SEAN PATRICK
Distribution Manager
In Washington, D.C. last week, President Barack Obama gave his sixth State of The Union Address on Jan. 20. The President provided evidence that “middle-class economics works,” and that “expanding opportunity works.”
With politics for working class Americans, under Obama’s administration “we’ve seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade, our deficits cut by two-thirds, a stock market that has doubled and health care inflation at its lowest rate in fifty years,” Obama remarked with a grin.“This is good news, people.”
This isn’t just good news for the general public. This is great news for students going into growing fields that make up the middle class that is the core of the United States.
“We believed we could reverse the tide of outsourcing and draw new jobs to our shores.” Obama stated. “And over the past five years, our businesses have created more than 11 million new jobs.”
For those who have been dreading the harsh reality of a hopeless job market, and many of our American companies taking up shop across seas, know that is changing.“Our unemployment rate is now lower than it was before the financial crisis,” Obama said.
As the future leaders of the United States, we can take advantage of this opportunity to join a growing economy, one that is finally shifting its political tides away from trickle-down economics to economics that work for the masses.
“By the end of this decade, two in three job openings will require some higher education,” Obama stated. “And yet, we still live in a country where too many bright, striving Americans are priced out of the education they need.”
This isn’t just a problem for up-and-coming students. Many students trying to obtain their degree are unable to meet the financial toll necessary to continue attending a college or university.
“That’s why I am sending this congress a bold new plan to lower the cost of community college — to zero.” This progressive action could help many Americans obtain the higher education necessary to pursue jobs that our economy can’t go without.
Although it doesn’t mean current students will be receiving a refund for the college they’ve already attended, it does mean that for years ahead, eligible students would not be as burdened by loans and debt.
The President did not forget about the current population of college students, though, saying, “I want to work with with Congress to make sure Americans already burdened with student loans can reduce their monthly payments, so that student debt doesn’t derail anyone’s dreams.”
The past six years have shown great social change, as well. Under Obama’s presidency, “I’ve [President Obama] seen something like gay marriage go from a wedge issue used to drive us apart to a story of freedom across our country, a civil right now legal in states that seven in ten Americans call home,” Obama said.
It’s issues like this that make us a stronger United States. Taking progressive action makes us a stronger and more united country.
With the many topics that President Obama addressed, the growing divide among economic classes may have been one of the most pertinent.
In President Obama’s call for middle-class economics that works for the masses of Americans, he left us with this: “Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?”