I missed Obama’s State of the Union address, because I was doing volunteer work in prison at the time and did not get to see it until yesterday morning, so please color this better late than never. I have the full enhanced video of the speech, followed by my own notes in raw format. I did not like everything I heard, but I did like far more than I disliked.
Here is the video:
And here are my raw notes. Boo indicates that I heard Republicans booing the President at that point.
He opened with the end of the Iraq war, the death of Osama bin Laden, the disruption of Al Qaeda, and the ability to cut forces in Afghanistan. He used the teamwork of our military as an example of the teamwork that there should be in Congress.
He stressed that everyone must get a fair shot, do their fair share, and play by the same set of the years.
He describes the onset of the financial crisis. Businesses have created more than 3 million Jobs since Obama’s policies took effect.
He accurately described the State of the Union as "getting stronger".
He said he will work with anyone, but will fight obstruction and oppose policies that would return us to the conditions that brought on the recession.
He praised the auto industry for their success since we saved it. He stressed insourcing to bring manufacturing jobs home.
He called for ending the tax deduction for outsourcing and creating one for insourcing. He proposed a Basic Minimum Tax on companies who move jobs and profits overseas and use the revenues generated to give tax cuts for companies that create jobs. (Boo)
He has created a Trade Enforcement group to combat unfair trade practices by foreign nations. He proposed a bold jobs training program, and called on Congress to support community colleges and reemployment programs. (Boo)
He called for support for teachers giving schools the resources to retain good teachers, pay the best ones more, and discharge those who are ineffective. Proposed that all students to be requires to stay in high school. Congress must stop the interest on student loans from doubling in July [as Republicans scheduled it to do]. Funding for colleges must be contingent on their ability to hold tuition costs down.
Obama said he has increased border security, and now we need comprehensive immigration reform, and called for a dream act in the interim. (Boo)
He said women must earn equal pay for equal work.
He said to give tax relief to small businesses, to fund research, and to open more oil and gas resources. He said gas companies must disclose the chemicals they use and those must be regulated for human and environmental safety. We need an all of the above strategy, so we also need to develop green energy. End the tax subsidies for fossil fuels and give them to green energy. We need to help manufactures use less energy through conservation.
We need to repair and upgrade America’s infrastructure. Invest 50% of war savings on infrastructure. (Boo)
Allow American homeowners to refinance at lower interest rates.
We need to both remove outdated regulations and add more regulations that protect Americans. He said he has added less regulations than Bush did in his first six years. He stressed the CFPB and Richard Cordray. (Boo)
He announced a special investigation unit, made up of DOJ personnel and state Attorneys General to investigate the criminal Wall Street mortgage practices that caused the crisis.
He called for passage of the payroll tax cut without side issues and drama. (Boo)
He called for deficit reduction using the Buffet Rule where people making over $1 million must pay a minimum of 30%. It is not class warfare to say a billionaire should pay more than his secretary. It is common sense. (Boo)
Ban insider trading by members of Congress. (BIG Boo)
All judicial nominations should receive an up or down vote within 90 days.
Allow him to consolidate the federal bureaucracy.
He called on Republicans to help, as we should all work together for a smarter, more effective actions.
He returned to the success that our troops have achieved through teamwork, and listed other foreign policy successes. He said that the renewal of American leadership can be felt across the globe. "America is back!" "Anyone who tells you America is in decline does not know what they are talking about." He praised the troops. He said he has increased VA spending every year [over Republican opposition].
He said we all need to learn from out troops. We all need to do our jobs and get each others’ backs.
Next here is a complete detailed analysis of the Republican Response
In my opinion his outreach to Republicans is futile, as I woke up this morning to the sound of Republicans ranting and raving about class warfare on MSNBC. However, he displayed authentic patriotism, so different that the phony flag-wrapping Republicans do.
Considering the available choices there is a virtually infinite gulf between Obama and either of his Republican opponents. (Santorum has frothed out. Paul never mattered and never will.) He did an excellent job in making that gulf apparent.
91% of Americans polled said they approved of what Obama proposed. 9% opposed it. I count myself in the 91%.
17 Responses to “State of the Union: Better Late then Never”
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I was also pleased, by and large, with the address. Obama has painted the Republicans, with their help, of course, into a very narrow little overly-ideological corner. They will be fighting to escape from it all year, which means they will be defeated badly in the fall. There is simply no defense for millionaires paying less than 15% in taxes, having offshore tax dodges, or for never coming up with even one realistic jobs bill. Voters will punish these bastards severely, and deservedly so! I can’t wait for Boner to hand back the Speakership to Pelosi, and for McConnell to once again be denied the post of Senate Majority Leader!
From your lips to God’s ear.
Ryan Is Still Targeting Medicare…from a few posts ago, isn’t this the same bill that Wyden D-OR cosponsored? If so leaving his name out of the post is disingenuous sir.
As for STOU speech, again great talk, especially liked that he wants to reform their insider trading law but now he has to show, prove, and participate in the walk. A little bit more than he did when he gave that wonderful line a few years ago about being right there walking the picket line with workers trying to save their jobs and benefits.
Anyone who is not microphone nervous and has a few speech writers to confer with can deliver a great speech, the time for talking is over. We ARE losing more and more freedoms every month and if he says I am lying then one of us has some explaining to do. And don’t think it’s me with the simple power of a lone voice. When I say I am going to do something or try my best to accomplish something I walk that talk.
Mark, you may rest assured that, were this cosponsored by Ron Wyden I would have said so. The Bill that Ryan and Wyden discussed cosponsoring does not exist. It has not been written. The last I heard, it is months away. When there is something to cover, I shall cover it.
I was mostly impressed with his SOTU this year. I especially liked when he said he would work with everyone but would fight obstructionism.
It shows that he is realizing, at long last, that his intent to overcome the partisanship in Washington was a vain hope. Nobody could have given it a better shot, but as I said before he even won the nomination, let alone the Presidency, that any hope for Republicans to negotiate in good faith was DOA.
I, too, was very pleased with Pres. Obama’s SOTU speech. I thought it’d be interesting to see a Word Cloud of it (Transcript was from NY Times)
And to save from making TC have to verify three links of the gratifying good news that American citizens overwhelming approved of the SOTU speech in THREE POLLS, I’ll just make the third one a separate comment.
Here’s the third Poll of Americans approving Obama’s SOTU speech (although I’m not sure if the first comment with the other two Polls is showing yet or waiting Moderation Approval … so I’ll at least stick a repeater here):
Thanks Nameless. I have no idea why it held this for moderation, but I caught it before I left yesterday.
I was also impressed but with far more reservations. He did take “my” advice (I write the president on occasion – to voice my pleasures and “otherwise”) on 2 issues in particular, first to take money from defense to invest in infra-structure, now that wars are winding down, the second was more upsetting. I wrote that if he demanded oil/gas to open its books as to what chemicals are used in hydro fracking – he could effectively shut down the process! Well – he took the advice on a 1%basis – the rest was absolutely crap bs that I’d expect from cheney before I thought I’d hear it from the O —- his stance on this issue is only equaled by that of his NDAA bill! Of course bush cheney exempted the oil/gas industries from the clean air and water acts in 2005 – the industries consider the nearly 600 chemicals it uses in the fracking to be “patent” and cannot be published – while with minimal investigation it is known that nearly 500 of the chemicals used are carcinogenic +/or dangerous to all life form, and in NYS the next assumed victim this genocide there is no health impact statement at all – there is an environmental impact statement – with a vacancy spot for health! So the big O wants drill baby drill – and claims the millions of jobs and the amount of natural gas from our “shale deposits” will satiate the consumers of dirty oil in this land for 100 years, with accolades of praise for how clean this fuel is!!!!!!! WTF does he know?!!!!!! He did say that he would ask for a disclosure of the chemicals used (FAT CHANCE!) and even at that it was limited!
He mentioned that he would start a bank “investigation” – which seemed to make Geithner squirm in his seat – and today mention that he wouldn’t participate in another O term (hee hee ha ha – wonder why) – the more I learn of this “tangled web” the more I note administrative involvement from every regime since Reagan! No one seems to be innocent in this financial wizardry – including O himself – however, perhaps he can get away with selling his “cronies” down the river – don’t know how much Wall St will be investing in O after this speech!!!
He had some excellent ideas – and I hope they will be part of his “walk the talk” – campaign reform, trade, education – he touched on just about everything – but not gun control;after giving the latest “collateral damage” hugs and kisses! What an American Tragedy is the story of the Giffords shoot out!!!!
Lee, I agree about drilling and fracking, with the caveat that he did say fracking chemicals need to be regulated to insure human and environmental safety. Let’s see what he does in that regard before accusing him of not following through.
Given the choice of a Democrat with whom I disagree on these issues, but with whom I agree on many others, and a Republican even worse on these issues and intolerable on everything else, I’ll chose Obama. Anyone who thinks that the next President could be anyone else that Obama or a Republican is thinking outside the realm of reality.
Things are far from perfect and The President does not walk on water— These are givens ; However there was real hope and a real change of tone in this speech– Pres. Obama directly confronted the GOP in their obstructive behavior ;About time ,; seems he is really getting his feet under him and providing the leadership needed– Leadership that shows– The Congress Republicans have more than proved they will never cooperate — I agree with you Tom– Liked much more than I disliked-
That is the bottom line,.
I watched it. Obama did what he had to do to show Americans he has been working hard for them. Letting the the republians know he is still willing to work with them but he will not bow to them anymore. I think the republians may be worried and they have every reason to be scared.
He allowed them to paint themselves into a very small dark corner.
I just finished listening to the SOTU and I have to say
I especially liked that he called for putting aside differences to get the business of the nation done; of shared responsibilities. But I think the highlight for me was the sentence that went “We can settle for a country where a shrinking number of Americans do really well and a growing number barely get by.” which was closely followed by “. . . everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.”
Everything else relly fell under those two ideas. I also like that he acknowleged the divide in Congress; between Main Street and Wall Street; between Washington DC and other cities in the nation — using several times the term deficit of trust.
I must admit that I chuckled when I heard him talking about money in politics, insider trading, lobbyists etc. Man those Republican/Teabagger ears were flapping so hard trying to put out the flames.
Were I American, I would be part of the 91% without doubt.
I too heard some boos but the following is all I have to say on that matter. Thanks and Kudos to TC for converting my crude mouse drawn picture from a BMP format to a JPG format so that it could be attached!
Good analysis Lynn. Sorry, but I had to delete the cartoon. A cartoonist’s signature on a cartoon serves as his/her trademark and © notice. They may not be used without specific permission to do so. This is the issue that started me making cartoons.