President Obama’s State of the Union speech outlines agenda
Obama's State of the Union Agenda Proposals
In his address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama highlighted a number of key points in his agenda for the next year:
"¢bull; Following the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the president called on college campuses and ROTC programs across the nation to adopt similarly open policies.
"¢bull; Obama announced plans to bring troops home from Afghanistan by July.
"¢bull; As part of a plan to double the nation's exports by 2014, the president announced trade agreements with India, China and South Korea that would create 320,000 American jobs.
"¢bull; To improve education, President Obama announced the "Race to the Top" competition, which would provide money to states that create the most innovative plans to improve the quality of their teachers and achievement of their students.
Compiled by Nicholas Greitzer, Bruin senior staff.
By Nicholas Greitzer
Jan. 26, 2011 1:45 a.m.
In his second State of the Union address, President Barack Obama focused on closing the national debt and creating a sense of unity in the wake of political shifts.
The president aimed to unite a government that saw the House of Representatives shift to Republican control in November.
The address was light on specifics but was upbeat and optimistic, said Tim Groeling, chair of the communication studies department. Obama called for a timeout in a game the Democrats had already lost. He also demonstrated a willingness to move toward the political center.
“We will move forward together, or not at all ““ for the challenges we face are bigger than party, and bigger than politics,” Obama said in the speech.
In a move meant to appeal to proposals from both political parties, Obama suggested freezing domestic spending during the next five years, which he said would reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion.
“(The spending freeze) is a reasonable and intelligent strategy for the government to avoid going so deeply into debt,” said economics Professor Mike Sproul. “It shows they’re taking serious steps to try to prevent the problem from getting worse.”
Still, Sproul said the government must take steps that go beyond only a spending freeze by enacting permanent cuts to reverse the deficit.
Obama devoted a large section of his speech to emphasizing the importance of education in a world that is becoming increasingly competitive and technologically advanced. He alluded to the recently failed DREAM Act, which was voted down by Congress in December.
“Today, there are hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens. Some are the children of undocumented workers, who had nothing to do with the actions of their parents,” Obama said. “They grew up as Americans and pledge allegiance to our flag, and yet they live every day with the threat of deportation. … It makes no sense.”
Obama did, however, address the need to control illegal immigration and said he will work with both Republicans and Democrats to protect America’s borders.
The president proposed other measures that could affect students, which include extending the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal to the ROTC program and a plan in which digital textbooks could be available by a wireless network that covers 98 percent of the country during the next five years.
“I really appreciated the president’s comments directed towards students. It was part of his platform of a renewed commitment to education,” said Patrick Ahrens, a fourth-year political science student.
The question that will remain for Ahrens over the coming months is whether Obama’s renewed commitment to education will help offset the massive cuts California will face under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget.
Separate conservative responses to Obama’s address were delivered by Reps. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. Groeling said he believes this foreshadows a divide in the Republican party.
“The last two years, the Republicans have been able to unify in opposition to President Obama’s agenda,” he said. “They are going to find it more difficult to unify in support of their own.”
