A Fair Shot’
President Sets Goal Of Economy for Long Run

By CALVIN S. SCRIBNER
Special to the Chronicle

WASHINGTON--The president pledged on Tuesday night to use government power to balance the scale between his continued leadership toward an economy “built to last” and a Republican argument that the country would benefit from less federal intervention.
In his State of the Union Address at a critical moment of his presidency, President Barack Obama showcased the extent to which he will try to contrast, as he campaigns for reelection, his core economic principles with those of his Republican rivals in a time of deep economic uncertainty.
With many Americans disappointed with the state of the economy and the president’s handling of it, he sought to persuade Americans that his proposed solutions remain more in tune with independent voters than much of the Republican platform.
Ordinary Americans, the president, have the right to expect, if not a helping hand from their leaders, then at least a field in which everyone plays by the same set of rules.
“You can call this class warfare all you want,” President Obama said.  “Most Americans would call that common sense.”
He characterized the looming choice as one between whether “s shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by” or his own vision--”where everyone gets a fair shot.”
In returning to his 2008 campaign motif of these being “not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values,” and presenting a long list of domestic economic proposals, President Obama’s address was meant to show a president still interested in governing and a leader putting the interests of the American middle-class at the top of his agenda.
Many of his proposals centered on changes to the tax code, including limiting deductions for companies that move jobs overseas, rewarding companies that return jobs to the United States and increasing taxes on wealthy Americans.
Taking aim at financial institutions that engaged in risky landing practices that many believe tipped the country into financial crisis, the president said he was asking Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and state attorneys general to expand investigations into abusive lending.
The new unit, he said, “will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.”
President Obama also proposed a new trade enforcement unit that would add to the number of government investigators pursuing unfair trade practices and that would be responsible for lawsuits against foreign countries, namely China.
He called for new legislation to make it easier for Americans to refinance their homes if their interest rates are above market rates.
And he proposed a bound-to-be-contentious way to allocate any savings from ending the war in Iraq and winding down the war in Afghanistan:  by using half of the war savings on infrastructure projects and the other half to reduce the deficit.
“We will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt and phony financial profits,” President Obama said.
Though his advisors have vowed a campaign against Congress, the president expressed a willingness to “work with anyone in this chamber” and said he would “oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place;” a line cheered by Democrats but met with mainly silence from Republicans.
The president’s address was mostly aspirational--some things he could do by executive action, but a great many of his proposals would require congressional approval during a time when political partisanship and its accompanying gridlock have never been deeper.
The president addressed the divide in another proposal not likely to be realized--that the Senate change its rules to give presidential nominations an up-or-down vote within 90 days.
Reflecting the heavy emphasis on the economy in an election year, the president’s speech was relatively short on national security, where most political observers and, indeed, his own aides believe his performance has been much stronger than on the economy.
In fact, President Obama took credit for the American assault last year that finally, after 10 years, killed Osama bin Laden, ending his speech with that fateful day last May when he monitored the attack on bin Laden from the White House.
He called on the country to emulate the unity of the US. Navy SEAL team that conducted the raid.
“When you’re marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you,” the president said, “or the mission fails.”