WASHINGTON — With the U.S. job market on more solid footing, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address Tuesday night to advance a philosophy he’s increasingly embraced over the past year — that the federal government can and should raise baseline standards inside the American workplace.
Whether it was paid leave, the minimum wage or gender pay equity, the president made his case to a skeptical, Republican-controlled Congress that Washington needs to establish rules governing how the economy works for everyday people, particularly when wages are stagnating despite broader job gains.
“Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?” Obama said. “We need to set our sights higher than just making sure government doesn’t halt the progress we’re making. We need to do more than just do no harm.”
One of the clearest examples of that philosophy was the space he devoted in his speech to paid sick days and family leave, a priority that administration officials previewed in the days before the address. The president urged lawmakers — in an all but futile effort, given uniform GOP opposition — to pass legislation that would guarantee workers the ability to accrue paid sick days on the job.
Like the minimum wage raise Obama called for last year, a mandate that employers offer sick leave would largely benefit workers on the bottom rung of the U.S. economic ladder. An estimated 39 percent of private-sector workers, most of them in lower-wage industries like food and retail, are not guaranteed paid sick days.
“Today, we’re the only advanced country on earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers,” the president said. “And since paid sick leave won where it was on the ballot last November, let’s put it to a vote right here in Washington. Send me a bill that gives every worker in America the opportunity to earn seven days of paid sick leave. It’s the right thing to do.”
The president’s paid leave push underscores a basic divide with the GOP House and Senate. Rather than place mandates on employers, the new Congress is pursuing legislation that would instead deregulate industries.
The president doesn’t have the power to unilaterally enact the largest domestic reforms he proposed, such as a hike of the capital gains tax on the wealthy. That means many of his proposals were declared non-starters before he even delivered them. But he once again promised to pursue more modest measures through executive action.
The president can extend maternity and paternity leave to federal workers through what amounts to an accounting trick, while also extending grants to states to pursue their own programs.
“He realizes Congress is never going to work with him,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. “It’s clear — it’s absolutely clear — so if things are going to get done, he has to do them by himself.
“I think he’s using most of the tools in his toolbox right now,” Eisenbrey added. “He doesn’t have all that much latitude, so they’re being fairly creative.”
The president once again used his annual address to press Congress on raising the minimum wage, a priority that Democrats first put forward nearly two years ago. Some states have since hiked their own minimum wages, including red states, such as Nebraska and South Dakota, while the president instituted a new minimum wage of $10.10 for workers under federal contracts.
“To everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it,” the president said. “If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.”
The president also chided Congress for failing to pass equal pay legislation, an allusion to the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would give more legal recourse to women who were unfairly paid less than their male counterparts. Republicans have so far blocked the bill in both chambers. While Democrats cheered Obama’s line, Republicans remained seated.
“This Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work. Really. It’s 2015. It’s time.”
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live blog Oldest Newest Share + Today 10:35 PM ESTPfeiffer Explains Lack Of Immigration Talk In SOTU Speech Pfeiffer told HuffPost immigration wasn’t mentioned extensively in this year’s SOTU address because the president gave a prime-time speech on the issue in November 2014.
Pfeiffer weighed in on the Republicans’ enthusiastic support of the Keystone Pipeline.
“If you were to listen to the Republicans, you would think this is the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate bridge all rolled into one… and that is not the case. It will create some temporary jobs, which is not inconsequential… and a much smaller number of permanent jobs,” Pfeiffer told HuffPost.
@BarackObama #SOTU pointed way to an economy that works for all. Now we need to step up & deliver for the middle class. #FairShot #FairShare
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 21, 2015
“I think our assessment of where we are in Iraq and Syria is, we have made progress, we have blunted ISIS’ momentum… in Iraq in particular we’ve made good progress, we’ve taken back some areas… but there’s a lot more work to do,” Pfeiffer told HuffPost.
Pfeiffer defended the White House against criticism of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
“Let’s get the final agreement done, which we’re still working hard on,” Pfeiffer said, noting the administration will make an effort to be more transparent going forward.
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“There’s no way any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday,” King said of President Obama on NewsMaxTV. “When you have the world watching… a week, two weeks of anticipation of what the United States is gonna do. For him to walk out — I’m not trying to be trivial here — in a light suit, light tan suit, saying that first he wants to talk about what most Americans care about the revision of second quarter numbers on the economy. This is a week after Jim Foley was beheaded and he’s trying to act like real Americans care about the economy, not about ISIS and not about terrorism. And then he goes on to say he has no strategy.”
Middle-class economics and ISIS, the issues King highlighted, are on the agenda for tonight’s the State of the Union address. Will Rep. King give us another glorious rant about the president’s fashion sense this evening?
UPDATE: Pfeiffer was trolling us. Obama is wearing a black suit.
— Julia Craven
HuffPost’s Sabrina Siddiqui sat down with Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) ahead of President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address.
Watch the interview below:
HuffPost’s Mike McAuliff sat down with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) ahead of Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address.
Watch the interview below:
HuffPost’s Roque Planas reports:
Republicans’ Spanish-language rebuttal to this year’s State of the Union address will come largely from a politician who wants to make English the official language of the United States and sued to keep her state from printing voting materials in other languages.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), an immigration hard-liner, will deliver the traditional GOP rebuttal Tuesday night. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) will deliver the Spanish version of the Republicans’ response, but it remains unclear whether the congressman will read a translated version of Ernst’s remarks or give a more original speech.
House Republicans initially said in a Jan. 15 press release that Curbelo would read a translation of Ernst’s speech. But by Tuesday, after Mother Jones reported on the irony of broadcasting Ernst’s translated speech in Spanish given her positions, the press release had been edited. According to the Latin Post, which took a screenshot of the old version, the release no longer says that Curbelo’s remarks will be a translation of Ernst’s.
Read the full story here.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), one of the president’s biggest critics on immigration, took to Twitter on Tuesday to disparage one of the White House’s State of the Union guests, a 21-year-old undocumented student named Ana Zamora.
Zamora will be attending the State of the Union as a guest of first lady Michelle Obama. King’s tweet called Zamora a “deportable,” referring to her status as an undocumented immigrant. Zamora has work authorization and is able to stay in the U.S. as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, or DACA. King has been among those leading the charge to kill that policy.
#Obama perverts "prosecutorial discretion" by inviting a deportable to sit in place of honor at #SOTU w/1st Lady. I should sit with Alito.
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) January 20, 2015
— Elise Foley
Pres. Obama said in 2007 announcement of candidacy, “It’s time to turn the page.” Tonight’s SOTU advance text: “Tonight we turn the page."
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) January 20, 2015
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is the designated survivor for Tuesday night’s address. Each year, someone is appointed to watch the address from a distant and undisclosed location while the nation’s top leaders gather at the Capitol for the State of the Union.
Read more here.
