Rarely does our president get an uninterrupted chance before such a large audience to speak directly to the nation. For this reason, the State of the Union address often serves two purposes: to illuminate the president’s recent record and to describe his upcoming agenda.
Last Tuesday, President Obama discussed the end of the Iraq War and the slow, but steady, winding down of the war in Afghanistan.
Although unemployment is not as low as anyone would like, the truth is that the Obama administration has created 3 million jobs in 22 months. Last year saw the greatest creation of jobs since 2005, and the unemployment rate is steadily declining. Additionally, the U.S. is on track to double its exports.
Heading into election year, President Obama made a note that he would fight outsourcing tax breaks for multinational corporations and unfair tax breaks for oil companies. He wants to create a federal task force to monitor banks, mortgage lenders and credit card companies for fraud, and he promoted tax breaks for manufacturing in economically-challenged communities.
He also brought up the Dream Act, a moderate initiative for citizenship for hard-working and successful students who are illegal immigrants. Oh, and for college students, his goal is to extend college tuition tax credits and double the number of work-study jobs.
Although his agenda is more progressive, the majority of his ideas are ones that any sensible individual should find appealing. In walking the fine line between moderate and progressive, I think that he succeeded. For myself and many others, change is here and continues to come. Hopefully, as we head toward November, congressional obstructionists will not believe in a “my way or the highway” game.
In fact, it’s not even a game. It should be the government doing its job.
Gaurav Dhiman is a senior majoring in biology and political science, and the president of the UM College Democrats.