Obama’ State Of The Union Address Argumentative Essay Examples

US president Barak Obama appeared very confident while addressing the State of the Union 2015. The president addressed a number of issues while his speech, but at the same time he did not mention certain important issues. The State of the Union address by president Obama is interpreted differently by different people. Some liked the speech while a large number of people expressed their dissatisfaction. This paper intends to discuss Obama’s State of the Union address and further analyses that Obama should have talked about issues that he missed in his state of the union address.
Some important issues that President did not address in his speech significantly are: as gun control, America's poor, Bad news overseas: Al Qaeda and chaos in Libya and Yemen, the Entitlement Reform, Government Reform/Restructuring. President Obama did not talk about these crucial issues and hesitated from mentioning these issues substantially. He did not talk about these issues either knowingly or unknowingly, but some of these issues used to be in his priority list in the past (Adams).

Gun Control

The US president talked about these issues in the past in his State of the Union address, as well as, at various other occasions. The issue of gun control used to be one of major programs of the state of union address 2013. The president also addressed the issue in his state of union address during the year 2014, but Obama hesitated from giving much space to gun control while his state of the union address in the year 2015. He confined himself till lamenting and said “I’ve mourned with grieving families in Tucson and Newtown, in Boston, in West Texas and West Virginia” (Jeffrey).
Gun control is one crucial issue and Obama should have talked about this issue. This issue needs attention of all sections of the society. He should have talked much about creating awareness and steps that may prevent ghastly incidents like school shootings. A large number of innocent people and school students lose their lives in cases that are caused by gun related violence. By not addressing the issue of gun control, Obama gave a wrong message and apparently strengthened those who oppose gun control.

Bad news overseas: Al Qaeda and chaos in Libya and Yemen

President addressed the issue of national security, but by not mentioning Al Qaeda, and disturbances in Yemen and Libya, he underestimated these crucial issues. Al Qaeda was ignored for the first time after ghastly terrorist acts of 2001 in presidential address of state of the union (Holland and Mason). Al Qaeda and its threats are a major concern and considering their hand in the ghastly killings of a number of French satirists, this issue should have been discussed in the state of the union address.
President Obama had assured Libya of his help in fighting terrorism. Previously Yemen also got such assurances. Both countries are currently stuck in various severe turbulences. By omitting their concerns and president’s vow to form a coalition to fight ISIS is not only differing, but is also against the ground reality. Senators, John McCain along with Lindsey Graham criticized president’s state of the union address and said, “Despite the President’s claims of progress in the campaign against ISIS, this terrorist army continues to gain thousands of recruits and now controls significantly more territory in Syria than when U.S. airstrikes began there six months ago” (Holland and Mason).
Not addressing Al Qaeda and its terrorist activities by the president did not give positive assurance to millions of Americans. By not mentioning and addressing the requirements of Yemen and Libya, Obama failed in gaining faith of various other nations that rely and help America in anti-terrorism operations. A wrong message went to American allies also and American president lost a good diplomatic opportunity to address concerns of its strategic partners.

America’s Poor

The US president appeared very much eager for America’s middle class. The president used word, ‘middle class’ for at least seven times in his less than an hour address. What Obama did not consider, of much importance in his address, is the poor of United States. He only once mentioned to get rid of extreme poverty from the world, but even then he did not address the poverty of US citizens. The president did not talk anything about poor people who are living on the US soil.
Obama tried to touch the strings of the poverty by commenting on minimum wages. But, he was not very focused about the interests of poor people during his state of the union address. He should have discussed the issues of poor people and should have made some particular provisions in order to make their lives better (Adams). Obama should have addressed poor people of America separately and clubbing poor people of America with America’s middle class was not fair.

Government Reform/ Restructuring

One of most important proposals of Obama’s address of state of the union 2012 was the program of restructuring of various business agencies of the American government. Obama vowed to make a new department of government by merging small business administration, US trade representative, commerce department and other agencies, working in same area. In spite of the interest of the American president, the idea could not be implemented on the ground. Obama also failed in doing certain significant changes that he wanted (Jeffrey).
Obama appreciated role of scientists, but he failed to shift them into interior department from the commerce department. This was President’s own idea and he had reiterated the same in his 2012 state of the union address. Various other government reforms and restricting that Obama had suggested in earlier state of the union addresses were neither implemented nor were addressed in his current state of the union address.

Entitlement reform

Entitlement reform was not in the president’s list this year. It was also left out by the president in his last year speech. According to administrative officers, fiscal deficits is coming down, hence there is no urgent requirement to make any changes in programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Unlike earlier when negotiation used to begin on national television, the president waits for issue to be bring forward by republican lawmakers. This shows that white house has changed its strategy to deal with GOP (Adams).
If we look at back in year 2013, the president was telling a different story about implementing Medicare cuts and making it like Simpson-Bowles commission. The president showed his concern about Medicare by mentioning that it need serious reform in order to provide good eldercare and protecting safe retirement for upcoming generations. However, this year Obama did not talk much about entitlements and said a very generic line about entitlements that entitlements protect us from harshest adversity.
Apart from abovementioned issues, Obama also did not mention various other issues of national and international importance. US president also provided opportunity to his opponents who criticized his speech. Obama’s state of the union address was against his previous image and oratory skills too. He was unable to mesmerize audiences as he used to do in his earlier sessions. Obama tried to look confident, but escaping from discussing such crucial issues was completely avoidable.

Conclusion

Having observed the succinct analysis of the abovementioned subject, it can be concluded that the US president Barak Obama failed in addressing certain important issues. He did not address these issues either willingly or unwillingly, but it was disheartening for millions of Americans who heard the state of union address. Obama did not address issues that used to be part of his agenda and by doing so, he gave others opportunity to criticize him. Apart from his criticism, it was also not in the interest of the United States of America to ignore such crucial issues. Issues of poverty, government restructuring, dealing with terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda, helping countries like Yemen and Libya were more than important issues and not addressing these issues in a significant manner was certainly something that Obama should have avoided.

Works Cited

Adams, Susan. "The State Of The Union: Was It A Good Or Great Speech?" 21 January 2015. Forbes. Electronic. 25 February 2015.
Holland, S., and Mason, J. "Obama Strikes Defiant Tone With Republicans in Big Speech." 21 January 2015. Reuters. Electronic. 25 February 2015.
Jeffrey, Terence P. "Obama in State of Union: Same-Sex Marriage is ‘America at Its Best’." 21 January 2015. CNSnews. Electronic. 25 February 2015.