THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - January 22, 2015

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*-- Obama wants to 'turn the page' for America's middle class --*
WASHINGTON (UPI) - After a "breakthrough year for America," President Barack Obama stressed the importance of protecting middle-class working families in Tuesday's State of the Union address.

In his annual speech, Obama touted some of the nation's economic improvements since a "vicious recession spread across our nation."

"Tonight, after a breakthrough year for America, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999," he said. "Our unemployment rate is now lower than it was before the financial crisis. More of our kids are graduating than ever before; more of our people are insured than ever before; we are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we've been in almost 30 years."

"Middle-class economics works," Obama said, but said politics shouldn't get in the way to restrict these policies.

"We can't slow down businesses or put our economy at risk with government shutdowns or fiscal showdowns. We can't put the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance, or unraveling the new rules on Wall Street, or refighting past battles on immigration when we've got a system to fix. And if a bill comes to my desk that tries to do any of these things, it will earn my veto."

Expanding on a proposal for free community college he first suggested earlier this month, Obama said Americans should receive help affording college.

In addition, he said working families should receive help with affordable child care, healthcare, a home and retirement, he added.

Shorter Obama: If you like your college savings plan, you can keep it. But I'm gonna tax the hell out of it. #sotu- Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) January 21, 2015

The budget he proposes later this year "will address each of these issues, lowering the taxes of working families and putting thousands of dollars back into their pockets each year."

Obama also urged Congress to pass laws to raise both the minimum wage and the wages of women.

"This Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work," he said. "Really. It's 2015. It's time. We still need to make sure employees get the overtime they've earned.

"And to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise."

Couldn't agree more! // POTUS on #equalpay: "It's 2015. It's time." #SOTU- Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) January 21, 2015

This is the first year the White House has made the president's State of the Union address available in full to the public. The speech was posted in its entirety online, complete with related statistics and charts for the public to view as Obama spoke on different topics.

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