’s given liberals an extraordinary spring in their step.”
The GOP Response
Republican Nikki Haley takes swipe at her party in State of the Union response. The Guardian: “South Carolina governor Nikki Haley decried “noise” in the Republican presidential campaign she said was obscuring her party’s message – and threatening its inroads with non-traditional voters – in a veiled but forceful response to Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Thursday. The remark represented a break in form for the annual Republican response to the president’s speech State of the Union address, as Haley pushed back against candidates who risked defining the party by their bluster rather than by their vision for the nation’s future.”
S. Carolina gov. defends immigrants in response to Obama’s address. Aljazeera America: “Americans should resist ”the siren call of the angriest voices“ in how the nation treats immigrants, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said as the GOP used its formal response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address to try softening the tough stance embraced by some of its leading presidential candidates. … No one who works hard and follows the laws ”should ever feel unwelcome in this country,“ she said. Mentioned by some as a potential vice presidential candidate, Haley said the U.S. should continue admitting ‘properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion’ — an apparent reference to calls by Trump to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the country. She also hewed closely to long-time GOP demands in the immigration debate, saying: ‘That does not mean we just flat out open our borders.’”
Haley Faces Conservative Backlash After SOTU Response. NBC News: “South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley impressed some Democrats and moderate Republicans with her Republican response to the State of the Union Tuesday night - but there’s already backlash brewing on the conservative right. ‘Trump should deport Nikki Haley,’ conservative commentator Ann Coulter tweeted part way through Haley’s speech. She later added: ‘Nikki Haley says ‘welcoming properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of religion.’ Translation: let in all the Muslims.’ … The lines in the speech getting particular notice are those that seem to allude to Donald Trump – particularly when Haley said, ‘there’s a tendency to falsely equate noise with results.’”
Breakfast Sides
House panel moves to cut workplace rights for top civil servants. Washington Post: “In the name of protecting veterans, Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the White House joined Republicans in attacking the due-process rights of top civil servants in the Department of Veterans Affairs almost 18 months ago. Democrats, who might normally oppose such a measure, told themselves undermining the workplace protections of VA Senior Executive Service (SES) members was necessary to help reform a department that had disgraced itself with a scandal over the cover-up of long wait times. But it didn’t take much foresight to see what Republicans had in mind – making it easier to fire federal employees across the government, starting with senior executives.”
Kentucky Governor Tells Feds He Will Dismantle State’s Insurance Exchange. NPR: “Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has notified the federal government that Kentucky will dismantle its state health insurance exchange, Kynect. The move will direct Kentuckians seeking health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, to use the federal health insurance site, HealthCare.gov. More than 500,000 people have gotten health insurance through Kynect.”
Louisiana’s New Governor Signs an Order to Expand Medicaid. NY Times: On Tuesday, his second day in office, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed an executive order expanding Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, fulfilling a campaign promise that will expand health coverage to hundreds of thousands of people in one of the nation’s poorest states. The action by Mr. Edwards, a Democrat, under President Obama’s health care law was expected to be one of the most significant and immediate results of his election in November, when he defeated Senator David Vitter, a Republican whose campaign was tainted by a prostitution scandal."
