Standing Ovation for Obama’s State of the Union Address

US President Barack Obama won a thundering and first standing ovation in the Senate, while making his address on the State of the Union. His remark “it’s time we impose a fee on those biggest banks, which were saved by the bailout of the government” was welcomed with cheers.

President Obama made his first address on the subject and drew laughter and smiles on the faces of the Senators, by saying that he knew the Wall Street would not relish this idea of paying back the tax payer; but when they can afford paying big bonuses to their shareholders and employees, they can very well afford to pay a modest fee to the US tax payers, who were responsible for this present state of affairs, by rescuing them during dark times.

Obama also agreed that the Bank bailout effort of the government is not welcomed by the public, but said it was a necessary step, for the purpose of saving the US economy from falling deep down further.

He recalled the time he took over office, when it was an urgent task to bail out the same banks – which were the root cause of bringing the housing crisis – by the government intervention. It was not an easy task, but it had to be undertaken. He knew that the bank bailout was one thing that unified both Democrats and the Republicans to oppose. Everyone including him hated it but there was no escape.

Obama reminded the House that when he ran for president, he had promised that he would not just do what was popular but what was necessary.  If the financial system had been allowed to melt down the results would have been devastating – doubling the unemployment figure; closing of more businesses and losing more and more homes to the foreclosure crisis.

The President announced that an amount of $30 billion drawn from the larger banks would be used towards helping the smaller ones.

So Obama is destined to make more speeches and win more applause and standing ovations from the Treasury benches at least.