Music | Film/Tv | Pop-culture | Fashion | Tech | Jobs | Politics | ETC. | Ology Sites

As you hopefully already know, Wednesday night President Obama delivered his State of the Union address to a joint session of congress. Many of my peers, however, chose not to watch the event, saying it was boring, phony, and didn’t affect their lives at all. I beg to differ. So, for those of you 18-25 year olds who missed the broadcast, here is a quick recap with some instruction of why you should care. Because seriously, it affects you.

The Economy: Obama acknowledged that the economy has been and is still awful and so said jobs “must be our number one focus in 2010.” He called for a new jobs bill and for $30 billion of the money Wall Street has paid back from the bailout to be used by community banks so small businesses can get loans. The President also focused on creating more jobs for construction/clean energy efforts. Why this affects you? Right now about half of our age group is unemployed and so while you may abstractly care about things like healthcare, getting paid or not will impact your daily life immediately. If his plans work, it may mean the difference between you starting your career or living back with your parents for the next year.

Education: Obama proposed a $10,000 tax credit for families paying for four years of college tuition and proposed increasing Pell grants to help financially assist low-income students. The President also proposed changing the loan system to require graduating students to only pay 10% of their income on loans and forgiving that debt after 20 years. If they choose a career in public service, however, he proposed lowering the debt forgiveness to 10 years. Why this affects you? If you’re planning to go to college I’m sure your family could use the $10,000 break. Although for many schools this tax credit won’t make a HUGE impact, it still helps and partnered with the changes in loan repayment, suddenly you might have the chance to attend your dream school rather than just the university in your budget. As a graduating senior, I find this awesome.

The Environment: In addition to the proposed clean energy construction jobs which will be created, Obama called for building a new generation of nuclear power plants. He encouraged Congress to pass a thorough energy and climate bill which would include incentives for businesses to use clean, efficient, sustainable energy. Why this affects you? It will be us and our children who reap the benefits/repercussions of energy choices today. Nuclear energy is controversial and yet, something must be done. Is it the right option? At the very least, this again means more jobs.

Health Care: The past year has focused on health care reform and yet nothing yet has changed. Obama urged Congress to finish it and finally make changes. Why this affects you? Once you graduate from school, if you are unemployed you probably won’t have health care. Our demographic is certainly healthier than seniors, however, if you break your foot snowboarding and you have no coverage–you’re screwed. A public, affordable option would allow everyone, even poor twenty somethings, access to health care. Also, the broadcast showed a really human side of President Obama–he joked around and made sincere requests–which I found refreshing and reassuring. Always nice to know your leaders actually have a soul.

National Security: President Obama said he would have all troops out of Iraq by the end of August and hoped to have troops out of Afghanistan by July 2011. He said that the intelligence community would be strengthened so that potential terrorist plots (like the attempted Christmas airliner attack) would be defeated. Finally, Obama said that he and Congress would work to repeal the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” law which denies gays the chance to serve in the military. Why this affects you? If you know anyone enlisted and overseas, this means your friend is finally coming home. And if you don’t know anyone overseas, this means the Middle East will soon have less U.S. presence (we will be the ones to see whether it becomes a good or bad decision) and that probably airport security will get even stricter. Also, if you are gay and hope to join the army, you may soon get your chance.

Now, if you want to watch the full State of the Union for yourself, you can do so here: http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?MediaId=HP-A-28955

Blog 4 us / Sites / Network / Advertise / Publishers / Ology media inc. / Contact us / About us / Feedback