Washington, D.C.--SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry issued the following statement responding to President Obama's State of the Union address:
"Let's be clear, there is no greater investment in this country than getting Americans back to work. With nearly 30 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, we don't just have a jobs crisis, we have a jobs emergency.
"Tonight, President Obama issued a clear call to action to solve our jobs emergency. We need all Americans, Republicans and Democrats, business and labor, to work together to pave the road that working people, and our country, must walk to a stronger, more promising future.
"It's alarming to hear some Republicans counter the president's bold vision with devastating cuts that would destroy jobs and plunge our nation back into recession. These Republicans are quick to dismiss job-creating investments in education and infrastructure as unnecessary spending while pushing for budget-busting tax breaks for millionaires. And it's no longer acceptable for corporations and Wall Street banks to earn a record $1.6 trillion in profits while refusing to put America back to work.
"If this is indeed our Sputnik moment, we can no longer allow politics to divide us. Our children are counting on all of us to come together to create a brighter future and meet the great challenge of our generation. We can and must do big things."
"The yardstick must be the health of the middle class and the American economy."
Tonight President Obama called on the nation to look forward and spoke to our nation's prospects and vulnerabilities: we are faced with opportunities for progress, but paralyzed by weak job growth and an economy that is increasingly out of balance for middle class families.
We strongly support the President's vision on infrastructure to create good jobs and succeed in a global economy, and working people are ready to work with him and hold him to his promises. We look forward to comprehensive and substantial proposals to rebuild our nation's schools, bridges, and highways and invest in high speed rail, a smart electrical grid, universal broadband and the green jobs of the future. We will join the President as partners to help build bipartisan support for a sustained and strategic investment in America's future. Labor and business, Democrats and Republicans should all be working together to ensure that we make the investments we need now to secure our future.
President Obama certainly understands our need to be competitive in manufacturing, new technology and skills. But he must also understand that last-century trade deals that reward and encourage corporations that outsource American jobs will do little to generate net new jobs in the United States or raise living standards here or abroad. Working people will continue to urge the President and his administration to stick to his campaign promises of reforming trade deals, so they do more than boost profits for multi-national corporations.
We firmly believe that we should not be cutting government spending when the economy is so weak. This economy is failing to create jobs at an adequate pace to dig us out of the hole we're in, and a spending freeze at this time will slow down job creation and growth – further worsening the deficit. This is simply the wrong medicine at the wrong time. And it is essential that the President acts on the commitment he outlined tonight to strengthen and preserve our essential retirement security programs – Social Security and Medicare. All working people will continue to fight any proposals that aim to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits.
We must move boldly now to put 15 million Americans back to work and rebuild bargaining power and good jobs for our middle class. We believe the President is heading in the right direction– but as he outlined tonight, the yardstick must be the health of the middle class and the American economy.
Washington, D.C. (Jan. 25, 2011) – Today Terry O’Sullivan, General President of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – made the following statement in response to tonight’s State of the Union address by President Obama:
We are thrilled to see President Obama embrace an argument we have been making for years: Building America’s roads, bridges, rails and runways is not only our best option for getting people working again, but also is essential to America’s long-term future. If we do not address our ailing basics and outbuild other nations, we cannot compete economically.
Our economy cannot truly move forward as long as more than one-in-five construction workers are unemployed. We cannot leave these men and women, and their families, behind and expect to propser.
LIUNA looks forward to working with the White House and all members of Congress who support his call to get America working again, put our economic revival into high gear and secure our country’s future while leaving behind a positive legacy for future generations.
By Kevin Hart
Saying that a changing economy and increased global competition had created a “Sputnik moment” for America, President Barack Obama encouraged increased investment in public education with a focus on career and college readiness in his State of the Union address this evening.
While acknowledging a need for fiscal discipline and strategies aimed at deficit reduction, Obama said that growing the economy and preparing workers for the jobs of tomorrow means that the country must continue to invest in education.
“Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine,” Obama said. “It may make you feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you’ll feel the impact.”
One of the greatest challenges facing education is the pending retirement of Baby Boomer teachers over the next decade, and Obama set a goal of preparing 100,000 new science, technology, engineering and math teachers.
“In fact, to every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child – become a teacher,” Obama said to a standing ovation. “Your country needs you.”
Obama stressed a number of key education initiatives that he said will be a focus of his administration, including:
- Replacing the No Child Left Behind Act with “a law that is more flexible and focused on what’s best for our kids.”
- Making permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit, worth $10,000 for four years of college.
- Strengthening America’s public higher education system, with the goal of ensuring that America has the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by the end of the decade. Obama stressed the important role community colleges play in training workers for new careers.
- Reforming immigration laws to ensure talented and responsible students can work in the United States after graduation.
National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel said in a statement that he was grateful Obama took an opportunity to highlight the importance of public education, and that NEA members would continue to do their part to ensure all students have access to a quality public education.
“Our members—millions of talented teachers, education support professionals, and higher education faculty—are ready to contribute to this discussion, to roll up their sleeves and keep working hard to improve our public schools one student at a time, one school at a time, one community at a time,” Van Roekel said. “President Obama is tackling the pressing issues of our times head on. His priorities—putting more Americans back to work and getting our fiscal and economic house in order—are indeed essential to the long-term economic well-being of our nation.”
Van Roekel also welcomed Obama’s call to fix No Child Left Behind, but said that he remains concerned about competitive grant programs like Race to the Top that can create winners and losers among students.
“We need to give more students access to an education that will prepare them for the challenges of the 21st century and open new opportunities for children, especially minority children and those in low-income families,” Van Roekel said. “NEA is committed to the success of all students and ensuring that education remains the engine that moves America forward. We look forward to working with this Congress and the administration to continue the important work of transforming the nation’s public schools.”
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