State of the Union Addresses of Barack Obama, 2009-2016Obama, Barack
General
State of the Union Addresses of Barack Obama, 2009-2016
Obama, Barack
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
Of course, to reach millions more, Congress does need to get on board.
Today, the Federal minimum wage is worth about 20 percent less than it
was when Ronald Reagan first stood here. And Tom Harkin and George
Miller have a bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to 10
dollars and 10 cents. It's easy to remember: 10-10. This will help
families. It will give businesses customers with more money to spend.
It does not involve any new bureaucratic program. So join the rest of
the country. Say yes. Give America a raise. Give them a raise.
There are other steps we can take to help families make ends meet, and
few are more effective at reducing inequality and helping families pull
themselves up through hard work than the earned-income tax credit.
Right now it helps about half of all parents at some point. Think about
that: It helps about half of all parents in America at some point in
their lives. But I agree with Republicans like Senator Rubio that it
doesn't do enough for single workers who don't have kids. So let's work
together to strengthen the credit, reward work, help more Americans get
ahead.
Let's do more to help Americans save for retirement. Today, most
workers don't have a pension. A Social Security check often isn't
enough on its own. And while the stock market has doubled over the last
5 years, that doesn't help folks who don't have 401(k)s. That's why,
tomorrow, I will direct the Treasury to create a new way for working
Americans to start their own retirement savings: MyI--MyRA.
It's a new savings bond that encourages folks to build a nest egg. MyRA
guarantees a decent return with no risk of losing what you put in. And
if this Congress wants to help, work with me to fix an upside-down Tax
Code that gives big tax breaks to help the wealthy save, but does
little or nothing for middle class Americans. Offer every American
access to an automatic IRA on the job so they can save at work just
like everybody in this Chamber can.
And since the most important investment many families make is their
home, send me legislation that protects taxpayers from footing the bill
for a housing crisis ever again and keeps the dream of homeownership
alive for future generations.
One last point on financial security: For decades, few things exposed
hard-working families to economic hardship more than a broken health
care system. And in case you haven't heard, we're in the process of
fixing that. Now, a preexisting condition used to mean that someone
like Amanda Shelley, a physician's assistant and single mom from
Arizona, couldn't get health insurance. But on January 1, she got
covered. On January 3, she felt a sharp pain. On January 6, she had
emergency surgery. Just one week earlier, Amanda said, and that surgery
would have meant bankruptcy.
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