President Obama celebrated job growth and citizenship and announced a new national effort to cure cancer in his final State of the Union address Tuesday night.
Vice President Joe Biden will lead the medical effort, given his work in funding research on the disease in the past year.
“For the loved ones we’ve lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer,” Obama said.
Since he took office during the financial recession in 2008, Obama said the job market is in “the longest streak of private-sector job creation in history,” with more than 14 million jobs created.
“Anyone claiming America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction,” Obama said.
Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate is still five percent though payroll employment rose by about 292,000 in December.
The unemployment rate was 7.8 percent at the beginning of Obama’s presidency in January of 2009 and reached 10 percent later that year.
However, Obama pointed out that more technology and globalization of jobs means workers have less leverage against employers and diminished ability to pull themselves out of poverty.
“For the past seven years, our goal has been growing an economy that works better for everybody,” Obama said. “We’ve made progress, but we need to make more.”
In coming years, Obama asked the government make Pre-K available to all children, offer computer science and math courses and cut college costs.
He reaffirmed his plan to make two years of community college free for students.
“No hardworking student should be stuck in the red,” Obama said.
Obama called attention to past victories, but also cautioned that “such progress is not inevitable.”
“It is the result of choices we make together,” Obama said. “Will we respond to the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a nation and against each other with fear? Or will we face the future with confidence in who we are, what we stand for and the incredible things we can do together?”
Obama asked Congress to authorize use of military force against ISIL, calling protecting America from terrorist networks a first priority.
“But as we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands,” Obama said. “We don’t need to build them up to show that we’re serious, nor do we need to push away vital allies in this fight by echoing the lie that ISIL is representative of one of the world’s largest religions.”
Although First Lady Michelle Obama left an empty seat among her guests as a tribute to victims of gun violence, the President did not address gun violence.
Instead he focused on cautioning against allowing big businesses to influence the job market and benefits.
“Food stamp recipients didn’t cause the financial crisis - recklessness on Wall Street did,” Obama said. “Immigrants aren’t the reason wages haven’t gone up enough - those decisions are made in boardrooms.”
Obama said he hoped bipartisan legislation on criminal justice reform and drug abuse could still be pushed through in 2016, even though it will be an election year.
He advocated more work on clean energy tactics — not only to halt global warming but because wind energy will be cheaper than depending on foreign oil.
Finally, the president asked American citizens to continue to vote and exercise their rights and duties as members of a democracy.
“Our collective future depends on your willingness to uphold your obligations as a citizen- to vote. To speak out,” Obama said. “To stand up for others, especially the weak, especially the vulnerable, knowing that each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, stood up for us.”
