President Obama Highlights Initiatives & Goals for 2010-


Last night, President Barack Obama gave his first official State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress and went into heavy detail on the topics of federal deficit and national job loss. The President proposed policy changes that would eliminate programs which are unaffordable or do not work; repeal the ‘don’t-ask-don’t tell’ policy which currently bans homosexual persons from being allowed to serve in the military; reform immigration laws; improve earmark allocations; provide major reorganization in the health care industry; nearly double the child tax credit for the middle class; expand tax credits for the middle class workforce who starts a retirement fund; refinance to make mortgages more affordable; increase Pell Grants for students; as well as renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

New legislative initiatives and goals were also proposed, such as placing fees on the country’s largest banks to follow up on the Trouble Assets Relief Program (TARP); offering $30 billion from recovered TARP funds to community banks to extend credit to small businesses; building clean energy facilities to spur the nation into affordable, renewable energy generation; providing rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy-efficient; encouraging new jobs by cutting tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas, as well as giving incentives to companies that create jobs in the U.S.; building nuclear power plants for domestic energy production; exploring off-shore for oil and gas to eliminate the country’s need for foreign oil; investing in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies; adding a comprehensive energy and climate bill to make clean energy economically lucrative; launching a National Export Initiative which would double exports in 5 years; giving access to a retirement account for every worker; revitalizing community colleges to encourage sustainable education in America; ending taxpayer subsidies for student bank loans; supplying a $10,000 tax credit for families that enroll a student in for years of college; allowing all student loan debt to be pardoned after 20 years, or after 10 years if they choose a career in public service; cutting costs at colleges and universities; immobilization in government spending for 3 years on discretionary programs (excluding Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and national security), starting in 2011; extending middle-class tax cuts; restoring the pay-as-you-go law; implementing a bipartisan fiscal commission to provide solutions; and some of the most important which aid to cease dishonesty in legislation, with the proposed policies requiring lobbyists to disclose every contact they make; placing limits on contributions that lobbyists give to candidates; as well as cracking down on violations of equal pay laws. His wife and First Lady, Michelle Obama, also added an inventive program which will help to tackle childhood obesity. The speech appeared very dubious indeed to many, seeing that there is still much further to go in the battle for a sustainable future; however, if President Obama is able to push these policies through with bipartisan support, America may be on the right track after all. Video below is the full State of the Union 2010 video speech, courtesy of CBS News.

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