Obama: "Thriving middle class" key to finishing economic recovery
President Barack Obama, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, gives his State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013. / AP Photo/Charles Dharapak
Updated: 10:50 p.m. ET
Delivering his annual address to Congress for the fifth time in his presidency, President Obama in his State of the Union tonight made a sweeping pitch for an economic blueprint he says reflects "smarter," not "bigger" government, and laid out a series of proposals he promises will help deliver to the American people "a growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs" without increasing the deficit "by a single dime."
The president, in his fourth official State of the Union, outlined a broad swath of goals for the future of his tenure, touching on everything from the war in Afghanistan, to cyber-security, to his commitment to reducing gun violence in America.
But the primary focus of his remarks revolved around an outline for economic growth guided, he said, by principles that place paramount importance of reigniting what he called "the true engine of America's economic growth: A rising, thriving middle-class."
"A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs -- that must be the North Star that guides our efforts," Mr. Obama said. "Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?"
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In his four-pronged strategy for achieving that goal, Mr. Obama stressed the need to attract more jobs to the U.S.; equip Americans with the skills they need to participate in a competitive global economy; raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour so it is tied to the cost of living; and cut the deficit in a "balanced" way. He also called for $1 billion for new manufacturing research, $50 billion for "fix it first" road repair funds, a new trade deal with the European Union.
The president particularly stressed the need for affordable, accessible education for students of all ages -- from toddlers to college students -- calling for universal pre-school for four-year-olds, as well as tweaks to standards for determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid.
"Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on - by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime," he said. "Let's also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job."
Mr. Obama promised his proposals would be revenue-neutral.
"Nothing I'm proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime," he pledged. "It's not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth."
The president underscored, as he has many times, a commitment to reducing the national deficit while also avoiding a series of across-the-board "sequester" cuts slated to go into effect March 1. But he argued that as important as it is to avert the sequester cuts, they can't be prevented by "making even bigger cuts to things like education and job training; Medicare and Social Security benefits," as he noted "some in this Congress have proposed."
"Yes, the biggest driver of our long-term debt is the rising cost of health care for an aging population," he said. "But we can't ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and most powerful... Most Americans - Democrats, Republicans, and independents - understand that we can't just cut our way to prosperity."
Mr. Obama said he is prepared to enact a series of limited cost-cutting reforms for Medicare, including measures that would reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies, and ask more from wealthy seniors.
State of the Union address 2013
But for the remaining deficit reduction savings, he reiterated his call for comprehensive tax reform, urging Congress to support the closing of tax loopholes and deductions "for the well-off and connected."
"After all, why would we choose to make deeper cuts to education and Medicare just to protect special interest tax breaks? How is that fair? How does that promote growth?" he asked. "Now is our best chance for bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation and helps bring down the deficit."
Mr. Obama announced a new executive order aimed protecting the U.S. against cyber attacks, and stressed the importance of strengthening the nation's defenses "by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy."
He also announced the next step his administration's timetable for drawing down the Afghan war - including the return of 34,000 U.S. troops by this time next year.
"This drawdown will continue," said Mr. Obama. "And by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over."
As in second inaugural address last month, Mr. Obama also gave ample space to subjects of critical importance to his liberal base, including climate change, immigration, gun violence, and social justice.
He made a strong push for climate change legislation, contending that "for the sake of our children and our future," action must be taken.
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Delivering his annual address to Congress for the fifth time in his presidency, President Obama in his State of the Union tonight made a sweeping pitch for an economic blueprint he says reflects "smarter," not "bigger" government, and laid out a series of proposals he promises will help deliver to the American people "a growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs" without increasing the deficit "by a single dime."
Obviously, by making such an ignorant remark like, "more government breeds more problems," marco rubio never even listened to the President's SOTU speech, and just spewed the usual republican talking points!
would you consider a "deadbeat" all those "people" that were stealing phones from the government??
When rr eliminated tarriffs and dropped corporate tax rates, guess who had to make that up? Hmmm? And since corps now concentrated on making (relatively) tax free profits, they began to offshore, costing jobs here, forcing YOU AND ME to make up the difference. One of the few STUPID things President Clinton did was continue these stupid unfair trade agreements. But the GOP was only concerned about a BJ (I think that they were jealous, because they were not getting them, even if it was from a WOMAN), and used it to hide the fleecing of the middle class.
As for Obamacare, it is saving lives AND money. Too bad it does not go far enough. If you THINK you are paying for other people's HC, well, you were already doing it. At least this is more efficeint.
Why bother, since you're just going to keep parroting whatever labels you get from your talking heads at faux nooz, or any of the other RWNJ outlets?
We both know he has many times... And because he hasn't latly is because he knows it's unpopular otherwise that name would be hung arond his neck and democrats would be called National Socialist Democrats...
First, the president creates a proposal on what he wants to spend money on, THEN Congress appropriates".
POT MEET KETTLE.....since you're an obviously dumb right-wing hack only capable of endless personal attacks, and your hate of our President is past obvious. I'm not religious, and have no messiah like you RWNJ hacks!
While the President is required to give Congress a "proposed budget" in February, Congress has no requirement to appropriate one penny of it!
Even a 5th grader knows this, so you're just acting more ignorant!
The Budget of the United States Government often begins as the President's proposal to the U.S. Congress which recommends funding levels for the next fiscal year, beginning October 1. However, Congress is the body required by law to pass a budget annually and to submit the budget passed by both houses to the President for signature. Congressional decisions are governed by rules and legislation regarding the federal budget process. Budget committees set spending limits for the House and Senate committees and for Appropriations subcommittees, which then approve individual appropriations bills to allocate funding to various federal programs.
Please start your education with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.
The problem here is that the majority of our infrastructure is OLD now, and what used to be bi-partisan spending on infrastructure projects, has been turned into some kind of "nasty pork" or "stimulus" spending by the NEOCONS and tea party extremists, wanting to only spend money on defense!
We have thousands of bridges across America that are in dire need of repair or replacement, but since that wouldn't increase profits for their WAR profiteer buddies, the GOP will just keep cutting funding like they did on foreign soil like in Benghazi!
The obvious fix is more funding for infrastructure, and the researchers recommend prioritizing public transit. In the most congested cities, an increasing number of Americans rely on public transit. However, Republicans have repeatedly sought to cut mass transit funding, while public investment has plunged since the recession. The nation's growing infrastructure deficit currently stands at $1.6 trillion.
According to a new report from the American Society of Civil Engineers, America's infrastructure deficit stands at $1.6 trillion and will grow to $2.75 trillion over the next decade, costing the country trillions of dollars in wasted economic potential and millions of jobs.
Overall, if the investment gap is not addressed throughout the nation's infrastructure sectors, by 2020, the economy is expected to lose almost $1 trillion in business sales, resulting in a loss of 3.5 million jobs. Moreover, if current trends are not reversed, the cumulative cost to the U.S. economy from 2012-2020 will be more than $3.1 trillion in GDP and $1.1 trillion in total trade.
College? That's your proof? I was a libertarian in college. Does that mean that I'm still a libertarian? Not by a long shot and I'm only about 10 years removed from college. Obama is about 30 years out of college. And yet somehow he has the same views now as he did then? BS.