State of the union.

This years state of the union served as both an address on how the country is doing, and a chance for president Obama to outline his plan for the future, and as a very public set up for his presidential campaign As a result of a very dysfunctional congress, it felt like some of what was said was the same as last year. There were a lot of things I liked about it though.
The president talked about lowering the tax rate for corporations. I am not in agreement with this idea, as I feel that corporations who gain from our labor should have to contribute to this country. I did like what Obama said about taking tax breaks away from companies that outsource their jobs.
I appreciated his comments about enforcing the reforms that would prevent poor bank practices, although I think this came a little too late.
I was impressed with what he had to say about education. The idea that businesses will help community colleges train people for jobs that they will be able to move right in to is a great idea. I agree with the notion that education is essential to the success to this nation, so I was pleased to see the president demand more from congress in the form of school funding.
The president suggested that states change their policies for letting high school students drop out. He challenged them to only allow students to drop out after they turned 18. This is a really good idea, because more and more jobs are not happy with applicants who have a GED rather than an actual diploma. Dropping out of school is a big decision that can have negative effects for that student's future life. It is for similar reasons that we make students wait until they are 18 to join the military,  we want those who join to be at an age to understand more fully what they are doing, we should do the same for those who are thinking about dropping out of high school.
He entered more fully into campaign mode when in what seemed a total disconnected thought he mentions equal pay for women.
I was impressed with how he shut down many of the attacks against him, and stood by his decisions. He came across as optimistic while the Republican who gave the rebuttal sounded pessimistic and antagonistic.