With two years left in his historic presidency, Barack Obama spent 60 minutes during his State of the Union address Tuesday focusing on what has been accomplished in the last six years and detailing how he will help middle-class Americans bounce back even more in the next several years.
Among the comments that garnered the most applause was his notation that more Americans had health insurance than ever before.
President Obama also said he will shortly send Congress a budget full of items that he contends will help grow the economy. And he challenged the members to find areas of agreement rather than refight battles; he warned that he will veto any legislation that does this.
The president also talked about restoring fairness to America and rebuilding the link between hard work and opportunity.
Coming back to his theme of helping middle class families, President Obama listed the ways he intends to assist—this included providing a $3,000 per child annual tax credit to help parents pay for affordable, high-quality childcare; helping make home mortgages affordable; creating legislation that allows every working parent to earn seven paid days of sick leave; as well as insuring women equal pay for equal work.
The president also challenged Congressional members to try to live on the annual minimum wage of $15,000 before rejecting his call for an increase in the federal minimum wage.
On the education front, the president elaborated on his plan to make community college free. Noting that in the coming years two in three jobs will require some levels of higher education and that 40 percent of Americans choose junior college for post secondary education, he has set his sites on lowering the cost of a two-year education to zero. He went on to point out how Republican-led Tennessee and Democratic Chicago are making free community college work.
The president also talked about the importance of apprenticeship programs, and this had a special meaning to LeDaya Epps, a single mother of three who works on the Crenshaw/LAX Transportation Project and was named PVJOBS Participant of the year last fall.
Epps, after two years of unemployment and a stint of homelessness, was the first female to finish the laborer’s boot camp and was hired as a laborer by Walsh/Shea to work on the Crenshaw rail line. She also had an opportunity to meet U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez during his visit to Los Angeles and that led to an invitation to join the first lady in her box to hear the State of the Union.
“They were just like you and me, so down to earth,” said Epps of her experience. She flew with her 15- and 11-year-old sons to Washington, D.C., for the address. In addition to identifying with the president’s comments on the apprenticeship program, Epps said she particularly identified with Obama’s comments on finding affordable childcare. “I’m really glad I have a really nice neighbor (to take care of her 3 year old).”
