Analysis of President Obama s 2011 State of the Union Address on Democracy Now! 2 of 2

President Obama delivered his second State of the Union address last night. Speaking before a newly divided Congress, Obama said the United States was in a 21st century version of the space race and in a global competition to create jobs in science and research. Obama focused much of his speech on the issue of jobs and proposed a number of deficit-cutting measures, including a five-year freeze in spending on some domestic programs. President Obama began his address by paying tribute to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, but did not address the issue of gun control. He spoke about the need for clean energy, but did not mention the word "climate" once in his address. He talked about the economy, but never mentioned foreclosures. Democracy Now! gets a response to Obama's the State of the Union speech with longtime consumer advocate Joan Claybrook and the former mayor of Salt Lake City, Rocky Anderson, who is now director of High Road for Human Rights. The program also plays an excerpt of its interview with Dr. Atul Gawande about the history of healthcare reform in the United States.

• 2011-01-26T22:01:41+00:00
• Duration: 09:54

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Keywords

state of union, Barack, Obama, president, USA, US, address, democracy, part2, analysis, Rocky Anderson, Joan Claybrook, Atul Gawande, healthcare, tort reform