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State of the Union Address
President Barack Obama
Ohio Republican Party response follows text of State of the Union…
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, my fellow Americans:
Tonight marks the eighth year I’ve come here to report on the State of
the Union. And for this final one, I’m going to try to make it
shorter. I know some of you are antsy to get back to Iowa.
I also understand that because it’s an election season, expectations
for what we’ll achieve this year are low. Still, Mr. Speaker, I
appreciate the constructive approach you and the other leaders took at
the end of last year to pass a budget and make tax cuts permanent for
working families. So I hope we can work together this year on
bipartisan priorities like criminal justice reform, and helping people
who are battling prescription drug abuse. We just might surprise the
cynics again.
But tonight, I want to go easy on the traditional list of proposals for
the year ahead. Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty, from helping
students learn to write computer code to personalizing medical
treatments for patients. And I’ll keep pushing for progress on
the work that still needs doing. Fixing a broken immigration
system. Protecting our kids from gun violence. Equal pay
for equal work, paid leave, raising the minimum wage. All these
things still matter to hardworking families; they are still the right
thing to do; and I will not let up until they get done.
But for my final address to this chamber, I don’t want to talk just
about the next year. I want to focus on the next five years, ten
years, and beyond.
I want to focus on our future.
We live in a time of extraordinary change – change that’s reshaping the
way we live, the way we work, our planet and our place in the
world. It’s change that promises amazing medical breakthroughs,
but also economic disruptions that strain working families. It
promises education for girls in the most remote villages, but also
connects terrorists plotting an ocean away. It’s change that can
broaden opportunity, or widen inequality. And whether we like it
or not, the pace of this change will only accelerate.
America has been through big changes before – wars and depression, the
influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, and movements
to expand civil rights. Each time, there have been those who told
us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change,
promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that
was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame
those fears. We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the
“dogmas of the quiet past.” Instead we thought anew, and acted
anew. We made change work for us, always extending America’s
promise outward, to the next frontier, to more and more people.
And because we did – because we saw opportunity where others saw only
peril – we emerged stronger and better than before.
What was true then can be true now. Our unique strengths as a
nation – our optimism and work ethic, our spirit of discovery and
innovation, our diversity and commitment to the rule of law – these
things give us everything we need to ensure prosperity and security for
generations to come.
In fact, it’s that spirit that made the progress of these past seven
years possible. It’s how we recovered from the worst economic
crisis in generations. It’s how we reformed our health care
system, and reinvented our energy sector; how we delivered more care
and benefits to our troops and veterans, and how we secured the freedom
in every state to marry the person we love.
But such progress is not inevitable. It is the result of choices
we make together. And we face such choices right now. Will
we respond to the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a
nation, and turning against each other as a people? Or will we
face the future with confidence in who we are, what we stand for, and
the incredible things we can do together?
So let’s talk about the future, and four big questions that we as a
country have to answer – regardless of who the next President is, or
who controls the next Congress.
First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy?
Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us –
especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate
change?
Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?
And finally, how can we make our politics reflect what’s best in us, and not what’s worst?
Let me start with the economy, and a basic fact: the United States of
America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the
world. We’re in the middle of the longest streak of
private-sector job creation in history. More than 14 million new
jobs; the strongest two years of job growth since the ‘90s; an
unemployment rate cut in half. Our auto industry just had its
best year ever. Manufacturing has created nearly 900,000 new jobs
in the past six years. And we’ve done all this while cutting our
deficits by almost three-quarters.
Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling
fiction. What is true – and the reason that a lot of Americans
feel anxious – is that the economy has been changing in profound ways,
changes that started long before the Great Recession hit and haven’t
let up. Today, technology doesn’t just replace jobs on the
assembly line, but any job where work can be automated. Companies
in a global economy can locate anywhere, and face tougher
competition. As a result, workers have less leverage for a
raise. Companies have less loyalty to their communities.
And more and more wealth and income is concentrated at the very top.
All these trends have squeezed workers, even when they have jobs; even
when the economy is growing. It’s made it harder for a
hardworking family to pull itself out of poverty, harder for young
people to start on their careers, and tougher for workers to retire
when they want to. And although none of these trends are unique
to America, they do offend our uniquely American belief that everybody
who works hard should get a fair shot.
For the past seven years, our goal has been a growing economy that
works better for everybody. We’ve made progress. But we
need to make more. And despite all the political arguments we’ve
had these past few years, there are some areas where Americans broadly
agree.
We agree that real opportunity requires every American to get the
education and training they need to land a good-paying job. The
bipartisan reform of No Child Left Behind was an important start, and
together, we’ve increased early childhood education, lifted high school
graduation rates to new highs, and boosted graduates in fields like
engineering. In the coming years, we should build on that
progress, by providing Pre-K for all, offering every student the
hands-on computer science and math classes that make them job-ready on
day one, and we should recruit and support more great teachers for our
kids.
And we have to make college affordable for every American.
Because no hardworking student should be stuck in the red. We’ve
already reduced student loan payments to ten percent of a borrower’s
income. Now, we’ve actually got to cut the cost of college.
Providing two years of community college at no cost for every
responsible student is one of the best ways to do that, and I’m going
to keep fighting to get that started this year.
Of course, a great education isn’t all we need in this new
economy. We also need benefits and protections that provide a
basic measure of security. After all, it’s not much of a stretch
to say that some of the only people in America who are going to work
the same job, in the same place, with a health and retirement package,
for 30 years, are sitting in this chamber. For everyone else,
especially folks in their forties and fifties, saving for retirement or
bouncing back from job loss has gotten a lot tougher. Americans
understand that at some point in their careers, they may have to retool
and retrain. But they shouldn’t lose what they’ve already worked
so hard to build.
That’s why Social Security and Medicare are more important than ever;
we shouldn’t weaken them, we should strengthen them. And for
Americans short of retirement, basic benefits should be just as mobile
as everything else is today. That’s what the Affordable Care Act
is all about. It’s about filling the gaps in employer-based care
so that when we lose a job, or go back to school, or start that new
business, we’ll still have coverage. Nearly eighteen million have
gained coverage so far. Health care inflation has slowed.
And our businesses have created jobs every single month since it became
law.
Now, I’m guessing we won’t agree on health care anytime soon. But
there should be other ways both parties can improve economic
security. Say a hardworking American loses his job – we shouldn’t
just make sure he can get unemployment insurance; we should make sure
that program encourages him to retrain for a business that’s ready to
hire him. If that new job doesn’t pay as much, there should be a
system of wage insurance in place so that he can still pay his
bills. And even if he’s going from job to job, he should still be
able to save for retirement and take his savings with him. That’s
the way we make the new economy work better for everyone.
I also know Speaker Ryan has talked about his interest in tackling
poverty. America is about giving everybody willing to work a hand
up, and I’d welcome a serious discussion about strategies we can all
support, like expanding tax cuts for low-income workers without kids.
But there are other areas where it’s been more difficult to find
agreement over the last seven years – namely what role the government
should play in making sure the system’s not rigged in favor of the
wealthiest and biggest corporations. And here, the American
people have a choice to make.
I believe a thriving private sector is the lifeblood of our
economy. I think there are outdated regulations that need to be
changed, and there’s red tape that needs to be cut. But after
years of record corporate profits, working families won’t get more
opportunity or bigger paychecks by letting big banks or big oil or
hedge funds make their own rules at the expense of everyone else; or by
allowing attacks on collective bargaining to go unanswered. Food
Stamp recipients didn’t cause the financial crisis; recklessness on
Wall Street did. Immigrants aren’t the reason wages haven’t gone
up enough; those decisions are made in the boardrooms that too often
put quarterly earnings over long-term returns. It’s sure not the
average family watching tonight that avoids paying taxes through
offshore accounts. In this new economy, workers and start-ups and
small businesses need more of a voice, not less. The rules should
work for them. And this year I plan to lift up the many
businesses who’ve figured out that doing right by their workers ends up
being good for their shareholders, their customers, and their
communities, so that we can spread those best practices across America.
In fact, many of our best corporate citizens are also our most
creative. This brings me to the second big question we have to
answer as a country: how do we reignite that spirit of innovation
to meet our biggest challenges?
Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny
Sputnik was up there. We didn’t argue about the science, or
shrink our research and development budget. We built a space
program almost overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on
the moon.
That spirit of discovery is in our DNA. We’re Thomas Edison and
the Wright Brothers and George Washington Carver. We’re Grace
Hopper and Katherine Johnson and Sally Ride. We’re every
immigrant and entrepreneur from Boston to Austin to Silicon Valley
racing to shape a better world. And over the past seven years,
we’ve nurtured that spirit.
We’ve protected an open internet, and taken bold new steps to get more
students and low-income Americans online. We’ve launched
next-generation manufacturing hubs, and online tools that give an
entrepreneur everything he or she needs to start a business in a single
day.
But we can do so much more. Last year, Vice President Biden
said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer. Last
month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National
Institutes of Health the strongest resources they’ve had in over a
decade. Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it
done. And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us, on so many
issues over the past forty years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission
Control. For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can
still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and
for all.
Medical research is critical. We need the same level of commitment when it comes to developing clean energy sources.
Look, if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate
change, have at it. You’ll be pretty lonely, because you’ll be
debating our military, most of America’s business leaders, the majority
of the American people, almost the entire scientific community, and 200
nations around the world who agree it’s a problem and intend to solve
it.
But even if the planet wasn’t at stake; even if 2014 wasn’t the warmest
year on record – until 2015 turned out even hotter – why would we want
to pass up the chance for American businesses to produce and sell the
energy of the future?
Seven years ago, we made the single biggest investment in clean energy
in our history. Here are the results. In fields from Iowa
to Texas, wind power is now cheaper than dirtier, conventional
power. On rooftops from Arizona to New York, solar is saving
Americans tens of millions of dollars a year on their energy bills, and
employs more Americans than coal – in jobs that pay better than
average. We’re taking steps to give homeowners the freedom to
generate and store their own energy – something environmentalists and
Tea Partiers have teamed up to support. Meanwhile, we’ve cut our
imports of foreign oil by nearly sixty percent, and cut carbon
pollution more than any other country on Earth.
Gas under two bucks a gallon ain’t bad, either.
Now we’ve got to accelerate the transition away from dirty
energy. Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the
future – especially in communities that rely on fossil fuels.
That’s why I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and
coal resources, so that they better reflect the costs they impose on
taxpayers and our planet. That way, we put money back into those
communities and put tens of thousands of Americans to work building a
21st century transportation system.
None of this will happen overnight, and yes, there are plenty of
entrenched interests who want to protect the status quo. But the
jobs we’ll create, the money we’ll save, and the planet we’ll preserve
– that’s the kind of future our kids and grandkids deserve.
Climate change is just one of many issues where our security is linked
to the rest of the world. And that’s why the third big question
we have to answer is how to keep America safe and strong without either
isolating ourselves or trying to nation-build everywhere there’s a
problem.
I told you earlier all the talk of America’s economic decline is
political hot air. Well, so is all the rhetoric you hear about
our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker. The
United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth.
Period. It’s not even close. We spend more on our military
than the next eight nations combined. Our troops are the finest
fighting force in the history of the world. No nation dares to
attack us or our allies because they know that’s the path to
ruin. Surveys show our standing around the world is higher than
when I was elected to this office, and when it comes to every important
international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or
Moscow to lead – they call us.
As someone who begins every day with an intelligence briefing, I know
this is a dangerous time. But that’s not because of diminished American
strength or some looming superpower. In today’s world, we’re
threatened less by evil empires and more by failing states. The
Middle East is going through a transformation that will play out for a
generation, rooted in conflicts that date back millennia.
Economic headwinds blow from a Chinese economy in transition.
Even as their economy contracts, Russia is pouring resources to prop up
Ukraine and Syria – states they see slipping away from their
orbit. And the international system we built after World War II
is now struggling to keep pace with this new reality.
It’s up to us to help remake that system. And that means we have to set priorities.
Priority number one is protecting the American people and going after
terrorist networks. Both al Qaeda and now ISIL pose a direct
threat to our people, because in today’s world, even a handful of
terrorists who place no value on human life, including their own, can
do a lot of damage. They use the Internet to poison the minds of
individuals inside our country; they undermine our allies.
But as we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is
World War III just play into their hands. Masses of fighters on
the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or
garages pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped.
But they do not threaten our national existence. That’s the story
ISIL wants to tell; that’s the kind of propaganda they use to
recruit. We don’t need to build them up to show that we’re
serious, nor do we need to push away vital allies in this fight by
echoing the lie that ISIL is representative of one of the world’s
largest religions. We just need to call them what they are –
killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down, and
destroyed.
That’s exactly what we are doing. For more than a year, America
has led a coalition of more than 60 countries to cut off ISIL’s
financing, disrupt their plots, stop the flow of terrorist fighters,
and stamp out their vicious ideology. With nearly 10,000 air
strikes, we are taking out their leadership, their oil, their training
camps, and their weapons. We are training, arming, and supporting
forces who are steadily reclaiming territory in Iraq and Syria.
If this Congress is serious about winning this war, and wants to send a
message to our troops and the world, you should finally authorize the
use of military force against ISIL. Take a vote. But the
American people should know that with or without Congressional action,
ISIL will learn the same lessons as terrorists before them. If
you doubt America’s commitment – or mine – to see that justice is done,
ask Osama bin Laden. Ask the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, who was
taken out last year, or the perpetrator of the Benghazi attacks, who
sits in a prison cell. When you come after Americans, we go after
you. It may take time, but we have long memories, and our reach
has no limit.
Our foreign policy must be focused on the threat from ISIL and al
Qaeda, but it can’t stop there. For even without ISIL, instability will
continue for decades in many parts of the world – in the Middle East,
in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in parts of Central America, Africa and
Asia. Some of these places may become safe havens for new
terrorist networks; others will fall victim to ethnic conflict, or
famine, feeding the next wave of refugees. The world will look to
us to help solve these problems, and our answer needs to be more than
tough talk or calls to carpet bomb civilians. That may work as a
TV sound bite, but it doesn’t pass muster on the world stage.
We also can’t try to take over and rebuild every country that falls
into crisis. That’s not leadership; that’s a recipe for quagmire,
spilling American blood and treasure that ultimately weakens us.
It’s the lesson of Vietnam, of Iraq – and we should have learned it by
now.
Fortunately, there’s a smarter approach, a patient and disciplined
strategy that uses every element of our national power. It says
America will always act, alone if necessary, to protect our people and
our allies; but on issues of global concern, we will mobilize the world
to work with us, and make sure other countries pull their own
weight.
That’s our approach to conflicts like Syria, where we’re partnering
with local forces and leading international efforts to help that broken
society pursue a lasting peace.
That’s why we built a global coalition, with sanctions and principled
diplomacy, to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. As we speak, Iran has
rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and
the world has avoided another war.
That’s how we stopped the spread of Ebola in West Africa. Our
military, our doctors, and our development workers set up the platform
that allowed other countries to join us in stamping out that epidemic.
That’s how we forged a Trans-Pacific Partnership to open markets,
protect workers and the environment, and advance American leadership in
Asia. It cuts 18,000 taxes on products Made in America, and
supports more good jobs. With TPP, China doesn’t set the rules in
that region, we do. You want to show our strength in this
century? Approve this agreement. Give us the tools to
enforce it.
Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting
us back in Latin America. That’s why we restored diplomatic
relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned
ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people. You want to
consolidate our leadership and credibility in the hemisphere?
Recognize that the Cold War is over. Lift the embargo.
American leadership in the 21st century is not a choice between
ignoring the rest of the world – except when we kill terrorists; or
occupying and rebuilding whatever society is unraveling.
Leadership means a wise application of military power, and rallying the
world behind causes that are right. It means seeing our foreign
assistance as part of our national security, not charity. When we
lead nearly 200 nations to the most ambitious agreement in history to
fight climate change – that helps vulnerable countries, but it also
protects our children. When we help Ukraine defend its democracy,
or Colombia resolve a decades-long war, that strengthens the
international order we depend upon. When we help African
countries feed their people and care for the sick, that prevents the
next pandemic from reaching our shores. Right now, we are on
track to end the scourge of HIV/AIDS, and we have the capacity to
accomplish the same thing with malaria – something I’ll be pushing this
Congress to fund this year.
That’s strength. That’s leadership. And that kind of
leadership depends on the power of our example. That is why I
will keep working to shut down the prison at Guantanamo: it’s
expensive, it’s unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment
brochure for our enemies.
That’s why we need to reject any politics that targets people because
of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political
correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong.
The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our
diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith.
His Holiness, Pope Francis, told this body from the very spot I stand
tonight that “to imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and
murderers is the best way to take their place.” When politicians
insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that
doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is.
It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world.
It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we
are as a country.
“We the People.” Our Constitution begins with those three simple
words, words we’ve come to recognize mean all the people, not just
some; words that insist we rise and fall together. That brings me
to the fourth, and maybe the most important thing I want to say tonight.
The future we want – opportunity and security for our families; a
rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our
kids – all that is within our reach. But it will only happen if
we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational,
constructive debates.
It will only happen if we fix our politics.
A better politics doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything.
This is a big country, with different regions and attitudes and
interests. That’s one of our strengths, too. Our Founders
distributed power between states and branches of government, and
expected us to argue, just as they did, over the size and shape of
government, over commerce and foreign relations, over the meaning of
liberty and the imperatives of security.
But democracy does require basic bonds of trust between its
citizens. It doesn’t work if we think the people who disagree
with us are all motivated by malice, or that our political opponents
are unpatriotic. Democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness
to compromise; or when even basic facts are contested, and we listen
only to those who agree with us. Our public life withers when
only the most extreme voices get attention. Most of all,
democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t
matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful
or some narrow interest.
Too many Americans feel that way right now. It’s one of the few
regrets of my presidency – that the rancor and suspicion between the
parties has gotten worse instead of better. There’s no doubt a
president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better
bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so
long as I hold this office.
But, my fellow Americans, this cannot be my task – or any President’s –
alone. There are a whole lot of folks in this chamber who would
like to see more cooperation, a more elevated debate in Washington, but
feel trapped by the demands of getting elected. I know; you’ve
told me. And if we want a better politics, it’s not enough to
just change a Congressman or a Senator or even a President; we have to
change the system to reflect our better selves.
We have to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so
that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way
around. We have to reduce the influence of money in our politics,
so that a handful of families and hidden interests can’t bankroll our
elections – and if our existing approach to campaign finance can’t pass
muster in the courts, we need to work together to find a real
solution. We’ve got to make voting easier, not harder, and
modernize it for the way we live now. And over the course of this
year, I intend to travel the country to push for reforms that do.
But I can’t do these things on my own. Changes in our political
process – in not just who gets elected but how they get elected – that
will only happen when the American people demand it. It will
depend on you. That’s what’s meant by a government of, by, and
for the people.
What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept
that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe
that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now,
then we forsake a better future. Those with money and power will
gain greater control over the decisions that could send a young soldier
to war, or allow another economic disaster, or roll back the equal
rights and voting rights that generations of Americans have fought,
even died, to secure. As frustration grows, there will be voices
urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who
don’t look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the
same background.
We can’t afford to go down that path. It won’t deliver the
economy we want, or the security we want, but most of all, it
contradicts everything that makes us the envy of the world.
So, my fellow Americans, whatever you may believe, whether you prefer
one party or no party, our collective future depends on your
willingness to uphold your obligations as a citizen. To
vote. To speak out. To stand up for others, especially the
weak, especially the vulnerable, knowing that each of us is only here
because somebody, somewhere, stood up for us. To stay active in
our public life so it reflects the goodness and decency and optimism
that I see in the American people every single day.
It won’t be easy. Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can
promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll
be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of
fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have
helped America travel so far. Voices that help us see ourselves
not first and foremost as black or white or Asian or Latino, not as gay
or straight, immigrant or native born; not as Democrats or Republicans,
but as Americans first, bound by a common creed. Voices Dr. King
believed would have the final word – voices of unarmed truth and
unconditional love.
They’re out there, those voices. They don’t get a lot of
attention, nor do they seek it, but they are busy doing the work this
country needs doing.
I see them everywhere I travel in this incredible country of
ours. I see you. I know you’re there. You’re the
reason why I have such incredible confidence in our future.
Because I see your quiet, sturdy citizenship all the time.
I see it in the worker on the assembly line who clocked extra shifts to
keep his company open, and the boss who pays him higher wages to keep
him on board.
I see it in the Dreamer who stays up late to finish her science
project, and the teacher who comes in early because he knows she might
someday cure a disease.
I see it in the American who served his time, and dreams of starting
over – and the business owner who gives him that second chance.
The protester determined to prove that justice matters, and the young
cop walking the beat, treating everybody with respect, doing the brave,
quiet work of keeping us safe.
I see it in the soldier who gives almost everything to save his
brothers, the nurse who tends to him ‘til he can run a marathon, and
the community that lines up to cheer him on.
It’s the son who finds the courage to come out as who he is, and the
father whose love for that son overrides everything he’s been taught.
I see it in the elderly woman who will wait in line to cast her vote as
long as she has to; the new citizen who casts his for the first time;
the volunteers at the polls who believe every vote should count,
because each of them in different ways know how much that precious
right is worth.
That’s the America I know. That’s the country we
love. Clear-eyed. Big-hearted. Optimistic that
unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
That’s what makes me so hopeful about our future. Because of
you. I believe in you. That’s why I stand here confident
that the State of our Union is strong.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
Ohio Republican Party
Response to the State of the Union
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges released
the following statement after President Obama's State of the Union
address:
"After seven years of Obama's presidency, we have a more dangerous
world, a more divided government than ever, and millions of Americans
struggling to make ends meet. More leading from behind, more spending
and more Washington overreach will not fix our nation's problems.
"It's no surprise the American people overwhelmingly say the country is
on the wrong track and want to see their next president take a
different direction. Thank goodness this was President Obama's last
State of the Union. We look forward to electing a Republican president
this year who is willing to work with Congress to tackle the big issues
facing our country."
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