Barrack Obama’s state of the Union address took place Tuesday, January 20th at 9 pm. The attendees included vice president Joe Biden, house speaker John Boehner, and the supreme court. Some topics mentioned were the growth in the economy, an increase in jobs, and a lower unemployment rate. President Obama also mentioned that since the 9/11 attacks, the combat mission in Afghanistan is over. In the speech President Obama said, “At this moment — with a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, booming energy production — we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth.”

President Obama spoke of how he will send ideas to Congress, and also how he would make sure that these ideas are actually made possible. He stated, “In two weeks, I will send this Congress a budget filled with ideas that are practical, not partisan. And in the months ahead, I’ll crisscross the country making a case for those ideas. So tonight, I want to focus less on a checklist of proposals, and focus more on the values at stake in the choices before us.”

The President went on to say that it all begins with the economy. He spoke of a married couple, Rebekah and Ben, and their child. Rebekah waited tables, and Ben worked in construction. Rebekah wrote to president Obama, “If only we had known what was about to happen to the housing and construction market” (source: whitehouse.gov). Things got worse for the couple. Obama said, “As the crisis worsened, Ben’s business dried up, so he took what jobs he could find, even if they kept him on the road for long stretches of time. Rebekah took out student loans and enrolled in community college, and retrained for a new career.” The couple sacrificed for each other, and slowly paid off the loan, they bought their first house, they had a second son. Rebekah even got a better job and a raise.

Obama stated that this couple represents the millions who have worked hard and sacrificed to get better lives. “You are the reason that I ran for this office. You are the people I was thinking of six years ago today, in the darkest months of the crisis, when I stood on the steps of this Capitol and promised we would rebuild our economy on a new foundation. And it has been your resilience, your effort that has made it possible for our country to emerge stronger” (source:whitehouse.gov).

In addition to economic growth, there has also been an increase in jobs. For example, Obama said that over the past five years, businesses have created over 11 million new jobs. Overall, this State Of The Union Address focused on a lot of important changes. I think that the biggest positive of all would have to be less unemployment and an increase in jobs, as many Americans were out of jobs and needed to be employed.   It will be interesting to see how much Obama can get done with both the House and Senate headed by the Republicans.