In the first State of the Union after his re-election, President Obama was confident and energetic as he outlined a vision that may well define his legacy. No president is assured that Congress will follow the agenda that he articulates during the State of the Union, in part because the President does not own the agenda. Those who occupy the Presidency are reactive creatures.
What the President was attempting tonight was to frame many of the debates that will be, or already are, on the public agenda.
He begins by framing the duty of the representatives sitting in the room by quoting JFK: "'the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress…It is my task to report the State of the Union – to improve it is the task of us all.'" The President states a truism, the Constitution calls for cross institutional cooperation and collaboration. That is often forgotten by the public, but it is critical in the game of governing because it forces Congress to take ownership of the problems and solutions; they are not bystanders.
To the policy debates, the President wants to set the terms of the debates because it can potentially give him an upper-hand in bargaining. Framing deficit reduction he stated, "To hit the rest of our deficit reduction target, we should do what leaders in both parties have already suggested, and save hundreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and well-connected. After all, why would we choose to make deeper cuts to education and Medicare just to protect special interest tax breaks? How is that fair? How does that promote growth?"
Here the President credits Congress, and both parties, with the idea of closing loopholes which reaffirms the legitimacy of that branch of government; he then puts those opposed to the idea on defense by framing the deficit debate as an either or proposition. Question becomes: Is it fair to give tax breaks to oil companies while Senior citizens are asked to pay more for healthcare? Where would you want to be on that question?
To Congress the President continued to attempt to frame the debate about jobs and the economy by stating: "Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?"
This is indicative of the President's belief in an active government, but it also frames how to think about job creation in the United States.
Finally, in the most emotional segment of the speech, the President attempts to frame the response to gun violence and reminds the Representatives of their duty. "Our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country. Indeed, no laws, no initiatives, no administrative acts will perfectly solve all the challenges I’ve outlined tonight. But we were never sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to make what difference we can, to secure this nation, expand opportunity, and uphold our ideals through the hard, often frustrating, but absolutely necessary work of self-government."
The President was not out to set the agenda, after all, many past presidents have tried and failed. But what he may have success in doing is framing these policy debates that are already on the public agenda in ways that benefit him as he searches for a legacy.
