On Jan. 24, President Barack Obama addressed the nation’s most serious issues in his State of the Union speech.
During the hour long oration, the president covered the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, many facets of our domestic economic state, as well as immigration, diplomatic stances and our position in the international economic and political communities.
His speech was very detailed, and I believe that he laid out a positive and concrete plan for the United States in the upcoming year.
President Obama opened up his speech by congratulating the U.S. military on a job well done during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and gave support for the troops still fighting in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
He commented on the focus of our men and women in the armed forces, and declared that we as a nation should use them as an example for working internally on our domestic hardships.
Shifting to domestic issues, the president pointed out that the American economy has been rebounding for several months, and stated that more new jobs are being created in the U.S. since the late 1990s. Obama also pointed out that the Big Three auto manufacturers are thriving, telling viewers that GM and Chrysler are on serious upswings and that Ford Motor Company invested billions in domestic worksites during the fiscal year of 2011.
On domestic job creation and business stimulation, the president proposed new plans for tax breaks. These proposed breaks would assist small businesses in their growth, as well as reward all U.S. companies for keeping jobs on American soil.
The latter proposal is a reversal from previous policy, which was providing tax cuts and exemptions for businesses that transferred jobs overseas.
Staying domestically-minded, the president stated that he plans to crack down on insider trading in Congress and other political forums. In addition to trading crack downs, the president stated that the Financial Crime Unit will protect investors, and will be slamming the gavel down on those who commit large scale fraud. The harsher penalties are planned in an effort to prevent economic catastrophes, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008.
The president also discussed plans to increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans, citing the Buffett Rule. In addition to tax increases, Obama said that he plans to consolidate the government, making it more efficient. In order to both create jobs and improve our country, he also announced his plans to funnel money into American development, improving roads, bridges, dams, power plants and other critical infrastructure.
Internationally, the president addressed the need for businesses to open up new markets around the world to sell U.S. goods.
The Trade Enforcement Unit was also said to be opening up an investigation in China on unfair trading practices. This will ensure that other countries will not have advantages on the U.S. in the international trading community.
Obama also stated that keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear power was still a national priority. When discussing the economy, President Obama referred several times to the United States need to establish itself further in the international economic community while simultaneously slowing the purchase and dependence on foreign goods. His foreign policy seems to be equally balanced between U.S. imports of foreign goods and exports of domestic ones.
I believe this will be crucial to the long-term financial security of our country, and hope that an end to foreign tax breaks will be the first shift in foreign goods consumption.
Although I feel that the SOTU speech prepared by President Obama and his administration was strong, laying out in detail his plans for the future, there were a few items discussed that I believe deserve further explanation. FactCheck.org stated that employment in the private sector shifted from 106,772,000 in February 2010 to 109,928,000 in December of 2011, as well as an additional gain in 2011 of 1.9 million more new jobs last year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate is still at 8.3 percent as of this January.
But, as the website further explains, there are still 1.7 million fewer jobs than there were the month President Obama took office.
January’s unemployment rate is almost double what it was in May 2007 during our latest economic peak, when it was 4.4 percent.
Job creation is a very important piece of the U.S. economic pie, and I believe that if the Obama administration wants to have a successful FY 2012, they need to aggressively attempt to create jobs. Even more important, President Obama needs to strategize how his administration can create higher demand jobs, not just minimum wage, minimum advancement employment.
In regards to the president’s international economic aspirations, I am all for the U.S. attempting to become a bigger producer in the community, but I feel that more steps will need to be taken to successfully do this. In order to boost our economy, Americans, who consume more than anyone in the world, will need to start purchasing more goods that are manufactured domestically. For instance, during his speech, Obama stated, “Over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tires.” The president was eluding to the tax on Chinese tires that was enacted in September 2009, and at the time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 50,800 registered jobs in the tire manufacturing industry in the U.S. By October 2011, the number had jumped to 51,900. While there is a notable increase in jobs, The Wall Street Journal recently published an article stating that although the tax did slow the importing of Chinese-made tires, they were replaced by imports from other foreign suppliers. I believe that the president has taken steps in the right direction by imposing higher taxes on imported goods, but I believe that to successfully encourage U.S. purchase of U.S. goods, the president will need to pass a “blanket” tax for all foreign goods purchased. Although there will undoubtedly be a price increase for the purchase of American made items, by giving money back to American workers we will be pumping money directly back into ourselves, and that, in my opinion, is the best investment.
Overall, I feel that Obama’s SOTU address was very good. I believe that many of the economic blueprints that were laid out by him have a high potential to succeed in boosting the U.S. economy, but I hope that his 2012 agenda is only the beginning of new domestically-friendly taxing practices.
If the president and his administration were sincere in their stated agenda, I feel that they have the well-being of the majority of the American public in mind, and are trying to get our country back to where it was five years ago, as a strong, independent, world superpower.
David Adams can be reached at dadams@spartans.ut.edu.
Obama’s State of the Union speech was one of the worst in recent history. He failed to discuss the National Debt which is perhaps the greatest threat to our country and something that he his greatly responsible for increasing.
His speech resembled a campain speech touch once again on HOPE and CHANGE and Mr. Obama’s performance in those two areas are exactly why he will be a one term President.
When Obama wins America loses from Obama Care to the Keystone SL pipeline he is a failed President.
Hugh Chardon