When President Obama addressed Congress for his final State of the Union Address last night, he failed to include cybersecurity.
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At another point, the president said, “Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction”.
The Republican response to Obama’s speech came from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – tapped by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Obama wants more states to take advantage of the law and expand Medicaid to cover more people.
A new national effort will get it done, he said. “Now I’m guessing we won’t agree on healthcare anytime soon”, he said at one point, as the sound of a single person clapping on the Republican side could be heard in the chamber.
“One year from now State of the Union will be very different from this State of the Union”, he said. Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who are both able to attend the State of the Union, were not in the audience. Without naming the Republican frontrunner directly, Obama lamented the fact that the 2016 presidential campaign has resorted (more so than usual) to mudslinging and fearmongering. He encouraged us to us to lay aside whatever divides us and find ways to move forward on common ground, knowing that doing so benefits all of us, including those who depend on our leadership around the world.
The New York Times pointed out that the nation has become so divided that Obama’s talk of a resurgent America, with decreasing unemployment and still the most powerful military in the world, is almost the opposite of the America that Republicans see: swarms of criminal migrants taking jobs, an underfunded military, skyrocketing national debt and a lack of “greatness” that needs restoring.
Mr Obama drew a portrait of a world in which USA interests are not primarily challenged by aspiring global powers but by failing states where extremist groups have filled the political vacuum. “Will we respond to the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a nation, and turning against each other as a people?”
“Over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands”, Obama said. “There’s no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office”.
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Unlike years past, the president made no mention of the shale drilling rush that swept the US during his time in office, nor of the fracking that made shale drilling possible.
