State of the Union address: Tracking the business impact
By Flickr user Blatant World
President Obama will address Congress and the nation Tuesday, Jan. 24, in the annual State of the Union speech.
It’s tempting, especially in an election year, to dismiss this staged event – and the many state-of-the-state addresses the nation’s governor’s are making this month and next – as pomp, theater and empty rhetoric. But like all ‘watercooler talkers’ it’s a decent peg for a variety of angles for business journalists:
Past performance. It’s a good time to interview business leaders, from small firms to large corporations, about the effects and efficacy of some of the major initiatives President Obama has launched during State of the Union speeches.
In 2009, fresh into office, the president discussed the just-signed $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as the stimulus bill is formally known. You can investigate local recipients at Recovery.gov using an interactive state map to find recipients of loans, grants and federal contracts tied to the stimulus bill. You can even do a ZIP code search to find projects in your immediate neighborhoods.
In 2010 the president focused on jobs and health care reform, and in last year’s speech he proposed corporate tax cuts, federal investment in emerging sectors and eliminating subsidies to oil companies.
You can find the full text of previous State of the Union speeches at WhiteHouse.gov; you might comb through prior ones to find nuggets and proposals relevant to the companies and sectors you cover, and then ask a sampling of managers and executives if they saw any fruition from the proposals or subsequent new federal acts like the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.
Business outlook. Obviously this is a great opportunity to check in with area business leaders, trade groups, professional associations, unions, regional economists, turnaround consultants and the myriad other entities you interview throughout the year for their take on what the president needs to do (or indeed, if a president can even be a ‘jobs creator’ in the first place) to continue to grow the economy. The next few days are ripe for alternative storytelling like Q&A, executive quotes, panel discussions, text and video blogs and any other format in which the above stakeholders can convey their top priorities for 2012 legislation and government spending. Try to force them to go beyond the usual ‘lower taxes and less regulation’ rhetoric and point to specific rules, laws and aid that would make a material difference in jobs, revenue and profits.
State addresses. Some state of the state speeches are in the can already, but you still can apply some of the above reporting strategies to ferret out details about business priorities in your region. Here’s a handy chart of dates (and links to speeches already made) by Stateline.org. Don’t forget to take a good look at state spending plans for 2012 too; organizations like the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Pew Center for the States are good go-to sources for analysis and round-ups of state revenue and spending issues.
