A RECURRENT refrain of US president Barack Obama’s speech last week to a joint session of Congress was his repeated plea to legislators “to pass this jobs bill”, and enact his $447 billion (€327 billion) package of tax cuts and spending measures. He was throwing down a challenge to a divided Congress while also appealing over the heads of its members to the American people for their support. He was doing so at a time when the economy is stalling and after a sharp decline in his public standing in recent months.
Mr Obama’s problem is that employment is now lower than when he took office in January 2009; and, with 14 million people now jobless, the rate of unemployment (9.1 per cent of the workforce) is higher.
Worryingly, last month no net new jobs were created in the US, and a slowing economy has greatly increased the risk of a double-dip recession occurring. Given the economic downturn – and facing a presidential election in 14 months – Mr Obama in bidding for a second term needs to regain the initiative on the economy, and to reverse his slide in the polls. His approval rating – at 40 per cent – is at the lowest level of his presidency. His difficulty is that Republicans control the House of Representatives and the Tea Party element are unlikely to accept very many of his jobs proposals.
For the American president, both the content of his recent speech and his more passionate delivery of it marked a change in substance and tone. Too often in the past Mr Obama, in setting ambitious policy goals, has proved better at aspiration than explanation. He has failed to keep the public better informed on how the detail of what he proposes can be implemented. In 2009, when he introduced a far larger stimulus package than his current measure, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, which guaranteed its passage. But this time it’s different.
Mr Obama knows that many of his proposals – which include tax cuts and some increase in public spending – face rejection by Republicans. To counter that he will need to mobilise public opinion. That will mean making greater use of what a predecessor – Theodore Roosevelt – once called the “bully pulpit”, exploiting the opportunity a president has to use the prestige of his office to take his case directly to the American people. With the public standing of congressional Republicans now lower than that of the president, Mr Obama – given his range of oratorical skills – is well placed to do so, and to offer a new leadership style.