President Barack Obama has a lot of questions to answer at his first State of the Union Address on Wednesday. There are issues that Obama has addressed in past speeches that I believe will be brought up again because they have yet to be fixed.
The president faces a struggling economy and an unemployment rate that ended at 9.7 percent in Dec. 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since taking office in Jan. 2009 the unemployment rate has gone up 1.2 percentage points. President Obama may talk about the need for more jobs because of the growing unemployment rate. In his Inaugural speech, President Obama said work that needed to be done to make sure citizens in the U.S. had jobs.
“The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act – not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth,” Obama said in his Inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 2009. Obama may utter these same words in his State of the Union Address and discuss actions that are taking pace to make sure new jobs will be created and foundations for growth in business will be laid down.
Because of the recent attacks on the U.S. and the current struggles against terrorists, next issue the president will discuss is terrorism. He will discuss troop levels and the course of action in Afghanistan and discuss the continued withdrawal from Iraq. Obama may discuss issues about the military refocus from Iraq to Afghanistan.
The attempted terrorist attack on Dec. 25, 2009 may be used in his speech to back up the need for more troops and funding to fight against those who have attacked the U.S.
Another issue that Obama will address is health care. He said in his speech on health care that our current system has many flaws. He used two examples to get the point across. The first was of a woman in Texas who was about to get a double mastectomy but she had her insurance cancelled because she forgot to declare a case of acne. By the time she had her insurance reinstated, her cancer had doubled in size. It’s instances like this that need to be fixed and Obama will make it clear that these situations are unacceptable and that a new health care system is the only way to fix it.
With new senator-elect Scott Brown winning the Massachusetts Senate race, the once Democratic held seat now belongs to a Republican. This change could cause a major set back on whether a health care reform would be passed because the republicans now have 41 senate seats and the democrats have 59 when 60 votes are needed to defeat a filibuster. President Obama will stress to the people how much health care reform is needed and use some examples from his health care speech to back up his point.
These issues need to be acknowledged for the benefit of the U.S. and the welfare of the people because they are issues that will effect them. Obama may not talk about these issues right from the start because of the devastation in Haiti, but he may mention them throughout the rest of the State of the Union Address. Obama may also reflect on former presidents who have faced difficulties with the economy like he is now. I believe President William J. Clinton is the easiest person to relate Obama to. Clinton faced hard economic times and prevailed.
The State of the Union address will take place on Wednesday and one can only hope that the Obama administration knows what the problems are and are ready to face them.
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This column gives great insight into what President Obama may talk about during his State of the Union address. You actually hit on a couple things that I wrote about in my column as well. The economy and health care will definitely be big issues. With the war still going on, it will be very likely that he will touch on the war and terrorism. Overall, I think that your predictions are on the spot.
ReplyDeleteHawthorne is right about the war on terrorism. President Obama will have to discuss the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan especially since he ran as an anti-war candidate in 2008. I think the American people would like to hear more of his plans on the troop pullout from both Iraq and Afghanistan. I heard on NPR's All Things Considered today that Obama will need to discuss what he plans to do about the U.S.'s vulnerability to chemical attacks. It seems it is the type of attack the U.S. is most vulnerable to and the one the U.S. is most unprepared to prevent or react.
ReplyDeleteMr. Fizer, it seems your predictions were right on. I was specifically struck by your predictions on the economy and jobs. It was the first on your list of issues Obama would address and he said it was his number one priority for 2010. While anyone could have said he would focus on the economy, you pointed out specifically the issue of unemployment and the need for jobs.
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