Many are opposed to the idea of high speed rail in the United States despite the existing high speed line, the Acela Express, being a success. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Part of the stimulus packages suggested by President Obama for further growth of the economy and modernization of America is high speed rail. It is controversial in some circles, and conservatives are outraged. However, the existing high speed rail in America is already a fantastic success.

Rage at the dying of the no high speed rail

Some people have been decrying the initiative from President Obama to install high speed rail lines in the United States. Currently, the plan is to spend $53 billion to install high speed rail lines across the country by 2018, which would link both coasts and most major metropolitan areas, according to Reuters. President Obama’s pending 2012 budget includes $8 billion to improve existing lines. As the president stated in the recent State of the Union address, the intention is to provide access to high speed rail for 80 percent of Americans. It would be an expensive and massive undertaking.

Boston to D.C. in seven hours on Acela Express

The U.S. already has one operating high speed rail line, along the Northeast Corridor of Amtrak, called the Acela Express. It runs from Boston to Washington, D.C., at speeds up to 150 miles an hour, completing the trip in about seven hours. It takes about eight hours by car, not accounting for time spent in traffic. The Acela Express already attracts more than 3 million riders per year, according to Bloomberg, though the Acela line is a traditional train that runs at high speeds. The Northeast corridor from Boston to Washington D.C., though, would be a perfect fit for a mag-lev, or bullet train. Mag-levs operated by using electromagnetic energy to propel the train, rather than traditional wheels and rails.

Proven successful overseas

The nations that are already pioneers in high speed rail technology, such as China, Japan, and the extensive network in Europe have already proven that high speed rail lines can be incredibly successful. For instance, the Central Japan Railroad Company operates high speed rail lines and is currently installing a mag-lev line from Nagoya to Tokyo, which can travel at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour. In 2010, 138 million people used CJR trains, compared with 100 million or fewer people that flew on Continental and United combined. The company had cash flow of more than $2 billion.

Sources

Reuters

Bloomberg

In the State of the Union address, President Obama called for greater investment in the future and greater cooperation between parties. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

The past week or so in Washington, D.C., there has been a lot of buildup to Obama giving the State of the Union address. In the speech, Obama called for greater investment in the future, and for greater cooperation between parties. Response has been mixed.

State of the Union address from Obama calls for investing in future

There has been a lot of buildup to the State of the Union address by President Obama. The annual presidential address to Congress is always a huge television event and sets the tone for the rest of the year. Obama called for greater investment in the future and announced he is putting together a bill aimed at doing exactly that. He spoke about needing advances in education, especially in math and the sciences, citing that America needed to have a “Sputnik moment” that put the United States ahead of the international pack. He also stressed the need for improving infrastructure and putting America in the forefront of greener technology in transportation and power generation. Obama also praised Republicans and asked for greater degrees of cooperation between the parties.

Republican response from Paul Ryan

Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was chosen to deliver the State of the Union rebuttal. He praised Obama’s reaching out to Republicans but addressed concerns about fiscal policy. In the Republican response, Ryan highlighted that federal debt has been increasing without affecting unemployment to the degree desired. Ryan reiterated the pledge to repeal the Obama health care law and replace it with one that places less burden on taxpayers. He also maintained that people were justified in being “skeptical of both parties” that getting government spending to sustainable levels was an issue for everyone.

Michelle Bachmann speaks for tea party

Michelle Bachmann, the controversial tea party Republican from Minnesota, gave a separate rebuttal from Rep. Ryan. In the tea party rebuttal, she called for drastically reducing spending and the federal debt. She also mentioned the Battle of Iwo Jima, saying it was a defense against tyranny, and that liberty had to be spread by cutting government waste.

Sources

Transcript of Obama’s State of the Union Address

Republican rebuttal

Bachman rebuttal

A national clean energy policy would expand the market and make clean energy in the U.S. a more reliable long-term investment. Image: CC Iain Thompson/Geograph

Clean energy was a major theme of President Obama’s State of the Union address. In his speech the President proposed a clean energy goal of 80 percent of electricity in the U.S. by 2035.  But while Republicans talk about simply drilling for more oil, China’s national clean energy policy has been attracting twice the world’s investment in clean energy as patchwork U.S. efforts.

A comprehensive clean energy policy

The clean energy position outlined in the State of the Union address included solar and wind power, as well as clean coal and natural gas. The President made it clear that oil should not a part of any national clean energy policy. In fact, in the current political environment that holds federal spending in contempt, Obama proposed paying for government investment in clean energy by cutting off billions of dollars in oil company subsidies. According to the Center for American Progress, cutting off oil company subsidies would save the federal government $45 billion over 10 years.  Exxon alone exceeded that figure in 2009 profits.

Global investment in clean energy

Investment in clean energy worldwide has grown 230 percent since 2005, according to the Pew Environment Group Climate and Energy Program. Global investment in clean energy totaled $162 billion in 2009. China attracted $34.6 billion of that money. The U.S. attracted $18.6 billion. When the numbers come in for 2010, analysts expect worldwide investment in clean energy will have grown 25 percent to $200 billion. China’s percentage of the pie is also expected to increase. Countries like China and India have taken the lead in clean energy with national policies designed to reduce carbon emissions and provide clean energy incentives for businesses.

The payoff for a national clean energy policy

The President’s call for a national clean energy policy that includes nuclear power, clean coal and natural gas was a bipartisan gesture made to garner enough votes in Congress to move forward. Republicans dismissed Obama’s clean energy theme and chose to criticize him for the 2010 drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. While the GOP fights to block a national clean energy policy on behalf of oil companies, 30 states currently require utilities to increase the power purchased from clean energy sources. Experts at the Pew group said a national standard would expand the clean energy market, level the playing field and make clean energy in the U.S. a more reliable long-term investment.

Sources

ABC News

CNET

Politco

Obama will give his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday, Jan. 25. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

President Obama is due to deliver the annual State of the Union address to the houses of Congress soon. The focus of the annual presidential address to the legislature will be on the economy and increasing competitiveness of American businesses. He will also be discussing government spending policy.

President due to give second State of the Union address

President Barack Obama is going to give the second State of the Union address of his presidency on Tuesday, Jan. 25. It’s one of the biggest political events of the year, and there’s a new theme for this year’s address, according to ABC. Instead of traditional seating, where each party has its own wing of the chamber, some seating will be mixed with Democrats and Republicans seated together. Members of Congress will be taking “dates,” asking members of the other party (often the opposite gender) to sit with them, which was the brainchild of Senator Tom Udall (D-Colo.), as a show of bipartisan solidarity in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tuscon.

Topic will focus on economy and ‘competitiveness’

The subject of the 2011 State of the Union will largely be devoted to the economy, the largest issue of the Obama presidency. President Obama is to focus on education,  job creation and initiatives to increase the competitive stature of the United States in international trade, according to the Washington Post. Obama has been emphasizing the need to be an international powerhouse economically in recent stump speeches and is expected to expand on the theme in the annual address to Congress. Fiscal policy and gun control may be topics as well; both have come into sharp focus in recent months.

Foreign relations also to feature in broadcast

Some discussion of foreign policy is also to likely be included, as nearly all troops are expected to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year and from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The State of the Union will be heavily broadcast on most major networks and news channels. State of the Union addresses typically draw huge viewer ratings.

Sources

ABC

Washington Post

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, pictured here at left in an Oval Office meeting, is leaving his job in the Obama administration. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary for the Obama administration, is leaving his post. Gibbs hasn’t given a reason for leaving the White House. He is expected to depart in February.

Robert Gibbs leaving the White House

Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary for the Obama administration is leaving his position as chief liaison to the press for the president, according to the USA Today. There hasn’t been a reason given yet for Gibbs’ departure, though the Obama administration has seemed to have high rates of turnover. It is anticipated that Gibbs will be leaving sometime in February, likely after the president delivers the State of the Union address. He will be remaining an outside adviser and consultant to the President Obama, who has said that Gibbs would “continue to have my ear as long as I’m in this job.” A successor hasn’t been named, though announcements are expected to be made in time.

High turnover in Obama White House

The Obama White House has had high rates of turnover. Not long ago, it was speculated that Joe Biden would leave and Hillary Clinton would become vice president, though it was fervently denied. Former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel departed last year to run for mayor of Chicago. Gibbs’ leaving was not entirely unexpected, and it has been rumored that he may be groomed to take over as chief adviser to the president, a position David Axelrod currently holds.

Tough year awaits

New Congress members are taking their seats today, and many of those seats are being filled with Republicans. The House of Representatives now has a Republican majority, but not in the Senate. Though both parties have been known to be able to compromise at times, a rocky period is anticipated in the months ahead as a Republican majority is likely to come to loggerheads with the White House at some point in the near future.

Sources

USA Today

Sometimes it seems like the president just can’t win. For his first year in office, everyone  said he was spending too much. Now that President Barack Obama has announced a spending freeze, Republicans are saying that’s impossible. Democrats are saying he’s pandering to Republicans.

We elected the guy. Don’t you think, to an extent, maybe we should just trust him? Apparently that’s not the American way. Don’t get me wrong; I think a certain level of skepticism is healthy. But I get sick of the whining. Kind of like when people can’t pay back their payday loans, and the direct lender gets blamed instead of the borrower’s poor budgeting.

Conditions to Obama’s spending freeze

Obama’s spending freeze will last until the end of his current term — three years. It isn’t a complete freeze; he says he still will allow military spending. Of course, he’ll talk about this in his State of the Union address tomorrow, and I am sure there will be more exceptions to Obama’s spending freeze. Maybe once he explains the details people will calm down, but for now it appears that pretty much everyone has a problem with it.

Obama says the spending freeze will save $250 million over the next three years, and exactly how it will work will be detailed Feb. 1 when he unveils the budget. The one good thing I have read about Obama’s spending freeze is Kristi Keck from CNN’s comment that Obama’s spending freeze “could help him recapture the favor of centrist voters.”

Negative press

To those who are dismissing Obama’s spending freeze as impossible, I quote Keck again, who points out that this is “a partial, three-year freeze on discretionary spending.” So that doesn’t sound so hard, does it? Still, there’s no shortage of quotes like this one from CNBC:

“This is like announcing you’re going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House of Representatives Republican leader John Boehner.