Tuesday, February 12, 2013

5 takeaways from the State of the Union

This article summarizes some of the main points taken from Obama's speech. I think he hit some major points well such as gun control and the economy which are always important subjects but even more so today. Another major issue of voting rights was brought up which generally favors democrats if he can get voting procedures changed. He said that people are waiting way too long which means we need to have more voting booths in high-density areas which is generally Democrat-favored. A lot of what he said was stuff that would be widely accepted ideas, especially by wording the size of government phrase to make it seem like the government will be "shrinking" or not growing any more.

16 comments:

  1. I am happy with Obama's State of the Union address, even though I couldn't watch all of it. For the voting booth idea, I don't get why it is a "democrat idea". If people are waiting too long, make more voting booths to make it quicker. It doesn't have anything to do with party ideology. I am also glad, as Bryan said above, that they plan on shrinking the government and not making it bigger. I am happy with what Obama plans to do and I hope he can initiate all of these plans during his next four years.

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    1. I also agree with the voting booth idea, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't have anything to do with the party ideology, it just sounds like common sense that getting people through the voting booths faster would satisfy more people.

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  2. I don't see any indication of "shrinking the government" in the proposals Obama laid out. Saying “It’s not a bigger government we need but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth.” followed by still the refusal to make cuts in the largest programs seems to me to be calling it "smarter" instead of "bigger", but refusing to make the necessary cuts in spending which actually reduce the size and scope of government.

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  3. He has made drastic cuts in spending so far, and will cut spending in the future. But economists agree that no matter how much they cut spending they need more income. That is where the tax raises on the upper class come it. It doesn't make sense that they pay a lower percent than the lower and middle class. People need to look at the facts and statistics and just just manipulated working that he is trying to grow the government. We need smarter government, not bigger.

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  4. I agree with grace. Obama needs to start cutting more programs. I do nt agree that the rich need to be taxed more than everyone else. Most of them woked really hard to earn that kind of money. We always tell our kids, "work hard! You'll be rewarded in the future." Some rewar that is, takin money away from them. taxes are going to be raised, then they get raised on everyon

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  5. And because my phone is stupid and doesn't let me finish my comment,

    We all live in the same country. We all follow the same rules. We all have the same president. We all go to work and pay taxes. So why shoul there be different tax rates?

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  6. I do not think that Obama is indicating that shrinking the size of government is in his plans for the next 4 years however further reduction and cuts needs to be undertaken.

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  7. I think Obama's speech hit many major points that needed to be hit. I think Obama has made many smart decisions by making some budget cutting, but we also need to raise taxes to break even.

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  8. I agree with what a lot of people are saying, that there needs to be a combination of cuts and taxes being raised.

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  9. There needs to be greater cuts in programs, rather than raising taxes. We cannot continuously rely on raising taxes on the wealthy. Regardless of however much revenue gained from raising taxes, if there are not changes made in government programs the majority of that money will be thrown away in unnecessary spending.

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  10. I think that we do need to raise taxes primarily on the richest Americans I personally don't see why money earned from investing should be taxed significantly less than money earned from working, which is in most cases the reason for such a low overall interest rate paid by the top earners. I know the idea behind that is to promote investment but I personally don't think that many people would stop investing merely because they wouldn't make as much money when they would still be turning a profit without much hard work on their part.

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  11. I approve of Obama's stance on gun control issues. Like he said, those families deserve a vote, no matter who they are or where they are. Even if nothing gets done, Congress can at least pretend they're trying.
    I also approve of Obama's stance of climate change. I've spent the last two summers working for the Valley Forge Youth Conservation Corps, and one of the things I took away from that was just how important the change in climate has become. I'm still shocked that people refuse to acknowledge science as a way to view the problem.

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  12. To talk about something new, I was personally glad that Obama talked about climate change in his speech. I may be a treehugger, but this topic does not just affect those who care about the environment. It affects everyone. Obviously it is a relevant and crucial topic to delve into if it made its way into Obama's speech.

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  13. Our country will not be able to fix its problems without compromise. There needs to be cuts and raised taxes. Obama did a great job speaking about the various issues that our country is facing.

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  14. As Amanda and Liz said cuts are needed along with raised taxes.

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  15. I agree with Katie. It would be an extremely large feat to attempt to shrink the government in just 4 years, so I don't think that was his intention. He is most likely thinking about the future and how his last four years will hopefully contribute to a future shrinking.

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