State of the Union (Barack Obama)

President Barack Obama begins the speech with a purpose of putting a bid in for the 2012 presidential election. He starts off with the large success in halting the Taliban and the Iraq war. Following statements prove he has a strong sense of middle class awareness and the gradual rise. He then moves along to the stock market rising again for the first in a long time since its slow decline. President Barack Obama states that nearly four million jobs were lost in the six months before he took office; he has created 3.2 million jobs in the last 22 months.

One of the things that President Barack Obama leans heavily on is the uproar and rise of the economy. Since he was put in office he has filled 3.2 out of the 4 million job deficit that he was elected into, last year American businesses created the most jobs since 2005. Making a 2 trillion dollar deficit cut and putting “wall street accountable and responsible for any further mistakes so a crisis like this never happens again”. With over one million jobs at stake and after a bailout for General Motors when they were near the verge of imminent collapse he has turned them around to be the largest automobile manufacturer once again. President Barack Obama believes in keeping American thriving with other American businesses such as, new manufacturing and American energy. It is no longer cost effective and as efficient as it used to be for foreign imported goods at the cost of our economy.

President Barack Obama then talks about the tax codes. A business moving overseas to avoid taxes isn’t right compared to the small American businesses that do not have the opportunity or financial means. We have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world and these big companies are exploiting the American system and outsourcing jobs by not providing them to Americans. He wants to introduce a system that would charge a basic minimum tax rate in which companies who choose to stay in the United States of America and continue to hire here to provide a thriving American economy. He wants to reform tax laws to keep America afloat by providing tax cuts to companies that are willing to stay in America and open plants in dying cities.

I have mixed feelings about President Barack Obamas’ claim to provide people who have lost their job the financial security of being retrained through college to meet the criteria of another job. This is a great concept but I feel like this could quickly escalate into a uncontrollable problem with such a large number of unemployed Americans. If roughly 50 percent of those Americans took the opportunity of being re-trained by a school, it would cost America millions of dollars. Even with the tax laws being reformed if everything works out the way Obama plans I don’t quite see where we will get that sum of money. As previously stated it’s a great idea with some rough edges that need to be worked out. America is in an incredibly large amount of debt and going further in wouldn’t be wise at this current time. We should improvise something to where the companies pay for the training without as much support from the government.

Overall I have learned a lot about Barack Obamas mindset and goals this speech was very informative this has sparked my interest in the American Government system. Obama is a very vocally fluent man who uses terms that are widely recognized and comprehendible. On the other hand I feel like he could of focused a little bit more on the problems at hand instead of boasting him accomplishments for the election of 2012. I would of liked if he had presented a solution to helping current students with the expenses of college, financial aid is not available unless you are barely over the poverty line instead of focusing on re-training individuals. In the State of the Union Speech Barack Obama speech you have to keep a clear head and take a step back to analyze both sides here. He presented a lot of good material but do not get into a biased mindset.

(State of the Union 2012, President Barack Obama Jan. 24th 2012 (9:00 P.M. EST) Fox News™)