President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address Tuesday night, placing heavy emphasis on the upward trend of the nation’s outlook and a need for greater bipartisanship in Congress.
Obama appealed numerous times for more bipartisanship from Congress, asking its members to look at what they could agree on, not disagree.
The president reinforced this idea when he declared, “A better politics is where we appeal to basic decencies instead of our basic fears.”
Obama also introduced a proposal for Congress to write a bill that would offer free community college for every American. He cited successful free community college programs in both Tennessee and Chicago as proof his demand rested on realistic expectations.
The president kept an upbeat tone throughout the speech, stating the economic growth the nation has experienced is good news and American businesses have created over 11 million jobs in the last five months. Building on economic growth, the President also emphasized the need for support of working families, saying he is willing to tax the top 1 percent in order to help out the middle class.
The speech contained a few light-hearted moments, as many attendees applauded when Obama stated he had no more campaigns to run. The President promptly responded by deadpanning he won both of his elections.
In the Republican response, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa directly opposed Obama in regard to the Keystone Pipeline, calling for the president to authorize construction. In the State of the Union, Obama called for a better, bipartisan infrastructure that was “more than a pipeline.”
Other Republican senators took to criticism of Obama in their own rebuttals, including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. In a video he posted on YouTube, he opens with, “I wish I had better news for you, but all is not well in America.”
The speech marked Obama’s next-to-last State of the Union, and he now enters his seventh year in office. Congress is now responsible for putting into action the proposals Obama placed forth, and to show the willingness to take steps for bipartisanship.