Because I have the attention span of a gnat, I spaced out during the economic policy section of our new president’s Inaugural Address. So I went to the text. Here it is, with a little bit of annotation:
We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
See, the fundamentals of our economy are strong! We just got knocked down, and now we have to get back up again. But you’re never gonna keep us down.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
This is the stimulus package, plus a broader commitment to pursue alternative energy sources, improve health care, and make our schools rule. More of a State of the Union laundry list than soaring Inuagural Address poetry, Michael Grunwald complained on the TIME.com liveblog, and he’s probably right about that. Because, you know, Michael and I know so much more about speechmaking than Barack Obama does.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
Yes, we can. And by the way, wouldn’t it have been cool if John McCain had embraced the inevitable last fall and changed his campaign slogan to “No, we can’t”?
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
This is central. If Obama can in fact shift the frame of reference this way, it will transform economic policy and politics for decades to come. For more, read Peter Beinart’s TIME cover essay of a couple months back.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
In March 1933, FDR’s new administration included lots people who thought capitalism was toast. Socialism and communism—not to mention Huey Longism—seemed like real alternatives. Not this time. See, history really is over. But so is supply-side economics.
