2012 State of the Union Address

On January 24, 2012 the President gave his State of the Union address and started with saluting the armed forces, their accomplishments and noted they exceeded expectations. He said they’re not consumed with personal ambitions, they don’t obsess over their differences, they focus on the mission on hand, they work together - imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example – an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded. He said he will oppose any action that plans on returning us to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place. His message to business leaders is for them to ask themselves what they can do to bring jobs back to our country and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed. He said right now companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas while companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. First, if you’re a business that wants to outsource jobs, you shouldn’t get a tax deduction for doing it, that money should be used to bring jobs home; second no company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs overseas; from now on every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax and every penny should be used to lower taxes of those companies that choose to stay here and hire in America; third if you’re an American manufacturer you should get a bigger tax cut and if you want to relocate to an area that was hit hard when a factory left town, you should get help with financing a new plant, equipment or training for new workers. The bipartisan trade agreements that have been signed into law have put us on track to meet ahead of schedule the goal set for doubling American exports within 5 years; trade cases have been brought against China at nearly twice that of the last administration. He announced the creation of a trade enforcement unit that will investigate unfair trading practices – saying there will be more inspections to prevent counterfeit or unsafe goods from crossing our borders. He said we need to give schools the resources to keep good teachers, reward the best ones; give them the flexibility to teach with creativity and passion and not just teach to the test; and replace teachers that aren’t helping kids to learn; he proposed to every state that kids stay in school until they graduate or turn 18 (I’d like to add unless they get married as they can do so without parental consent in a lot of states at age 16); Congress needs to stop the interest rate for student loans from doubling in July and extend the tuition tax credit that we already started and double the number of work study jobs in the next 5 years; colleges and universities were put on notice – if they can’t stop tuitions from going up, the funding will go down. He said we should be working on comprehensive immigration reform right now and if Congress can’t do it then they should send him a defensive law that allows non citizen student immigrants to get their citizenship (this was to stop us from deporting individuals after they’re educated). He went on to talk about helping small businesses to succeed; tear down the regulations that prevent them from getting the financing they need to grow; expand tax relief to small businesses that are raising wages and creating good jobs; he said both parties agree on this so he wants a bill this year. He directed his administration to open up more than 75% of our potential offshore oil and gas resources but with only 2% of the world’s oil resources we need a strategy that develops every available source of American energy; he said we have enough gas to last 100 years but he’s requiring all companies that drill for gas on public land to disclose the chemicals they use; the development of this resource should not put the health and safety of our citizens at risk. He pointed out that Energetics is a company in Michigan that went from making luxury yachts to making wind turbines because of federal funding (this is good, we don’t have to depend on the Spanish company); he said we’ve been giving tax credits to oil companies that made huge profits for 100 years and it’s time to stop that and invest in clean energy. He went on to talk about no more bailouts for banks and lending companies - Rick Cordray was appointed to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to watch them (the former Ohio Attorney General was appointed on January 3 when Congress was in recess; they’d been blocking his appointment for months; Republicans were to challenge the legality of the appointment so they either gave it up or lost. Some of the things that are gone with the Bureau are: harassment by debt collectors, high overdraft fees on free checking accounts, the endless paper trail of mortgage documents, high risk bank investments and the lending of money to those that can’t afford it.). The President said a financial crimes unit will be established to crack down on fraud; he wants legislation to make tougher penalties for fraud and is asking the Attorney General to create a special unit of prosecutors to expand investigations into the financial misconduct that caused the housing crisis. He again brought up the need for the payroll tax cut and again talked about the Buffet Rule that calls for the rich to pay 30% of their income on taxes (remember that Buffet’s secretary Debbie Bosanek paid 35.8% in 2010 while Romney paid 13.9%). He said if we’re serious about paying down our debt we can’t keep the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and make investments in education, research, energy, a strong military and take care of our veterans. He went on to corruption in Washington and asked for a bill to ban insider trading by Congress and other issues. The President ended his speech by saying if we hold fast to the truth that this country is great because we built it together and get each other’s back; as long as we are joined in common purpose our future is hopeful and the state of our union will always be strong.