Obama to Congress: If You Wont, I Will >President Barack Obama plans to make 2014 a year of action by using his executive authorities wherever possible, while still striving to work with Congress on big pieces of his agenda, he said Tuesday in his State of the Union address >In the coming months, lets see where else we can make progress together, he said, according to prepared remarks. Lets make this a year of action. Thats what most Americans want-for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations. >Rather than dwelling on economic inequality-which has by some measures gotten worse since Obama took office just over five years ago-the president will focus on expanding opportunity for all. What I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or reign or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all-the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead, he said. >Opportunity is who we are. And the defining project of our generation is to restore that promise, he added. >But that sense of opportunity has suffered some serious blows as technology and outsourcing have made many middle-class jobs obsolete, damaging the foundations upon which families and the U.S. economy have relied on four decades. >Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better, he said. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by-let alone get ahead. And too many still arent working at all. >To counter those forces, Obama said he and Congress must move ahead with a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class. >Rather than threatening to act where Congress wont-as he did in his 2011 State of the Union address-Obama outlined to take action where he can while encouraging Congress to go even further.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 02:04:37 +0000
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