What to expect from the Presidential State of the Union Address

The United States Constitution says the president shall “from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union”, and that time is once more upon us.  

The 93rd State of the Union Address will be delivered by the president tonight. The State of the Union Address has evolved into a yearly televised event,  allowing millions of people to look in to take a peek on what the president hopes to accomplish over the next year.

Over time more news has been able to reach the public at a faster pace. This has made it easy to predict the main topics discussed by the president. Of course, there are the basic topics discussed every year (America is awesome, education needs to get better, we need cleaner energy, and shrinking the deficit), but I see at least four topics the State of the Union address will evolve around.

Income Differences

At least 30 states have put forth bills to raise minimum wage issues. President Obama has been pushing towards “War on Poverty” (presented over 50 years ago by President Lyndon Johnson). As the gap of income inequality widens, the president is hoping to find a way to close the gap. Plan on President Obama discussing a federal minimum wage increase as well as discussing the need for creation of better paying jobs throughout the country.

Immigration

Last year Obama took the first step to approach a solution to illegal immigration problems by creating a path to make it easier for immigrants to become American citizens. Many states have tried to enforce stricter immigration laws (such as voter ID laws or not allowing children of undocumented immigrants to attend school), but the majority of the laws have been found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 

While Obama took a step in the right direction, the United States still has a long way to go to control the issue of immigrants coming to the United States illegally, which we can expect him to address at the State of the Union.

Gun Control

Two major tragedies in 2013 caught the eye of the nation and brought forth the argument of gun control. In July, 12 people were killed in a movie theatre as a young man opened fire during a movie. In December, another young man opened fire in an elementary school and killed 26 people. 

These shootings, along with several others, have made passionate debates about what should be done. It is expected that Obama will discuss the possibility of stricter laws to buy and sell guns across the United States.

Health Care

After passing the Affordable Care Act this past year, President Obama has received a lot of backlash. The botched release of the Healthcare.gov Web Site did not help the citizens view of the Act either. 

It is expected Obama will defend ObamaCare by discussing the law’s benefits and talk about those who back it. It is expected he will highlight those 2.1 million Americans who have already enrolled in the program and discuss how that number will increase in the future.'

Follow me on Twitter at @Sealey_KSR as I live-tweet the State of the Union Address as it takes place. I will talk about whether I made the correct predictions and what I think about promises made by President Obama.