VOA标准英语2009年-Obama Balances Political Coalitions on

 

U.S. President Barack Obama has charted a complicated political course over the next few months. Mr. Obama is rallying Democrats¹ to support health-care reform in Congress. But he is also counting on Republican help for his new strategy on Afghanistan.

Jim Malone | Washington 07 December 2009

President Barack Obama, center, walks out of the Senate Democratic caucus² on Capitol Hill, 06 Dec 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama has charted a complicated political course over the next few months.  Mr. Obama is rallying Democrats to support health-care reform in Congress.  But he is also counting on Republican help for his new strategy on Afghanistan. 

Each day seems to bring new challenges for a president who just marked his first 10 months in office.

Only days after announcing his new strategy on Afghanistan, which includes sending an additional 30,000 U.S. troops, Mr. Obama quickly refocused on the domestic economy and getting unemployed³ Americans back to work.

"But Americans who have desperately⁴ been looking for work for months, some of them maybe for a year or longer, they cannot wait and we will not wait," said President Obama. "We need to do everything we can right now to get our businesses hiring again so that our friends and our neighbors can go back to work."

The administration did get a small bit of good news with word that the unemployment rate last month had dropped from 10.2 to 10 percent.  But even the president's Democratic allies in Congress acknowledge that cutting the jobless rate quickly is an uphill battle and a lack of progress could leave them vulnerable during next year's congressional midterm elections.

The Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, says there is little debate about the top priority in the year ahead.

"Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs," said Nancy Pelosi. "It is all about jobs and as we work on these issues we always are working on the issue of jobs creation."

At the same time, the president is trying to secure congressional passage of a sweeping⁵ health care reform plan.  Republicans are nearly unanimous in their opposition⁶ to the multi-billion-dollar plan based on cost projections⁷, which means the president must rely on Democratic unity⁸ to pass his signature domestic priority by early next year.

This is the House Republican leader, Congressman⁹ John Boehner of Ohio:

"The first thing that has to happen is that the job-killing agenda that the president supports that is moving through the Congress has to be stopped," said John Boehner.

A major political complication is the president's recently announced strategy on Afghanistan.  Some Democrats have criticized the plan, especially the deployment¹⁰ of tens of thousands of additional troops.

Among them is Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, who appeared on ABC's 'This Week' program.

"We are operating at huge deficits¹¹ in this country and the idea of continuing to spend for this war flies right in the face of the American people's priority to bring spending down," said Russ Feingold.

Republicans were generally supportive of the additional troop deployment, though several questioned the president's determination to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the middle of 2011.

The president's decision on Afghanistan comes at a time when opinion polls show the public is divided over the question of sending more troops and the future U.S. role in that country.

The president's own approval ratings have come down in recent months and now hover¹² at about 50-percent.

Tom DeFrank is a longtime political observer and the Washington bureau chief for the New York Daily News.

"And he has done it in spite of the fact that Afghanistan has really polarized American public opinion," said Tom DeFrank. "Americans are basically divided, more or less evenly, on the wisdom of going ahead.  But at the same time he has muted the criticism from the Republicans."

One recent public-opinion survey suggests that Americans in general have become more isolationist in recent years and less willing to commit resources on missions abroad, especially given economic problems at home.

The poll was conducted by the Pew Research Center and the Council on Foreign Relations and found that 49 percent of those asked agreed with the statement that the United States should mind its own business.

James Lindsay is the studies director for the Council on Foreign Relations:

"Which is why arguments about cost will become more important politically, both because people will want to know why we are not spending money here at home, and also the extent to which people are worried about the deficit," said James Lindsay.

Analysts¹³ say that for the foreseeable future the president will have to maintain a delicate and complicated political calculation.

Mr. Obama will continue to rely on Democrats to counter Republican objections over his health-care reform efforts.  At the same time, the president will reach out to Republicans for support on national security issues, particularly Afghanistan, where some members of his own Democratic Party have chosen to break with him. 
 

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

3 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

4 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

5 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

6 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

7 projections   

预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物

参考例句：

• Their sales projections are a total thumbsuck. 他们的销售量预测纯属估计。
• The council has revised its projections of funding requirements upwards. 地方议会调高了对资金需求的预测。

8 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

9 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

10 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

11 deficits   

n.不足额( deficit的名词复数 )；赤字；亏空；亏损

参考例句：

• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Many of the world's farmers are also incurring economic deficits. 世界上许多农民还在遭受经济上的亏损。 来自辞典例句

12 hover   

vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫

参考例句：

• You don't hover round the table.你不要围着桌子走来走去。
• A plane is hover on our house.有一架飞机在我们的房子上盘旋。

13 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。