Reeling from a string of political reversals, Democrats needed words of encouragement such as those in the first reading this Sunday where Jeremiah hears the Lord tell him: “Be not crushed.” Hoping to regain momentum, it was time for President Barack Obama to “stand up and tell” the nation Wednesday his opinion on the state of the union. In his speech he promised to help people struggling to pay bills and care for their families and also proposed a partial freeze on federal spending.

Defending his approach to the economic crisis, the president said his administration acted “immediately and aggressively” to stave off a second depression but noted the devastation remains. His speech focused on getting the economy moving again.

Obama reiterated that he wants to salvage an overhaul of health care, called for more money for schools, and acknowledged there had been some setbacks in his first year in office. Conscious of concern over deficits, he also called for a freeze on unfunded spending bills and promised to use his veto to enforce it if necessary.

The president follows his speech with a quick trip to Florida Thursday to detail $8 billion in awards for high-speed rail. The stimulus funds would go toward grants for 13 major rail corridors. The announcement is seen as an effort by the White House to show that the president has a plan to get Americans back to work.

Deficit reduction has also emerged as a major concern this week, as the Congressional Budget Office released a report Tuesday projecting that the deficit for this fiscal year will likely be $1.3 trillion. That is a slight improvement over last year’s shortfall, but the long-term budget outlook, according to the report, is for persistently high deficits that will drive the debt ever upward to the point that it could nearly equal the value of the nation’s entire economic output by 2020.

Source: Articles by Richard Wolf for USA Today, Jackie Calmes for the New York Times, FoxNews.com,
and Julie Pace for Associated Press