The yearly State of the Union address is upon us in a matter of days. It’s the speech where the current president tries to balance optimism and reality of the situation. They also try to provide an accurate self-assessment of how the past year went and where the country is going in the forthcoming year. President Barack Obama has a mixture of both to talk about in this speech. Some of the main topics he touches may be: the economy, jobs in America, the war in Iraq, and a theme of unity and acceptance.
Obama should mention a note on the economic situation. The United States spending budget deficit is upwards of $1.32 trillion dollars (usdebtclock.org). And if the deficit is continues on this same track, it could compose as much as 6 percent of our gross domestic product by 2020 (Christina Romer, NY Times). The government has to find somewhere to cut spending. He should propose tax cuts to bring more revenue to the federal government. Spending should be focused on decreasing our debt, not on all the extras thrown in using pork barrel legislation. It’s the reasoning applied to one’s personal finances: pay off the debts little by little, and limit spending on extraneous things for a while.
In relation to the economic topic, jobs are becoming harder to find these days. The unemployment rate is approximately 9.4 percent at present. This is a similar situation to Franklin D. Roosevelt, although he endured much worse. When Roosevelt took office in 1933 at the tail end of the Great Depression, the employment lurked about 25 percent. It rose and fell throughout the remainder of the decade, and finally fell below 14.1 percent in 1941. (www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief1.htm) President Obama should propose some new way to create more jobs for these people or get the jobs to stay the U.S.
Obama should touch on the progress of the Iraq war. He set a timeline to withdraw most of the troops from Iraq (according to a Washington Post article, a third of 142,000 troops will remain there till the end of the year for training purposes.) Public sentiments for this war have not been favorable and want it to end as soon as possible. Nixon faced a similar situation with the Vietnam War back in the 70s. In his 1970 State of the Union Speech, Nixon said he wanted that era to be remembered, as a time not plagued war, but a generation who achieved peace for the future to enjoy. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The Vietnam War is mostly looked back upon with not much fondness.
A few events in recent months have taught the American people that unity and cooperation is important. The shooting of Congresswoman Giffords and others shows how we all need to work together one unit. We don’t need to judge anyone based on his or her differences or political party. The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell may also be a tool to illustrate this. Gay people shouldn’t have to hide who they are in the military. If they can perform their job just as well as the heterosexual person serving alongside them, that shouldn’t matter. Again, it’s attacking and judging people who are different from us.
Finally, Obama should keep America’s confidence up by providing set plans to improve our country. Some of the voting public was skittish about his lack of experience during the 2008 election. John F. Kennedy had to face the public’s same reservations back in the 1960s. But he turned out to be a good President, leading the country through tumultuous times such as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Obama can do the same.
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