President Obama set the stage Tuesday night for a two-year debate over the role of government.
The president asked for Republicans, Democrats and the rest of the country to link arms and out-compete our rivals to restore America’s place in the world. He lauded America’s entrepreneurial spirit, praised the nation’s outstanding universities and repeatedly called on our nation to “do big things” again, as it had throughout its history.
He also made it clear that government should lead this renaissance; should be the great enabler.
The president didn’t duck the deficit. He proposed to continue his freeze on discretionary spending for another two years; called for renewal of taxes on the wealthy, proposed an end to subsidies for oil companies (they seem to be doing quite well on their own, he said), called for revision of the income tax laws and recognized the need to tackle the big spenders: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the military. Substantial reductions in the Pentagon budget will begin this year.
The Republican response fo-cused almost entirely on shrinking government and relying on the private sector for whatever initiatives are needed to meet foreign competition and carry the nation over whatever hurdles it must leap.
Because the Republicans have not yet produced a counter-budget, detailing how much they would cut from what programs, the opportunities for compromise remain unclear.
But if America is to move forward, Republicans, Democrats, independents and independent radicals will have to search for common ground and build on it.
Symbolic though it was, it was good to see Sen. John McCain, Republican candidate for president, sitting beside Sen. John Kerry, a former Democrat presidential candidate, and to see that mixing of the parties repeated throughout the congressional delegation gathered to hear the president speak.
Because they were not segregated into cheering (or booing) sections, it was far easier for Republicans to applaud and Democrats felt comfortable not bursting into applause whenever Mr. Obama paused to take a breath. No one jumped up and yelled “You lie!” The symbolism generated a welcome civility.
WHILE THE ROLE government should play will be, and should be, examined and re-examined, the discussion should always be resolved with the rec-ognition that America accomplishes most when the public and private sectors work in partnership. Government plays in-dispensible roles in the defense of the nation, in our dealings with other nations, in education, in basic scientific and medical research, in public safety, in the justice systems at every level and in providing for those who cannot take care of themselves.
The private sector provides livelihoods for most of our growing population — and supports government.
America’s society is tremendously productive and the individual freedom which allows so many flowers to bloom in the arts, in business, in scholarship, in science and, to recognize the symbiosis once more, in political leadership, is what has made our nation so envied, admired and imitated.
Yes, we are a nation that does big things — and the biggest things we do get done when Americans work together, using all of the instruments for accomplishment which they have created and stashed in the nation’s workshed.
Some of those tools are labeled “public,” some, “private.” All are needed when there are big things to do.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
