President Obama gave his 2011 State of the Union address on Jan. 25. President Obama started his speech by mentioning the Tucson shooting and Gabrielle Giffords.
Many people attending the speech wore ribbons in memory of those killed and wounded
at the shooting and a seat was left open in Gifford’s honor. Some of the victims families sat with Mrs. Obama.
The speech focused on education, the economy, the deficit and clean energy along with several other things. Obama wants to increase spending on education, infrastructure(like high speed rail), clean energy and high speed internet. He said to prepare for 100,000 new math, science and engineering teachers to improve math and science education. Obama also wants to put in place plans for 80% of American’s electricity to come from renewable resources and 80% precent of American’s to have access to high speed rail by 2035. He also wants businesses to deploy high speed wireless to 98% precent of Americans.
He asked americans let go of their differences to compete India and China, saying we need to “out-innovate, out educate and outbuild the rest of the world.” Democrats and Republicans, who usually sit on opposite sides, sat together during the speech for the first time.
Obama also talked about budget cutting to reduce the deficit. With a five year freeze on spending in some domestic programs that could reduce the deficit by 400 billion dollars in ten years and a 78 billion dollar cut in defense spending. Despite this Republicans do not believe he is doing enough to decrease the deficit. Obama did say he would veto any bills with earmarks, trying to please Republicans.
When talking about the heath care bill, which many Republicans want to repeal, Obama said “lets fix what needs fixing and move forward.” He said he did not want to re-fight the battles of the past two years. Obama said the country can not afford the permanent extension of the tax cuts for the rich. Extending the tax cuts was part of a deal with the Republicans and they took it as a bad sign when Obama said he wouldn’t extend them.
President Obama finished his speech by saying, “The state of the union is strong because the future is hopeful.”
My sources were:
> The New York Times- Obama Calls for Bipartisan Effort to Fight for U.S. Jobs- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/us/politics/26speech.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper
> The Wall Street Journal- Obama: U.S. Must Compete- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704698004576104134043682882.htmlmod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
>NPR- Obama: “Our Destiny Remains Our Choice”- http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133219913/obama-to-urge-a-united-focus-on-jobs
>Huffington Post- State of the Union 2011: Speech, Reaction and Commentary-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/state-of-the-union-2011-s_n_813477.html
>The Washington Post- Obama Challenges the Nation - and Republicans - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/25/AR2011012507377_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=S
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