President Obama calls for innovation, higher education investment in State of the Union

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President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday called for reinvention and innovation in order to fix the country’s dire economic state.

Obama,in his second State of the Union address in three years in office, asked Congress to invest in higher education and focus on American ideals in order to become a thriving nation once more.

“Investments in innovation, education and infrastructure will make America a better place to do business and create jobs,” Obama said. “But to help our companies compete, we also have to knock down barriers that stand in the way of their success.”

Obama urged for Congress to make the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent for every student. The AOTC allows $2,500 annually for up to four years of college.

“It’s the right thing to do — higher education must be within reach of every American,” Obama said. “That’s why we’ve ended unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that went to banks and used the savings to make college affordable for millions of students.”

U.S. Rep Dave Camp, R-Mich., said in a statement the president hit positive notes in the address, but he was disappointed Obama did not make more compromises on taxes, trade and health care with Republicans.

“More concrete plans for getting America back to work were needed in these tough economic times,” Camp said.

Maxine Berman, Griffin Endowed chair and aide to former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, said Obama’s speech was different than previous State of the Union addresses.

“It was calmer,” Berman said. “It wasn’t meant to be a rousing, stand up and cheer, speech. They thought about it very carefully, and emphasized the economy pretty much throughout.”

Obama proposed a freeze of annual domestic spending for the next five years, which he said would reduce the deficit by $400 billion over the next decade. One of the ways the president said he would achieve that reduction is by vetoing any bill that contained earmarks.

He said competition for finding a job is difficult both domestically and internationally, but it should not discourage Americans and instead challenge them.

“For all the hits we’ve taken these past few years … America still has the largest, most prosperous economy in the world,” Obama said. “We have to make America the best place on Earth to do business. We need to take responsibility for our deficit and reform our government.”

Congress sat together with disregard to parties and Berman said the display of unity was “wonderful,” but it remains to be seen if Congress will be able to work together in the divided houses.

“The question is, ‘Can they work together?’,” Berman said. “Does it translate into a more civil work relationship across the aisle? I don’t know the answer to that question.”

Coleman sophomore John Porter, vice chairman of the College Republicans, said Obama’s speech made it clear the president has started to recognize there is a lot of wasteful programs in effect and the results of the mid-term election “woke him up.”

Porter said, “I thought that he said a lot of very positive things (in terms of) moving forward in the business community … to keep the wheels turning on what hopefully is a more robust recovery than what we’ve seen so far.”