Even before President Obama delivered the opening lines of his State of the Union Address Tuesday night, the White House made it clear the president wouldn’t take a minimalist approach to his latest political agenda. The president included scores of proposals aimed at boosting the economy, creating jobs and energy production and helping the middle class.
Many of these proposals require congressional approval from a recalcitrant Congress, while others can be implemented by executive action. If prior wish lists are any indicator, most of these proposals will never see the light of day.
Here are the highlights of Obama’s latest Wish List, including helping the middle class.
Key Executive Actions the President Will Take in 2014:
- Raising the Minimum Wage through executive order to $10.10 for federal contract workers.
- Creating “myRA” – a new starter savings account to help millions save for retirement.
- Host a summit on Working Families to highlight policies that will assure global competition
- Launching four new manufacturing institutes to create jobs.
- Partnering with leading CEOs to help the long-term unemployed.
- Increasing fuel efficiency for truck
- Redesigning high schools to teach “real world” skills.
Continuing to Work with Congress
- Immigration reform legislation taking into account House Republican proposals
- Extending emergency unemployment insurance for three months.
- Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for all Americans in stages, indexed to inflation.
- Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for workers without children.
- New IRAs for those who don’t have access to workplace individual retirement savings accounts.
- Supporting workplace protections for women.
- Five-fold increase in funding of SelectUSA program designed to help people find work.
- Patent protection reforms.
- Creation of shale gas development strategy to assure safe production.
- Boosting utilization of natural gas in transportation and industry.
- Ending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace them with a new housing finance system.
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