President Obama shakes hands with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, after delivering his State of the Union speech before members of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol January 20, 2015 in Washington, D.C. Alex Wong, Getty Images
In 2014, President Obama issued a direct challenge to Congress in his State of the Union: Here is my agenda, and if you don't do your part I will do what I can with my executive power.
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State of the Union 2015: "The shadow of crisis has passed"
President Obama talked about America's endurance and alluded to the economy's recovery when he asserted that the state of the union is strong.
There was no such direct threat in his 2015 address, but that doesn't mean he is any less reliant on Congress. Nearly all of his proposals in 2015, including expanding paid sick leave, making two years of community college free, and reforming the tax code, require Congress to act. He can do even less alone this year than he could last year.
Mr. Obama still has a to-do list for himself, but he also seems prepared to bombard Congress with proposals that will only become law if they take action. He has an ambitious list of proposals and monetary requests for his 2015 budget, but Congress still controls the purse strings. His State of the Union address was all about putting those proposals on the table, and offering a contrast with Republicans.
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State of the Union 2015: Economic policies that help the middle class are working
During his State of the Union address, President Obama urged Congress to continue economic policies that he said have helped middle class America...
"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?" he said Tuesday.
He also had a few requests for the corporate world that fit into his theme of making life better for the American middle class.
Here's a look at what Mr. Obama has promised to do, where he needs Congress, and what he has asked of CEOs around the country:
The president's to-do list:
- Veto, veto veto: With Congress fully in Republican hands for the first time during his presidency, Mr. Obama no longer has a Democrat-controlled Senate to stop bills he won't sign from reaching his desk. That means his veto pen stands to get quite a workout this year, and Mr. Obama has already pledged to veto seven bills in the pipeline. In his State of the Union address, he pledged to veto anything that: "[puts] the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance, or [unravels] the new rules on Wall Street, or [refights] past battles on immigration when we've got a system to fix." He also warned that he would reject any bill with fresh sanctions on Iran while the U.S. and other world powers are still negotiating a deal to end its nuclear program, and hinted that he would stop Congress from trying to block anything his administration has done unilaterally to fight climate change.
- Curing disease with the help of the human genome: The president said he was launching this initiative to help cure diseases like cancer and diabetes with targeted treatments based in part on a person's genetic makeup. However the success and of the program seems highly dependent the increased research and development funding he will propose in his budget - which is subject to congressional approval.
- Call for net neutrality: "I intend to protect a free and open internet, extend its reach to every classroom, and every community, and help folks build the fastest networks, so that the next generation of digital innovators and entrepreneurs have the platform to keep reshaping our world," Mr. Obama said. The president has previously called for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to force internet providers to treat all web traffic the same, but since the FCC is an independent regulatory body all he can do is offer his opinion.
- Balancing civil liberties with aggressive surveillance methods: The Senate failed to pass legislation in 2014 that would have reformed the National Security Agency's bulk data collection methods, but Mr. Obama said he hasn't forgotten about the importance of reform. He promised to issue a report next month on how the intelligence agencies are adopting recommendations from privacy advocates to increase transparency and prevent infringement on Americans' civil liberties.
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State of the Union 2015: Obama plans to lower cost of community college "to zero"
In his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed two years of free community college in an effort to maintain America's competitive ed...
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