President Obama is showing exactly the leadership this nation needs in forcing it to confront not just new economic challenges but some that have been around for decades.
Arriving at this crossroads of history, Obama is saying now is not the time to be paralyzed by fear. Rather, he wants to use the economic crisis to bring about fundamental change on several fronts.
Central to the goals he laid out Tuesday night are solving the long-existing problems of energy and health care. Their burden on the economy isn't news, but a sustained focus on the problems is past due.
Presidents have warned about an energy crisis since the 1970s. Since then, the United States' dependence on foreign oil has doubled. This wrong track has resulted in numerous national security threats and accelerated global warming.
The country's quest for clean energy solutions such as solar power and ethanol has been haphazard, but it hasn't been cheap. In the past 35 years, according to one estimate, the Energy Department has spent nearly as much on clean energy research as the combined costs of the Apollo moon program and the Manhattan Project, which created the world's first nuclear bomb.
Yet clean energy accounts for only 7 percent of the nation's energy usage. Part of the problem is that, for all the money the United States has spent over the years, it hasn't increased its annual investment in research since the late 1960s.
The economic recovery law approved this month provides more than $25 billion in spending and loans for renewable energy projects, new electric transmission lines, and efficiency programs. It's the kind of comprehensive, concentrated effort that is needed to break the country's endless, damaging energy loop.
Obama also has called for "cap and trade" legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gases, the main culprit in climate change. This approach is necessary to limit global warming, but the president is being disingenuous not to count it as a tax increase. Such a program would very likely increase energy costs.
Health care is also in the president's crosshairs, deservedly so. A solution to soaring health-care costs and diminished access to quality care has eluded policymakers for decades, while the industry lobbied hard against more regulation.
From 2000 to 2007, health-insurance premiums rose about 73 percent while wages and inflation increased about 15 percent. Fewer employers offer health insurance to their workers. More than 46 million people go without coverage. The high cost of health care is a growing burden on the federal budget.
The stimulus law devotes billions to improving information technology in the health-care industry, as well as spending more on preventive care. And the president is expected to include in his budget today a "reserve fund" of $634 billion over 10 years to help pay for a vast expansion of the health system. He would pay for it by trimming tax breaks for the wealthy and clamping down on payments to insurers, hospitals, and doctors.
Taking on these issues is enormously ambitious; lawmakers have other challenges on their plate. But Obama has brought a needed urgency to fixing problems the country can no longer afford to postpone.