Staff Writer
President
Barack Obama delivered his annual State of the Union Address to Congress on
January 20, 2015. He spoke of how the economy is improving to 1999 levels, how
we’re moving away from using foreign oil, how our upcoming generation is more
educated than ever before, and our shift out of Afghanistan. The major focus
points of the speech were education and the economy. Obama brought attention to
families that had bounced back from the Great Recession in 2008. He brought up
stories about Rebekah and her husband, Ben Erler, struggling to make ends meet
after his business dried up. Through it all, the family of three still landed
on their feet with Ben picking up jobs where he could and Rebekah taking out
student loans to go back to college. Obama was eager to use this family as a
poster-child for his idea of the middle class. It was clear that his vision of
optimism was fueled by the American family, but the American family also fueled
his need for change. “Middle class economics works,” Obama emphasized, “expanding
opportunity works, and these policies will continue to work as long as politics
don’t get in the way.”
Obama
stated that his budget would help working Americans afford child care, college,
health care, a home, and retirement. The intention is not to give government
hand-outs, but to help the middle class adapt to the constantly changing
circumstances in our country.
One of the ways to expand opportunity is to
improve the economy by making changes such as raising the minimum wage. Obama
stated, “If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on
less than $15,000 a year, try it.” Now, there are more options than improving
the pay of the lower class.
Another
tactic is socioeconomically migrating lower class people upwards. The most
empirically proven way to gain economical worth is education. Obama proposed
that the first two years of community college be free. Studies show that there
are jobs in America that cannot be filled due to a lack of educated workers.
The concern regarding free community college is cost to the government, but
Obama is confident that examples in Tennessee and Chicago will show that free
community college is possible and functional. Theoretically, the lower and
middle class would be able to access two out of three available jobs in our
country that require some sort of technical education, allowing for greater job
development and greater economic growth.
