He uses annual stain you the union the annual state of the his owndress to rely on authority. What is your take on the president s fifth state of the Union Address. Democrats, 202 5853880. Republicans, 202 5853881. Independents, 202 5853882. Send us a tweet, cspanwj or post your comments on facebook. Com cspan. Heres with the president had to say last night about the state of our union. [video clip] market,ounding housing a Manufacturing Sector that is adding jobs for the First Time Since the 1990s, more oil produced at home than we buy from the rest of the world, the first time that is happened in nearly 20 years. [applause] our deficits, cut by more than half. For the first time, in over a decade, Business Leaders around the world have declared that china is no longer the worlds number one place to invest, america is. Host his fifth annual state of the Union Address, talking about where our economy is. What did you make of the speech . On facebook, we had these comments about president obama saying he will act alone on several fronts. He is setting a very dangerous precedents. Thee does he think he gets authority to rule echo king . It isnt in the constitution. The obstructionist republicans are brought this on themselves. It is about time. That is code for dictator. Tony, democratic caller, what are your thoughts . Caller i think the American People dont realize that the republicans are holding a grudge against the president because mitt romney did not get in as their choice. If the people of this United States do not realize that they to hurt theamacare president and the American People, it comes down to racist. They are mad because the president is black. No one can change my mind. You can look at the facial and the way that john boehner looks. If the republicans had guts, they would stand up and think about the American People. They are using obamacare as an excuse. They knew there candidate, mitt romney, was not Strong Enough to defeat the president. Whatwill do anything with they will do anything with this goes way back. I remember my grandfather telling me in the early withion days that the people of this country dont know is that the republicans are against the poor people. Banksve big raises to the , to the car dealer. Million people that have welfare, Unemployment Benefits. Shame on the republicans. That yesterday was his fourth week without getting unemployment. I brought him over to my house because he was cold. He didnt have anything to eat. That is a slap in the face to thican people. I am an american and i am proud to be. I dont agree with a lot of the things the president has done, but they are holding the American People up with this obamacare. Host the president did call on congress to renew and extend those longterm Unemployment Benefits for the 1. 3 million americans i lost them recently. We will go to j, dont, illinois. Lton, illinois. Caller he had outstanding accomplishments during his presidency. We were losing 700,000 jobs a month when he came into office. Now, we are growing jobs. Improvement in terms of the military, we have pulled out of iraq. Always have troops over there, at least for the foreseeable future. That is an accomplishment. You look at the issue as it relates to the rights of women. That is an accomplishment. Those are some monumental things that he hasnt topless that he has accomplished. Hard for the rights of the average person to make the standard of living better. Improving minimum wage. He hammered that. So obvious what his agenda is. He had a rebuttal from the congressman, it was less about substance, more about ideology, no specifics. How can a party 54 the rights of the average fight for the rights of average of the rage person, but they wont agree on minimum wage . They dont get it. Host would you do for a living . Caller i am an educator, junior high. Again, the Republican Party do not get it. This is one of the reasons they are not going to win a general election. Ive party is not inclus enough. Host im going to leave it there. Liberty, texas, what do you think . Caller it is more of the same rhetoric. He is good at an early stick programming. Programming. C the people i know are fed up with this guy. Not changing,e is they are working more hours and having less of a comfort zone. I am a roughneck. I am having a hard time finding work in texas in the oilfield, even though it is booming. It is sad. If he were to talk about bringing back glasssteagall, i would be the first one to champion him. I voted for him the first time, because i was sick of bush. I think at this stage in the game, he is george bush on steroids. Everything he said he is going to do, he has doubled down. Returningng the veterans are domestic terrorists . That is scary. Host gary, high point, north carolina, what are your thoughts . We are at the highest unemployment we have ever been in north carolina. Stay off the golf course and stay in the white house for a while and see what is going on. Work with the people. Work with the house, work with the senators. Dont try to be a king. That. Not under we put him in there. Hopefully everyone gets them out. Host did you vote for him . Caller i did. Host did you over and twice . Caller the first time. Host when did you decide you did not agree with him anymore . Caller i gave the man four years to do the job. If you dont have something done in 48 hours and construction, you get fired. Host is that what you do for a living . Caller yes, maam. I am an electrician. You cannot buy a job in north carolina. Host are you collecting unemployment . Caller i cannot collect. Every time we get a job, three months later, they lay us off. Then, you cannot draw anything. I fought in vietnam. I fought for our rights. We have no rights anymore. They give the jobs to the mexican people because they were cheaper. I cannot work for 7. 50 an hour and pay house payments. Host can you work for 10. 10 . Caller i doubt it. Is 3. 28 ars gas gallon. I drive a pickup truck. You cannot drive a car to a construction site with all your tools in a. In it. The washington times, obama pledges a year of action. The president has downsized from his big speeches. Shifting for towards micropolicies and more specific targeted ideas. The Washington Post front page this morning, obama calls for a year of action is their headline. Shey say that obamad tricky task is to convince a nation that he is able to break through the partisan gridlock to make meaningful improvement in peoples lives. More americans rated his performance negatively than positively. 50 disapproved. An analysis piece says that a frustrated president takes on a risky strategy of going alone. Thet wilson reports that strategy could help democrats who are a long shot to take the house and in jeopardy of losing the senate in november. E conservatives say that some conservative states where democrats need to do well in the election, the perception of a president ial end run around congress could do more harm than good to the parties candidates. Fearing an instruction is an up structure and ann obstructionist label, republicans may decide it is better to act inoncert with the president on some issues. Onlytive order may be the option, but it comes with limits. He cannot raise the minimum wage for most workers. Do itounced that he would for federal contractors. He cannot overhaul the Social Security system, ran legal status to undocumented yellow undocumented immigrants. The same time, anyone who succeeds him can also use this use the stroke of a pen to undo mr. Obamas actions, just as mr. Obama did to some bushera policies. Obama seeks to jumpstart stalled plans. Usa todays front page says make this the year of action. Speech wise, what a difference a year makes. There is the difference between and downsizedons dreams. It reflects a political journey from aspirational to achievable. Patricia, st. Paul, minnesota. What did you think of last nights speech . Sad, but i amery going to get my determination up again. I am tired of the perpetration of lies that he continues and the democrats continue to do about saying the republicans are. President obama was the one that started this from day one when he would not talk to the republicans. He would not go over to congress. He started that. I wish i had a president that was the president for the entire country, not just the democrats. Describe he uses to e republicans, the rhetoric, it is incendiary. It is arrogant. It is condescending. It is divisive. Talk about putting a new meaning on the word bully pulpit. Cecelia, illinois, what do you think . Caller good morning. That i thought the speech was boring. Year, there was hope. This year, i knew what he was going to say before he said them. The republican response basically picked out his big paws lines and used it for their pause lines and used it for their response. Far as him saying john boehner, the son of a barkeep is yeah, the leader of the house. The one who gave the republican kedponse, she said she wor at mcdonalds, that she never dreamed she would be sworn in as a representative of the government. I want to make a quick point about Mike Huckabee in the comment he made last week. He ran to be the president. Our national symbol, uncle sam, who is like a stern, strong, uncle who tells it is your duty to be of service. Uncle sugar. E sam the republican who gave the gop response was Cathy Mcmorris rodgers. We can show you a little bit of what she had to say. The speaker of the house responded to the president s with a tweet and a vine come asking the president he tweeted out this vine, saying, where are the jobs . The leaders of the republicans in the senate put out this. If the president once a year of action, there are good ideas that the parties can agree on. Revenue neutral tax reform, trade promotion legislation, and the keystone xl pipeline. That is what Mitch Mcconnell had to say about that. Here is Cathy Mcmorris rodgers with the official gop response, where she talked about this issue of income inequality, responding to what the president had to say on that. [video clip] last month, more americans stopped looking for a job than found one. Too many people are falling further and further behind because right now, the president s policies are making peoples lives harder. Republicans have plans to close the gap, focusing on jobs first, without more spending, government bailouts, and red tape. Every day we are working to expand our economy, one manufacturing job, nursing degree, and Small Business at a time. We have plans to improve our education and Training Systems so you have the choice to determine where your kids go to school. So college is affordable and skills training is modernized. Host that is her gop response to the state of the union. Many reporters were there. They were looking up facts and addressing what the president Mcmorris Rodgers had to say. Truthometer on more people stop looking for a job than found one. They say this is half true. There are several problems with the comparison. A large portion of those people who left the workforce simply retired. Demographic reality that an evergrowing growing number of americans are getting older. They call that a halftruth. Also, senator mike lee, republican of utah, gave the response for the tea party movement. This is what he had to say in a tweet. An inequality godzilla that has robbed working families of their insurance, their doctors, their wages and their jobs. That is senator mike lee. Senator rand paul, republican of kentucky, he gave a response to the president s state of the Union Address. A potential contender for 2016. Bruce, jacksonville, florida, democratic caller. Caller i am an independent color. Caller. Where are we going to get the money from . President obama came into office and we have had 17 host we are listening. Trillion. Spent 17 1 trillion on the economic recovery act when he first came into office. How are everyones roads doing . The Unemployment Benefits where does that money come from . That comes from the federal government. It is tax money. Someone elses tax money. Obamacare was a debacle. The website did not work out right. It is not secure. They have not developed the payment part of the health care. Dont Insurance Companies make money, the taxpayers are going to be on the hook to make up for the shortfall. Where is that money coming from . We are spending money that we do not have and i dont understand. People think government money it is actually taxpayer money. Would you do for a living . Caller i am retired. Host what did you do . Caller i worked for the post office for 23 years. Host mike, oklahoma, republican caller. Caller my common is this. This is not about race. I do not believe a president should have the stroke of a pen to offset congress. I think that is a dangerous road to go down. You are superseding the sena and the house. You are superseding where people can get together, could get together, and Work Together to bring better bills on both sides of the issue. Himself, tois by me, he is alienating both sides of this. It is creating a Fourth Branch of government, which our constitution did not set up. This power. Of i do not want to see any president have that much power. Host the president talked about raising the minimum wage. Heres what he had to say. It [vide[video clip] you dont have to wait for congress to act. Americans will support you if you take this on. As a chief executive, i intend to lead by example. Profitable corporations like costco, see higher wages as a smart way or to bruce to boost productivity. We should, too. I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay a fair wage of at least 10. 10 an hour tom a because if you cook our troops meals or wash their dishes, you should not have to work and poverty. [applause] to reach millions more, congress does need to get on board. Today, the federal minimum wage is worth about 20 less than when Ronald Reagan first and here. We have a bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to 10. 10. This will help families. Businesses more customers with more money to spend. It does not require any new bureaucratic programs. Join the rest of the country. Say yes. Give america a raise. What a list fact ct has to say about federal wage being worth about 20 less. They say that is mostly true. On raisingoughts minimum wage in the country. Women in the country. [video clip] Women Deserve equal pay for equal work. [applause] she deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or a sick parent, without running into hardship. A father does, too. It is time to do away with work laced policies that the long and mad hats a belong in a men episode. Has checked itt saying that when women earn only . 77 for every dollar aim man earns, a man earns, this is mostly true. In 2010, women working fulltime had median Weekly Earnings of 669 dollars versus 801 a four dollars for males, according to the bls. Women earned . 81 on the which has been typical since about 2004. What are your thoughts on the state of the union . Caller the thing about the minimum wage is what upsets me. It was never meant to be a living wage. I tell the guys that i work with. A dollarst making . 25. Youre making you are not making eight dollars 25 cents. Youre making 2. 90. Women will tell me they cannot unload trucks, they cannot pick up the bales of potatoes, they cannot lift the skid. They get paid what i get paid, i cant call and say they arent doing the job. Is, i blame congress. What they have done is they have made they have not done their job. They let all of the jobs go out of the country. Some of the people in their made choices. Had i did not go to college. That was a stupid thing on my part. There are people out there those were the guys that slept through class, did not show up, and now there are minimum wage jobs and theyre wondering why. Timesheres the financial this morning on the whole issue of minimum wage. They say fulltime workers on the minimum wage of 7. 25 an ,our will earn 14,500 a year assuming a 40 hour week. To 10. 10 would boost the income to 20,200. What will happen then lets say youre making 16 an hour. Jobgot promoted, got the progression for staying on the job, now you just made that guys pay, he is not making 16 hour. He is only making 14 because you cut his pay by two dollars an hour. Andress let the jobs go out a lot of these people dont want to go to college, they dont want to finish high school and then they want someone to go by the way, since you made all of these been the stake, we will help you. Mistakes, wese bad will help you. I am independent. I voted for barack obama twice. Most of the people, when they come on, they say it is the democrats or republicans. I consider that person an uninformed voter. , read ito the Research Different sources, they will learn that the political system you are looking at, we do not have too. We have one thing. We do not even have a government. We have an organization that does not care about us. Person an independent running that cares about the guy that is making between 40,000 and 150,000. Host what is the best way to spur growth . Start terror pending that stuff that comes from china. If you look at france and germany, they dont allow them withoutour products tariffs. The president talked about the different proposals that he would like to work with congress on. Igration andis imm tax reform. [video clip] both democrats and republicans have argued that our policies are riddled with loopholes. Lets flip that equation. Lets Work Together to close and theopholes incentives to ship jobs overseas and lower tax rates for businesses that create jobs at home. [applause] we can take the money that we say from this transition to create jobs, rebuilding our roads, upgrading our ports, unclogging our commutes. Economy, firstclass jobs gravitate to firstclass infrastructure. He congress to protect more than 3 million jobs b