It is expected that President Obama will include in his State of the Union speech later this month several new initiatives as he enters the end of his 2nd term.
One of them will surely include the push for comprehensive immigration. He failed badly in making progress on this issue in his first term after the quagmire he descended into after his healthcare initiative at the beginning of his 1st term. He had few “political markers” to call in after the healthcare debacle of the past 3 years to get a comprehensive bill through congress particularly after he lost the House in 2010. He could have made progress on this initiative had he been willing to compromise on elements of his program; however, being committed to his ideology, he then failed in an attempt to produce meaningful progress in this area.
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The other major issue he will push for will be to address the “income inequality” in America between the very rich and the very poor which has been increasing rapidly over the past 30 years. Listening to the President speak about this matter would give the impression that this occurred only under previous administrations and that he wants to fix it now. But this impression is far from the truth as the data shows. Based on these data, income disparity between the rich and poor has occurred over time beginning with the Carter administration but has accelerated rapidly through the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. A thorough explanation can be found in a study by Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty from U, of California Berkeley, whereby they found that the fraction of total income growth captured by the top 1% was 65% between 2002-2007 while this growth reached 95% between 2009-2012! This significant increase in income disparity occurring during the Obama administration can be accounted for by a combination of Federal Reserve policies (low interest rates and quantitative easing) and administration policies (low labor participation in the workforce, increase in regulations, etc.).
Mr. President - sometimes to find answers to problems, you need to look within yourself and your ideology!
