Experts Expect a More Aggressive President Obama on Tuesday Evening

President Obama, fresh off of a successful re-election campaign, will make his fifth State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.

Pundits are expecting President Obama's State of the Union speech to be an extension of his recent inaugural address, which was called "aggressive" and "provocative" by some observers.

In his 2009 State of the Union address, President Obama called for the Republicans and Democrats to "come together" to "lift this Nation from the depths of this crisis". At the time of Obama's first State of the Union speech, the US economy was under extreme duress, thanks to the financial crisis that nearly brought down the global economy in the fall of 2008. The US economy was shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs per month, and there was a real sense that the two parties would have to come together to help rebuild the country.

2013 is a different story.

To start, the Republicans and Democrats are as hostile towards each other as ever thanks to the contentious "fiscal cliff" and gun control battles that have raged over the past few months.

In addition, President Obama is coming off of a successful re-election bid, and the Democrats believe that the country has given them a mandate to increase taxes on the wealthy. President Obama got some of his desired tax increases on the wealthy in the fiscal cliff deal, and he will likely be pursuing even more in the months ahead.

Expect President Obama to use his fifth State of the Union address to continue to challenge the Republican party on taxes and spending cuts, as battles over sequester cuts and the debt ceiling loom on the horizon.

--

According to multiple reports, a major focus of Obama's State of the Union address will be job creation. It's a good thing too, as the national unemployment rate is currently sitting at 7.9%.

It will be interesting to hear how much of President Obama's speech deals with the deficit and national debt. According to Gallup.com, President Obama has an approval rating of just 31% when it comes to his handling of the deficit. A full 65% of those polled disapprove of the job that Obama is doing when it comes to the nation's staggering deficits. After all, the nation has posted four straight trillion dollar plus deficits, and 2013 is not expected to be much better ($900 billion).

--

In short, don't expect much in the way of olive branches on Tuesday night.

Filed under: General Knowledge