Obama Outlines Bold Plan for America

In his first address (technically it was not a 'State of the Union' address since he's only been in office for 5 weeks) to a joint session of Congress, President Obama sought to convince anxious Americans that the current economic crisis should not stop us from dealing with our biggest problems. Specifically, he argued that education, health care and energy were a vital part of the long-term sustainability of the economy and laid out ambitious plans to attack all three:

Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down.  

Some of the highlights of his speech:

Energy independence? Education reform (ie. better teachers, more pay)? Healthcare for all Americans? These are things most people can get behind. Most important of all, he gave the country a vision of itself in this new era. We've been coasting on our reputation for far too long. He said it better than I ever could:

..we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity, where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.

The full speech can be seen here.