blackvoicenews.com

It was a busy week for the President -- delivering his first State of the Union address, venturing into ‘enemy’ territory (a Republican retreat) for a frank discussion, and delivering his proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

As he toned down the volume on health care reform, he heightened the awareness of issues facing middle class families – the need for jobs, and the increasing costs of caregiving and tuition.

The President summarized his State of the Union Address by saying: “A new decade stretches before us. We don’t quit. I don’t quit. Let’s seize this moment - to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.”

Below are the President’s proposals from the State of the Union Address, (as outlined on whitehouse.gov):

• The President called on the Senate to pass a financial reform package. Essential reforms include measures to protect consumers and investors from financial abuse; close loopholes, raise standards, and create accountability for supervision of major financial firms; restrict the size and scope of financial institutions to reign in excesses and protect taxpayers and address the ‘too big to fail’ problem;

• A vision for a clean energy economy. The President’s vision includes investments in important technologies to diversity our energy sources and reduce our dependence on foreign oil;

• The President will continue his push to invest in the skills and education of our people. The Obama Administration supports a new vision for increasing student achievement, delivering opportunity, and supporting excellence in America’s public schools. The President’s 2011 budget supports a new framework for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that will foster innovation, reward excellence, and promote reform in our schools, as well as invests an additional $1.35 billion to continue the historic Race to the Top program to open it up to districts in order to spur innovation and additional progress. At the same time, the Administration is moving to consolidate ineffective policies and practices.

• The President is committed to making college affordable for all Americans. To increase college access and completion, the Administration will make student loans more affordable by limiting a borrower’s payments to 10 percent of his/her income and forgives remaining debt after 20 years – 10 years for public service works. The President urges the Senate to pass the American Graduation Initiative, which invests more than $10 billion over the next decade in reforming our nation’s community colleges, promoting college completion, and moving toward the President’s goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. The President is also asking colleges and universities to do their share to make college affordable for all Americans by cutting their own costs.

• The President is making investments to ensure that the middle class benefits from this economic recovery. The President has outlined immediate steps to reduce the strain on family budgets and help middle class families manage their child and elder care responsibilities, save for retirement and pay for college. He will double the child tax credit this year, make it easier to save for retirement with automatic IRAs for workers without access to existing retirement plans, provide larger tax credits to match retirement savings for millions of additional workers, and provide new safeguards to protect retirement savings.

• Changing the way we do business. The President has called for additional new lobbyist reforms, including enhanced disclosure of lobbyist contacts, strict campaign contribution limits by lobbyists, and a single earmark database, so American taxpayers find out what earmarks are being requested, and where their money is going.

• Countering Citizens United. [The Administration believes] last week’s Supreme Court Citizen’s United decision opens the floodgates to special interests and foreign countries and companies bankrolling national campaigns. The President called for bipartisan support for legislation that will remedy the Supreme Court’s unprecedented and troubling decision.

• The President stands by military families. The President’s 2011 budget announces significant new investments, totaling more than $8 billion, and protections for our nation’s military families, including increased military pay and housing allowances, increased funding for family support programs, expanded availability of affordable, high-quality child care, the renovation or replacement of schools, and expanded and improved care for wounded, ill and injured service members.

• The President is establishing a National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force. To make sure we uphold our nation’s core commitment to equality of opportunity, the Obama Administration is implementing an Equal Pay initiative to improve compliance, public education, and enforcement of equal pay laws.

• Immigration reform. The President is pleased Congress is taking steps forward on immigration reform that includes effective border security measures with a path for legalization for those who are willing to pay taxes and abide by the law. He is committed to confronting this problem in practical, effective ways, using the current tools at our disposal while we work with Congress to enact comprehensive reform.

• The President will fight to recover the money American taxpayers spent to bailout the banks. The President has proposed the Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee, which will require the largest and most highly leveraged Wall Street firms to pay back taxpayers and provide a deterrent against excessive leverage for the largest firms.

• The President recognizes that Small Businesses will be key to our nation’s economic recovery. To get small businesses growing again, and grow our economy, the President has proposed a range of provisions that include tax incentives to spur investment; expanded access to capital and growth opportunities to create jobs; and increased support for entrepreneurship to foster innovation. He is proposing an employment tax credit for small businesses to encourage hiring, eliminating capital gains taxes on small business investments, extending enhanced small business expensing, and transferring $30 billion in resources from TARP to a new program to help community and smaller banks give small businesses the credit they need.

• The President reiterates his support for continued investment in our nation’s infrastructure. The President announced funding to make a down-payment on a new nationwide high-speed rail system being built in-part with Recovery Act dollars.

• Tax breaks to keep jobs at home. The President has called for an end to tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas and a way to reward companies for investing and creating jobs in the United States.

• The President also called on the Senate to pass a jobs bill that he can sign. In December, the President outlined a package of targeted measures to help further stimulate private sector hiring, including measures to facilitate small business growth, green jobs and infrastructure.

• We must invest in American ingenuity and innovation. The Obama 2011 budget will move us closer to restoring America to first in the world in college completion; and invest in the next generation of scientists so we will not lag behind countries like China in science and engineering graduates.

• We need to export more of our goods around the world. To meet this goal, the administration is launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports and expand their markets.

• The President remains committed to helping Americans stay in their homes and help their homes retain their value. The Administration will step up programs that encourage re-financing so that homeowners can move into more affordable and sustainable mortgages. In order to ensure American families receive the same consideration American corporations do, the Obama Administration remains supportive of efforts to allow bankruptcy proceedings to renegotiate all debts, including home mortgages.

• As Americans are getting their budgets in order, the President is getting the nation’s financial house in order. The President has announced the three year, nonsecurity discretionary spending freeze, and also called for a bipartisan Fiscal Commission to identify policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run.

• The President’s focus on national security includes rooting out terrorists where they hide. In the last year, hundreds of Al Qaeda’s fighters and affiliates have been captured or killed – far more than in 2008.

• The President’s commitment to Non-Proliferation results. The President will host a Nuclear Security Summit in April, which will bring forty-four nations together behind a clear goal: to secure all loose nuclear materials around the world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists.

• The President is launching a bioterror and pandemic threat initiative. The President called on key U.S. Government leaders to re-design our medical countermeasure enterprise to protect Americans from bioterror or infectious health threats.

• The President announced that he will work this year to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” “I will work with Congress and the military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.”