By A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: December 6, 2011
“This country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules, ” he told a crowd packed into a school gymnasium.
Infusing his speech with the type of populist language that has emerged in the Occupy protests around the nation, Mr. Obama warned that growing income inequality meant that the United States was undermining its middle class. He said it “gives lie to the promise that’s at the very heart of America: that this is the place where you can make it if you try.”
“This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class,” Mr. Obama said as he sought to make an economic case for his re-election next year. “At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement.”
Mr. Obama chose this town of 4,500 people where Theodore Roosevelt once laid out the progressive platform he called “A New Nationalism” to make his call for the payroll tax cut and deliver a broader message against the Republican economic agenda. It was his third trip out of Washington in three weeks to press for passage of the payroll tax break set to expire next month. Under the Democratic proposal, which Republicans have blocked, the cut that would go to most working Americans would be offset by a surtax on people earning more than $1 million a year.
The speech, and the days of buildup that preceded it, marked the president’s most stark attack so far on what he described as “breathtaking greed.” It reflected a decision by White House and the president’s campaign aides that with the economic recovery still lagging and Republicans in Congress continuing to oppose the president’s jobs proposals, the best course for Mr. Obama was to try to present himself as the defender of working class Americans.
The earlier speeches on the payroll tax took place in swing states. The fact that he brought the message to one of the most reliably Republican states in the country shows that Mr. Obama and his party are increasingly confident that Democrats have found a message that resonates with voters, one that has placed Republicans in the uncomfortable position of opposing tax cuts.
As he had in previous locations, Mr. Obama used the standoff to portray Republicans as more concerned with safeguarding the interests of the wealthy than tending to the needs of a struggling middle class. This speech, however, was cast in broad historical terms, with Mr. Obama citing economic statistics to show that after a century of struggle to build a middle class, the country is facing a crucial moment.
“Fewer and fewer of the folks who contributed to the success of our economy actually benefited from that success,” he said. “Those at the very top grew wealthier from their incomes and investments than ever before. But everyone else struggled with costs that were growing and paychecks that weren’t — and too many families found themselves racking up more and more debt just to keep up.”
Republicans, though, portrayed the visit as an effort by a president who failed in his stewardship of the national economy to find a winning argument for re-election. The nation’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent last month, a level still considered high for a president seeking re-election.
Mr. Obama sought to pre-empt the Republican response that he was engaging in class warfare. “This isn’t about class warfare,” he said. “This is about the nation’s welfare.”
The visit was unusual for its setting in a state that he lost handily despite his family roots here — his mother was born in Kansas — and which does not have a single Democrat holding a statewide elected position. The vast majority of his visits as president have been to swing states like Pennsylvania and New Hampshire that are expected to play an important role in the 2012 election. (Kansas does share a media market with Missouri, which Obama narrowly lost in 2008.)
But it was here, 101 years ago, that Theodore Roosevelt laid the framework for a New Nationalism during his unsuccessful bid for a third term after leaving the Republican party. That speech touched on many of the same themes — often in similar language — about concentration of wealth and the need for a level playing field. Mr. Roosevelt called the conflict between “the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess” central to progress.
Mr. Obama, to laughter from those familiar with attacks against him, noted: “For this, Roosevelt was called a radical, he was called a socialist, even a communist.”
The most recent proposal by Senate Democrats calls for reducing the share of Social Security payroll tax paid by employees to 3.1 percent from the already reduced level of 4.2 percent. If Congress takes no action, the tax is to revert to 6.2 percent next month. The cut, under the proposal, would be offset by a 1.9 percent surtax on modified adjusted gross income in excess of $1 million, which would take effect in 2013.
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