Obama Pushes for Clean Energy and Infrastructure in Radio Address

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 11:57 pm

In his first weekly radio address as Commander in Chief, President Barack Obama continued to promote his economic stimulus plan specifically clean energy jobs, infrastructure repairs, education, electronic medical records.

Here is the video of his radio address:

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“It’s a plan that will save or create three to four million jobs over the next few years, and one that recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment – the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work even as, all around the country, there’s so much work to be done. That’s why this is not just a short-term program to boost employment. It’s one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century,” Obama said.

Notice how the plan has gone from creating 4 million new jobs to creating or saving 3-4 million jobs. The change in language is an acknowledgement of just how bad the economic situation has become. The president selected four parts of his stimulus plan that are likely to be publicly popular. No one is really against using less foreign oil, modernizing schools, infrastructure repairs, and most people don’t oppose electronic medical records.

It is becoming clear that one of the real gems of this plan is the clean energy economy, “To accelerate the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy like wind, solar, and biofuels over the next three years. We’ll begin to build a new electricity grid that lay down more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines to convey this new energy from coast to coast. We’ll save taxpayers $2 billion a year by making 75% of federal buildings more energy efficient, and save the average working family $350 on their energy bills by weatherizing 2.5 million homes.”

My impression is that if Obama would get half of what is in his proposal, he would be off to a great start. The new president is so popular right now, that he will probably get most if not everything that he wants. If this happens, he will have already fulfilled many of his campaign promises. Obama’s economic stimulus plan is fine example of a new president taking advantage of their honeymoon period. The honeymoon period used to be common in American politics, but this is the first time we have seen it since Ronald Reagan took office, and I have a feeling that we will be hearing a lot of the Obama/Reagan comparison.

Full Text of Obama Radio Address