On February 12, 2013, President Obama stood in front of Congress and gave the address that every single president before him has given.

The State of the Union is the one official address that every president must give annually and this year’s speech revolved around the various topics of the economy, gun control, education, the battles in the Middle East and many other issues that have been major concerns in the United States either within the past months or the past few years.

The Economy took up a major slot in the speech. President Obama led off strong, sharing the belief, “If you work hard, you can get ahead no matter what.” Obama stated that partisanship would no longer be welcome in Congress. “Nobody is going to get 100% of what they want,” and that is the mindset that this country must begin adopting. Obama is one among many who believe that putting the nation’s interests before party preferences is essential to gaining back political and national stability.  He brought up multiple times the idea that the top 1% of Americans who make astronomical salaries need to start paying their fair share and stop using loopholes to get out of paying taxes. He stressed that this is one of the essential ways to start cutting the national debt

 Another major issue within our economy that the president addressed up is the lack of manufacturing that is going on.  This country relies too dependently on China and other world power manufacturers to supply us with goods.  If the United States can begin producing goods in the country once again, exports can rise drastically and put a dent in the national debt as the need for imports decreases. 

Military operations in the Middle East were another topic that needed to be addressed immediately as well.  Obama explained that the core of this operation is to defeat Al- Qaeda, and that begins with the Afghan forces taking a leadership role and taking control of their military.  The United States is planning to bring troops back home and eventually get everyone out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Obama stressed however, that the U.S. must not stop its war on terror; if there is a direct conflict with a terrorist organization, they must be dealt with. 

This topic also branched off into conflicts arising in Asia, as North Korea had just tested another nuclear device that detonated successfully.  The president explained that Russia and the United States are still looking to reduce the number of warheads they possess, but after this test in North Korea, the willingness to do this may have gone down considerably.

Finally the most important issue that America has faced in the past months was brought up last: Gun control.  It is something that has recently plagued our country, and President Obama demonstrated the most passion in this segment.  Background checks are necessary to keep guns away from criminals legally.  He stated that it is essential to ensure that nobody can obtain military grade weapons.  More than 1,000 birthdays, anniversaries and weddings have been taken away by gun violence.  Most importantly, the president insisted that everyone who has been affected by gun violence or has lost a loved one deserves a vote.

In other news, the Republican rebuttal was headed up by Senator Marco Rubio who did it both in English and Spanish to help the Republican Party out with the Latino vote that they lacked the 2012 election.