On January 25, President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address to a joint session of the 112th Congress. With a theme of “Winning the Future,” the president focused on improving education, inspiring innovation, and rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, which he said “will make America a better place to do business and create jobs.”
With regard to education, the president noted that “When a child walks into a classroom, it should be a place of high expectations and high performance. But too many schools don’t meet this test. That’s why, instead of just pouring money into a system that’s not working, we launched a competition called Race to the Top. To all 50 states, we said, ‘If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, then we’ll show you the money.’” The president urged Congress to model reform of No Child Left Behind (P.L. 107-110), which is due for reauthorization, after Race to the Top, a program he called the “most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation.”
The president also stressed the importance of teachers, noting that “the biggest impact of a child’s success comes from the man or woman at the front of the classroom.” He acknowledged the spate of retiring teachers and proposed that the nation prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics over the next ten years. President Obama added that higher education should be within the reach of every student and called upon Congress to make permanent the tuition tax credit, worth $10,000 for four years of college.
In acknowledging the continuing debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148), the president said, “If you have ideas about how to improve this law by making care better or more affordable, I am eager to work with you…So I say to this chamber tonight, instead of refighting the battles of the last two years, let’s fix what needs fixing and let’s move forward.”
President Obama also addressed the growing national deficit, saying, “But now that the worst of the recession is over, we have to confront the fact that our government spends more than it takes in. That is not sustainable.” In an effort to reduce government spending, he proposed a freeze of domestic spending for the next five years and added, “Now, most of the cuts and savings I’ve proposed only address annual domestic spending, which represents a little more than twelve percent of our budget. To make further progress, we have to stop pretending that cutting this kind of spending alone will be enough. It won’t. The bipartisan fiscal commission I created last year made this crystal clear. I don’t agree with all their proposals, but they made important progress. And their conclusion is that the only way to tackle our deficit is to cut excessive spending wherever we find it – in domestic spending, defense spending, health care spending, and spending through tax breaks and loopholes.” The president added, “To put us on solid ground, we should also find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations…And if we truly care about our deficit, we simply can’t afford a permanent extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans.”
President Obama turned to international affairs and acknowledged the role of American service members in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said, “Thanks to our heroic troops and civilians, fewer Afghans are under the control of the insurgency…we are strengthening the capacity of the Afghan people and building an enduring partnership with them.” With respect to Iraq, the president noted “American combat patrols have ended, violence is down, and a new government has formed…America’s commitment has been kept. The Iraq war is coming to an end.”
In closing, the president said, “From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That’s how we win the future…The idea of America endures. Our destiny remains our choice. And tonight, more than two centuries later, it’s because of our people that our future is hopeful, our journey goes forward, and the state of our union is strong.”
