President Obama's 2009 State Of The Union Analysis

In his 2009 State of the Union address, President Obama referenced over 35 policies, pieces of legislation and promises of change that he wanted to bring about in his first year and term of presidency. Amongst these promises were plans for a new health care system, reform for education, banking and housing, new standards set for the environment, budget savings, the idea of a universal savings account and an increase in the size of the military. Obviously not all of these ideas transpired due to the roadblock of Congress. From researching these topics, it became clear that congress is not likely to pass stand-alone bills but when they are worked into larger legislation they are much more likely to make it through.

Obama asked Congress to send him legislation to put a cap on carbon emotions and pollution that would lead toward the greater manufacture of clean energy in …show more content…
The budget of 59.2 billion was approved (Strauss) and programs like “Promise Neighborhoods” and Race to the Top were formed. (Strauss) Pell and School Improvement Grants were expanded and made to replace the education programs that didn’t work well that the president also promised to take away. With the newfound focus on education 46 states joined together to update curriculum and form Common Core standards, with the hopes that every student no matter where they live will be prepared for where they choose to go to college. (Darling) President Obama also articulated how imperative education is to the future of America so it was rather surprising to see that the budget he was allotted was the same as president Bush’s but the decision to move funding around and create these new programs provided an improvement in only one year. (darling) The reason for Common core is not only for national competition but international, in 2009 the USA was number 35/40 of the top countries in math in the world now we are number 27