John Boehner’s attempts to look enthused, the many faces of Joe Biden, and a plethora of awkward bipartisan interactions were not the only highlights from last night’s State of the Union. President Obama took a more aggressive stance than usual in his annual address. He asserted that the public had voted in favor of his agenda and hinted that he would not be as willing to compromise in his second term.
The president promised to wind down – by next year — a conflict that has defined my generation. He announced an end to the war in Afghanistan as his headline issue. This spring, he promised, American forces would draw back into a support role and allow Afghan security teams to take over the brunt of the effort. “Beyond 2014, America’s commitment to a unified and sovereign Afghanistan will endure, but the nature of our commitment will change,” the president said. Beyond the war’s end, he claimed, the administration will work with the Afghan government to train its forces, as well as to allow Americans to proceed with counterterrorist efforts focused on al Qaeda.
As was to be expected, the president allotted much of the hour to speaking about his economic agenda. Most notably, he addressed the subject of minimum wage, an issue frequently neglected over the past few years. You may see a little extra cash in your pocket at your summer job, as the president plans to advocate for raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour “so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on”.
As a college sophomore, I am all too familiar with the seemingly unreasonable price tag stuck on a university education and was glad to hear the president address the importance of bringing down higher education costs. Obama highlighted how his administration had used tax credits, grants, and better loans to make college affordable, but noted that taxpayers could no longer bear the burden of “subsidizing higher and higher costs for higher education.” He called upon Congress to improve the Higher Education Act, altering it to account for college affordability and value. Universities would then receive federal aid based on their ratio of affordability to value.
The president also found time to touch briefly upon reforms that could ease your voting experience come the next election. He announced the creation of a non-partisan presidential Voting Commission designated to improve the American voting process. The Commission would be chaired by top attorneys from both the Obama and Romney campaigns. “When any Americans–no matter where they live or what their party—are denied that right simply because they can’t wait for five, six, seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying out ideals,” Obama said on the right to vote.
Tags: Barack Obama, bipartisanship, college affordability, Congress, higher education act, Joe Biden, John Boehner, minimum wage, President Obama, State of the Union, student loan debt, student loans, voting commission, War in Afghanistan
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Liza Dee Bio: Email the author at: blog(at)rockthevote.com |
o let me get this straight. With the current administration we have trillions of dollars in new debt, out of control spending, 2 gun running scheme cover-ups (one designed to give fuel for gun control legislation) an unprecendented number of unconstitutional executive orders, a health care bill that 75% of the people didn’t want that was promised not to raise costs but will, countless new regulations, gigantic new tax burdens for everyone (eventhough they said it would only affect the top earners, which by the way is still wrong), the destruction of our currency, the destruction of the jobs market, closure of hundreds of coal plants (causing energy costs to skyrocket), the blocking of efforts to harvest our own energy and become independent from middle east and anti-american venezuelan oil, government investment of tax-payer money in clean energy companies destined for failure for the sake of the ideology (such as Solyndra), $4+ gas prices (Obama is on record saying he’d like to see $8 a gallon gas to push people into inferior, inefficient alternative fuels), inflated food prices, upholding of drone assassination strikes against American citiezens without due process and a national credit rating which has been down graded twice.
Yet what the left wing media wants to focus on is the fact that a guy had to take a drink of water to clear his dry throat when making and important address to that nation. He says what he thinks people want to hear in the moment. What he says and what he means from prior speeches are two different things people have to read between the lines. He cant accomplish what he says he wants to without taxing al of us and sadly enough peole will realize that when it is to late. GOD HELP US ALL, PLUS There Where Just Too Many inconsisies.
Minimum wage is supposed to be a starting point for unskilled, uneducated, people with no job experience. It wasn’t meant to be an income that could support a family of four, and if you don’t have adequate skills to support a family, then you shouldn’t have one! Sorry, but I see way too many of these “Minimum Wage Employees” who have no work ethic, can perform their job without close supervision on their back to get it done, and in short, don’t deserve the minimum wage they receive! Good workers will almost always move up in pay, but lazy ones will go nowhere! That is the way life is people, and stop expecting the government to compensate for your laziness, stupidity and lack of determination. That is your responsibility! Just because you are a poor black, hispanic ,DR Etc. Does not mean the government show own them and pay for their existence. By raising the minim. wage we are Raising the poverty level and the Military that he profess to respect so much already make less than min. wage and now he is cutting it more.
Based on President Obama’s failure to reign in unemployment and various other failed plans in his first term, I am curious to what degree the SOTU promises actually hold weight with young voters. Thank you.