We needed one that gets both sides to work together and get work done. That's what he aimed for, and while I wouldn't call it perfect, I think it achieved the goal. I like how he said he was willing to cut spending on his pet projects to keep spending down, but let's hope he means it and the Democrats in Congress get that message.
Personally I think it's simple. If we aren't spending money on education, public infrastructure, cutting edge scientific research (that private companies cannot take on, with the express intent of turning that into future privatized jobs), or national defense/diplomacy, we shouldn't be spending.
Image courtesy CBSNews.com
Last night, President Obama gave his Constitutionally-mandated yearly State of the Union address to Congress and the American people.
Most people think that a speech is required before Congress, but Article II, Section 3 merely requires the President “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union”. Up until President Wilson’s time at the turn of the last century, the State of the Union was presented as a written report. Since then, and especially since the advent of television, the State of the Union has been a way for the President to trot out his policy directions for the year and present them, not only to Congress, but to the American people and the world.
This year was no different. President Obama’s speech was filled with hope, opportunity, self-congratulation, outrages, and more than a little hyperbole.
What follows are ten things technical professionals need to know about the President’s speech, and how his policies might affect you, your employer, and your family well into the future.
1. Overall theme: win the future
President Obama’s overall theme was “Win the future.” He used the phrase six times during his speech. Essentially, the idea is that we need to focus our attention on innovation and education, because that’s how America will stay competitive into the future.
He generated a strong spark of applause with the line: “We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”
My take: It’s a key need, but the challenge is doing it in our society. To actually make this happen, the health care hostage crisis needs to be resolved. Our health care costs still make our products more expensive to produce than those of any other nation.
2. Innovation + Education = Jobs
President Obama gave good speech, and he focused specifically on fostering American innovation and education. He talked about better education programs and certain tax breaks for innovators.
One interesting line was, “We’re the nation of Edison and the Wright Brothers, of Google and Facebook.” Quite notably, he didn’t mention either Apple or Microsoft. This may tie in with another line of his speech, “In America, innovation doesn’t just change our lives, it’s how we make our living.”
My take: If you think about it, this is the biggest outrage of the speech, because America used to make our living by manufacturing. I liked how this sounds, but on further consideration, it feels like we’re conceding manufacturing prowess to other nations. Since manufacturing fuels jobs, that’s a serious problem.
He may not have mentioned Apple or Microsoft because both offshore manufacturing and Google and Facebook make their living solely by “innovation” (actually, advertising), but neither does manufacturing of any kind.
3. Clean energy
Another key line line in the speech was, “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment.” What the President was referring to was how the Soviets got into space first. Once Sputnik was launched, the U.S. decided we couldn’t give the lead in space to the Soviets, so we invested hard into space innovation and won the moon race.
The connection in President Obama’s message is his premise that “clean energy” is the Apollo project of our time and the budget Obama is submitting to Congress will allocate funding for clean energy research.
My take: If the budget passes, brush off those resumes and learn more about energy. This is a SmartPlanet moment, so go visit our sister site and do some reading up! Sadly, there was no Kennedy moment, nothing of the stirring, call-to-action power of “Before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.”
