WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is using his biggest speech of the year Tuesday night to try to revive his stagnant second term, announcing he'll use the powers of his office to help the economy while bypassing the partisan gridlock that has bedeviled his presidency. He is telling Congress he will act on his own "whenever and wherever" he can.
Facing strong Republican opposition and low approval ratings after the worst year of his presidency, Obama isn't expected to propose major initiatives in his State of the Union address this time. Instead, he is unveiling actions that don't need congressional approval: raising the minimum wage for new federal contracts, helping the long-term unemployed find work and expanding job training programs.
Those executive orders highlight themes Democrats are expected to press in the November congressional election as they cast themselves as champions for lower- and middle-class Americans who have been left behind in the economic recovery, even as U.S. corporations and financial markets have surged.
"Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled," Obama is saying, according to speech excerpts released in advance. "The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by - let alone get ahead. And too many still aren't working at all. "
Obama's approval ratings are down sharply over the past year. An AP-GfK poll this month found 45 percent of those surveyed approved Obama and 53 percent disapproved. That's worse than a year ago, when 54 percent approved and 42 percent disapproved, but an improvement over his ratings in December, when 58 percent disapproved of his job performance.
His ratings tumbled with the botched rollout of his signature health care overhaul. Republicans are focusing on that issue as they try to win control of the Senate and protect their majority in the House of Representatives.
In the official response to Obama, a top House Republican says the president's policies are making life hard for Americans. In advance excerpts of her speech, Cathy McMorris Rodgers says the Republican vision "champions free markets - and trusts people to make their own decisions, not a government that decides for you."
Still, Republicans are expected to politely, if not enthusiastically, applaud the president as he addresses the full Congress before an audience of Cabinet members, ambassadors and millions of viewers in prime television time.
Though Obama is likely to touch on international topics, such as the war in Syria and Iran nuclear talks, domestic themes are expected to dominate the speech.
Republicans have thwarted most of Obama's initiatives, including on gun control and climate change, and this year's elections make it even less likely that they will rally behind his proposals. Still, the partisan fighting has eased somewhat from when Republicans shut down the government for 16 days last fall and brought the country to the brink of default.
Obama has some hope of winning support for a theme he's bound to discuss in the speech, overhauling America's immigration system, as Republicans try to build support among the country's growing Hispanic population.
But the White House sees a robust rollout of executive actions as the most effective way to show the public that Obama still wields power in the sixth year of his presidency.
Obama says in the speech that he is eager to work with Congress on measures requiring lawmakers' approval. "But America does not stand still - and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do," he said.
Yet much of what the president can do on his own is limited, as evidenced by the minimum wage initiative. The executive order will increase the minimum hourly payment for new federal contract workers from $7.25 to $10.10. But the measure affects only future contracts, and its immediate impact will be minimal.
"The question is how many people, Mr. President, will this executive action actually help?" said the top House Republican, John Boehner. "I suspect the answer is somewhere close to zero."
Obama will renew his call for Congress to pass a minimum wage increase for all Americans, a proposal that gained little traction after he first announced it in last year's address. Some Republican lawmakers have indicated an interest in working on income inequality and economic mobility issues.
Some Republicans have warned that the president's focus on executive orders could backfire by angering party leaders who already don't trust the White House.
"The more he tries to do it alone and do confrontation, the less he's going to be able to get cooperation," said John Feehery, a former top House Republican aide.