President Obama started off his State of the Union address last Tuesday by highlighting some of top milestone accomplished during his tenure: the smallest number of unemployed citizens in 5 years, childhood obesity rates lowest in 30 years, and the US replacing China as the #1 place to visit. Obama’s speech had an overt message that the US is climbing out of The Great Recession, but a few points indicate that the future of the US is going to be greener, and more welcoming to immigrants.
Since 2006 the US has reduced it’s carbon footprint more than any nation in the world, something our neighbors across the Atlantic could learn from. One of the contributing factors being our increased consumption of natural gas. Though the process of fracking can lead to inadvertent releases of methane into the atmosphere, and its widespread use could impact developing clean energy alternatives like wind and solar, when it is done safely, natural gas is a viable bridge fuel for the coming decades. While Obama mentioned cutting the red tape for opening more natural gas factories across the nation, he also made promise to leverage immigration reform to drive economic growth.
Claiming to have the power to reduce the national deficit by $1 trillion over 20 years, President Obama called on party members from both sides of the aisle to “get serious about economic growth,” and “fix our broken immigration system.” A big step in the right direction was taken last summer when the senate passed an immigration bill that paved the way to citizenship for 11 million people living in the US illegally.
Obama’s State of the Union address didn’t outline the exact process that will be used to reduce the US’s carbon footprint, or what laws need to be changed to fix our broken immigration system. Rather, Obama pointed out the parts of our country that need reformation in order to make a better, stronger United States. If we stay on the course outlined in his address, the US should have many more reasons to be optimistic in 12 months time.
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