State of The Union

Like much of his speech, Obama had powerful statements about what needed to be done for economical improvement, but the question is: Can the government and Obama follow through? Obama said that by freezing annual domestic spending for the next five years the country would be able to reduce the deficit by $400 billion over the next decade. He mentioned that the freeze will bring cuts to like community action programs, and military spending. There have already been pay cuts for federal employees. These cuts will only account for annual domestic spending which only accounts for a little over 12% of out budget, the $400 billion may sound like a lot of savings, but with projections of a 6.2 trillion dollar deficit accumulating in the next few years the $400 billion sounds like pennies. The president asked millionaires to give up their tax break and mentioned that a permanent tax cut extension is out of the question budget-wise. Obama highly pushed the concept of investing. He said by investing in innovation, education and infrastructure, America will become a better environment for businesses and job creation. In order to help businesses Obama asked congress to lower corporate tax rates for the first time in 25 years. What was really interesting to see was the kind of awkward feeling the crowd had with members of different parties sitting next to each other. At times you could tell people weren't sure weather or not to clap. And there were often strange moments of silence. It was a bit of an uncomfortable feeling but I think it was good for the address to be given with the audience the way it was. In the future I think this will be beneficial to relationships in Washington.