Obama state of the Union Address tonight

So tonight is the President's State of the Union Address (previously known as the "annual address to Congress"). also it's National Pie Day, so I guess that means the Rock won't be watching the State of the Union Address. Edit: Never mind, I should'v read the message of the email from the 99 instead of just looking at the title before I posted that, National Pie Day is actually Jan. 23.

Last year's State of the Union Address focused on raising the minimum wage, and 2002's address is when Bush used the term axis of evil.

This State of the Union is Obama's second is Obama's first one with both houses of congress being held by the opposition party. The national news channels and C-SPAN will air likely air it, and it can also be seen live (with live "fact-checking") at this site. The Republican response to the address will be given by Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, where the American Pickers and "Prince Farming" are from.

I'd rather eat bull penis soup than watch.

I believe I said that last year too.

Do any of you plan on watching?

Any moments from past Addresses that stick out in your mind?

"Free" community college is a major topic that President Obama is starting to push for. With resources like edX and MIT OpenCourseWare, the Tennessee Promise, and Khan Academy, it is nice to see the Head of State support the spreading of education to the masses. Sal Khan's prediction of a global literacy rate of 99% in less than fifty years and the changes education can have on developing countries (think politics, social order, and war) and developed nations is something worth supporting. Elon Musk's announcement to launch four thousand satellites into orbit to provide internet access to anyone anywhere on earth is another move that gives worthwhile credence to the effort to increase entry points to a world-class education.

I have better things to do than watch a SOTU from a lame duck president. As usual we'll hear more about corporate tax reform (which he'll never do), we'll hear a rousing populist message, more hope and changey kind of stuff, and then we'll hear the Republican response.

What else is new? Tax breaks for the middle class? Why didn't he do that when he controlled both houses of Congress? I know why he's bringing it up now, though. Because he's tying his "free" two years of community into middle class tax cuts in order to vilify Republicans who are against spending money we don't have.

LOL Joni Ernst. I'll watch her rebuttal, should be amazing.

It's movie night with my family so I will be watching Up at the time that this is happening, but I will probably watch it the next day or possibly later that night.

Hopefully Republicans will be for tax breaks for the middle class, but I kinda doubt they will be for anything Obama suggests. You know, even if helping the middle class is the basic mantra of everyone, and republicans specifically believe that tax cuts help the economy.

I don't really know much about joni Ernst, but my Greenhouse extension gives me this view of her campaign contributions.

i'll check it out tonight

You already know they're not going to go for it, not when the two years of community college bit is lumped right in on it.

They could cut that part out of any legislation if they wanted to and simply put tax cuts for the middle class on the president's desk. They won't because they will also want to give tax cuts to the rich as well, and that doesn't sit well with the president.

That's assuming Obama will sign it if they send him back legislation that cuts out his community college plan.

Only one way to find out. They control both houses of congress so in theory it shouldn't even take much time to send it through both, and get an answer.

My guess is they lack the discipline to only support the things that both they and Obama would like to see happen in an effort to pass legislation.

Either way, there's no way this community college thing is getting through a Republican controlled congress. Talking it up, which you know he's going to do in the SOTU, will be counter-productive.

@Serraph105 said:

@Aljosa23 said:

LOL Joni Ernst. I'll watch her rebuttal, should be amazing.

I don't really know much about joni Ernst, but my Greenhouse extension gives me this view of her campaign contributions.

She's basically Bachmann 2.0 and looks like a sitcom character.

If you think he's such a lame duck, do you think an actual duck can do a better job in office than him?

Hmmmm?

@Toph_Girl250 said:

@airshocker said:

I have better things to do than watch a SOTU from a lame duck president. As usual we'll hear more about corporate tax reform (which he'll never do), we'll hear a rousing populist message, more hope and changey kind of stuff, and then we'll hear the Republican response.

What else is new? Tax breaks for the middle class? Why didn't he do that when he controlled both houses of Congress? I know why he's bringing it up now, though. Because he's tying his "free" two years of community into middle class tax cuts in order to vilify Republicans who are against spending money we don't have.

If you think he's such a lame duck, do you think an actual duck can do a better job in office than him?

Hmmmm?

Mr. Quackers could certainly do a better job than Obama.

It's just a speech, and you know what they say about speech. I would argue Obama should only focus on things that both he and republicans support, but he's tried that in the past only for Republicans to say no to those things as well. Frankly with that sort of history the only logical conclusion (yet totally illogical) I could come up with is for Obama to say he supports the things he used to be against so that the Republicans could run against those ideas.

That's a bit too loony to realistically expect that it would work.

Yeah but now that they have control they don't need to piss in Obama's coffee every other day. I'd be willing to bet things would really get done if he gave the Republicans some fapping material during the SOTU.

He could put a tube of lube on the seats of all the republican chairs.I bet you anything though they will still be fighting to shake his hand both before and after the speech regardless of what he says.

I wonder if there is an opinion that the benefits of a more educated and innovative society are not worth compromising for.

Probably.

Perhaps, but I think Obama understands that he doesn't have a lot of time left to really accomplish things domestically. Less than the two years he has left, it could be that he will want to get done what he can while he can. It's possible that a strengthening economy could boost his pull with the public, but I kinda doubt that it will strengthen the bully pulpit.

@Serraph105: Even the president just talking about certain things is enough to continue a process of change, but more than that, it may be that President Obama shall appoint a successor and help him or her campaign for office in order to continue his plans. Roosevelt did it with Taft for environmental conservation and Clinton did it with Obama for thinking and hope throughout society, so it would not be a new thing for an American president to do.

Ha Ha! Nope.

lol no way am I watching it

I'd like to see you really do that on youtube. Do it ! I dare you !

I second this.. I would definitely pay to see that.

sadly I'm fresh out of the ingredients.

They've already called the tax breaks "not serious", a "non-starter", and "class warfare." It ain't happening, which is kind of interesting because I thought they'd be more likely to be for tax cuts than anything else.

We already knew that the community college thing was dead on arrival the moment it was announced.

Personally, I like the community college idea more than the tax cuts. The tax cuts poll well, but an educated populace is key to our long term competitiveness.

I'm going to assume this will be a basic summary of the speech

I bet the bull would rather you watch the speech!

@Serraph105 said:

@Aljosa23 said:

LOL Joni Ernst. I'll watch her rebuttal, should be amazing.

I don't really know much about joni Ernst, but my Greenhouse extension gives me this view of her campaign contributions.

Interesting, so her biggest contributors were retired people.

Watching this is like watching a circus ring leader spewing a bunch of crap from his mouth, then his circus seals stand up and clap every 5 seconds.

lol, it's tradition.... To bad the other party doesn't hiss and boo like the earlier days of American history. Obama played it rather safe on the economy. pretty meh State of the union really.

I really wish the president would have addressed issues on which both parties can work together on. It seemed to me that he laid out more democrat ideas and what democrats aim to accomplish rather then what both parties can begin to work towards together. He only seemed to do that during that very last part of his speech but it needed to be more overarching.

Well, if you think about it, he really didn't lay out any plans to fix or reform anything. Just a lot of, we need to do this, or we need to do that bull crap. Same old hope and change.

There is very little chance of working together at this point. At this point it seems apparent to me that even areas in which a coalition could be built between factions of the two parties (sentencing reform, tax reform, immigration, etc.) would be stopped dead in their tracks by another faction. It sounds like little of substance will get done legislatively other than trade deals.

There were a few things I think both parties for the most part agree on. I think the trade deal Obama talked about briefly could gain support and pass. Credit for childcare should pass easily. Closing loopholes in taxes should also be an easy starting point in which many people on both sides of the isle support. Also mostly anything that gives the president authority to act more quickly against ISIS is also a pretty broadly supported position. Cyber attack protection is also a hugely supported idea.

nothing new. got a chuckle on the election smack down line.

The TPP and similar trade proposals are likely to pass, yes. I also agree with ISIS efforts and, possibly, cyber attack defenses (depending on what's requested and the requisite funding). Beyond that, I'm not optimistic about much of what you stated. Loopholes is something that both parties state as a priority, but if you look at their respective proposals they are VERY far apart on the issue. I've heard nothing but disdain for the entirety of Obama's recent proposals from the right (no surprise there as they were never intended to pass anyway), and I've heard few exclude the proposed childcare credit from that list. Perhaps you've heard something I haven't, though.

Ooh this was a pretty good zinger by Rep. Doug Collins:

When @BarackObama pitches new federal programs tnite, remember his biggest did opposite of what he said it would. Because of Obamacare, it is projected that 7 million fewer Americans will have employer-sponsored health insurance in 2016.

:

Damn, was hoping for free graduate school. >.>

If Obama's proposal goes through you won't get free grad school, but you'll have to chip in to help pay for someone else's community college.

LOL'd hard at the "I know since I've won both" line. Almost as hilarious when he shat on Romney with "We also have less horses and bayonettes".

You say this like it's a bad thing.

Not sure why the idea of getting more people educated is a bad thing.

why is joni ernst talking to us like we're 5 year olds?

It was a well-spoken speech. It is better for the government to serve the general population than special interest groups. That is what the president meant when he was giving his speech. Idealism and pragmatism was his message. I do not agree with everything the president does, but I agree with a lot of what he said, tonight.

In and of itself it isn't, but requiring giving free community college at taxpayer's expense is unfair to those who already paid to go to college or who choose to go to a four year college.

Besides not everyone is an intellectual, college isn't for everyone.

This is awful logic and I know you're smarter than that.

Should America stop VA health care benefits because it's "not fair" to people who didn't enlist or have to pay for their healthcare? Of course not, because that's stupid. Some citizens need help to get caught up to others - there is NOTHING wrong with that. Anyone against something like free community college that has the potential to be a massive stimulus boost to certain people doesn't give a shit about society and by extension is anti-American.

Don't you want your fellow citizen who doesn't have the same opportunities and privileges as you to succeed?