President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union Address to the 113th Congress Tuesday evening, outlining his 2014 agenda with particular attention to the home front.
Touching on topics such as education, income inequality, immigration and healthcare, the president was quick to express his hope that Congress would work with him legislatively on these issues, but was also unabashed in his promise to use executive authority if they would not act.
Obama said the dysfunction of Congress was not doing right by the American people.
“There are millions of Americans outside of Washington who are tired of stale political arguments,” Obama said.
Focusing on his plan for a bipartisan trade authority and increased infrastructure spending, Obama said an improved infrastructure would draw jobs and that “the nation that goes all in on innovation today will lead the world economy tomorrow.”
Obama said he planned to require federal contractors to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 effective Wednesday and would urge Congress to do the same nationally.
“Americans overwhelmingly agree that no one who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty,” Obama said.
Obama said every child should have access to a world-class education as one of the best investments a country could make in a child’s life is early high quality education. He said there should be more challenging curriculums and more demanding parents
“It should be about how well they can think, not how well they can bubble,” Obama said.
Jack Weyrens, freshman chemical engineering major, said the address was much of what he expected.
“I expected him to come in with a whole bunch of comments about how we’re doing great and we’re getting better but we’ve still got a lot of work to do and that if Congress won’t do it then he’s going to do it,” Weyrens said. “So in that sense, he did exactly as I expected but it’s not exactly my type of State of the Union address.”
Meredith Hansen, junior sociology major, said she was beginning to evaluate political topics, such as Obama covered, in the framework of her own beliefs.
“I’m starting to think about politics in terms of what I think about, not my friends or family, and so some of the stuff I agreed with was what he said about outsourcing jobs and closing tax loop holes,” Hansen said.