Editorial:
As State of the Union speeches go, the one given by President Obama, Tuesday evening, was forgettable. Not exactly, a clear vision for the rest the year or his term. In sports parlance President Obama pretty much just mailed it in.
There were some highlights in the speech, most notably the recognition of Army Sgt. 1st Class Cory Rembsurg, an Army Ranger who was wounded in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan. A roadside bombing in Kandahar on Oct. 1, 2009, that nearly killed him. He was in a coma for three months and remains partially paralyzed and brain damaged.
The other highlights of speech included his appeal to extend unemployment insurance, to fight discrimination against women in the workplace and to raise the minimum wage. But beyond highlighting these issues he offered very little as far as policy to create change.
For example in raising the minimum wage he described how he would use the executive order to decrees that federal employees wages to be raised over time. The order would raise wages for an undetermined number of low-wage workers, perhaps several hundred thousand, including janitors in federal buildings and servers in their cafeterias. But the move necessarily would leave untouched the pay of millions of other low-wage workers whose jobs are not tied to federal contracts. Raising the minimum wage for that larger group would require Congress to act and beyond the executive order it was not outlined how this would be achieved.
For Hispanic workers, before they can enjoy the benefits of more money in their paychecks, they first have to have a job. As the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report confirms, overall Hispanic unemployment, still hovering at 8.3 percent, remains 1.6 percent higher than the nation’s as a whole.
In regards to immigration it seemed to be more of an afterthought than a priority to the President. President Obama stated that the ball was in the hands of Congress and it is up to them to act. The president no longer uses the term comprehensive when talking immigration which signals he is ready to accept piecemeal legislation when it comes to immigration. No more talk about family unification, DREAMers, or a path to citizenship. Now immigration reform is all about border security and getting the workers for corporate America!
This State of the Union speech was in stark contrast to Obama that was first elected on the promise of change for America. Now it sounds more like ‘can’t we just all get along!’