A key message of Mr Bush's last State of the Union in resonated deeply in retrospect. He added: "In the long run, Americans can be confident about our economic growth.
The following year, in his first address to Congress, Democratic President Barack Obama spoke to a nation in the midst of economic crisis. In his final State of the Union, Mr Obama surprised Vice-President Joe Biden, who had recently lost a son to brain cancer, with a special assignment to lead a cancer-research task force.
Changes between Obama's first and last speech. The House's sergeant at arms announces the president, who enters to a standing ovation. After the president delivers the address, the opposition party typically responds with a televised address from a politician it wants to showcase. As is customary when the nation's top leaders are gathered at a single location, one member of the cabinet - the designated survivor - does not attend the State of the Union address. He or she remains at a secure location to ensure continuity of government should a catastrophic event occur.
In recent years, newly-elected presidents have addressed joint sessions of Congress shortly after taking office and while these have not been officially recorded as State of the Union speeches, they have widely been perceived as such. Changes since Obama's first speech. Protecting our kids from gun violence. Equal pay for equal work. Paid leave. Raising the minimum wage. All these things still matter to hardworking families.
And I won't let up until they get done. I want to focus on the next five years, the next 10 years, and beyond. I want to focus on our future. It promises education for girls in the most remote villages, but also connects terrorists plotting an ocean away.
And whether we like it or not, the pace of this change will only accelerate. America has been through big changes before -- wars and depression, the influx of new immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, movements to expand civil rights. Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change; who promised to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears.
And because we did -- because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril -- we emerged stronger and better than before. What was true then can be true now. Our unique strengths as a nation -- our optimism and work ethic, our spirit of discovery, our diversity, our commitment to rule of law -- these things give us everything we need to ensure prosperity and security for generations to come.
But such progress is not inevitable. And we face such choices right now. Will we respond to the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a nation, turning against each other as a people? Or will we face the future with confidence in who we are, in what we stand for, in the incredible things that we can do together?
First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us -- especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman? Let me start with the economy, and a basic fact: The United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world.
Our auto industry just had its best year ever. That's just part of a manufacturing surge that's created nearly , new jobs in the past six years. Now, what is true -- and the reason that a lot of Americans feel anxious -- is that the economy has been changing in profound ways, changes that started long before the Great Recession hit; changes that have not let up. Companies in a global economy can locate anywhere, and they face tougher competition.
As a result, workers have less leverage for a raise. Companies have less loyalty to their communities. And more and more wealth and income is concentrated at the very top. All these trends have squeezed workers, even when they have jobs; even when the economy is growing. And although none of these trends are unique to America, they do offend our uniquely American belief that everybody who works hard should get a fair shot.
For the past seven years, our goal has been a growing economy that works also better for everybody. But we need to make more. We agree that real opportunity requires every American to get the education and training they need to land a good-paying job.
In the coming years, we should build on that progress, by providing Pre-K for all and -- applause -- offering every student the hands-on computer science and math classes that make them job-ready on day one.
We should recruit and support more great teachers for our kids. And we have to make college affordable for every American. No hardworking student should be stuck in the red. And that's good. It's the right thing to do. We also need benefits and protections that provide a basic measure of security. For everyone else, especially folks in their 40s and 50s, saving for retirement or bouncing back from job loss has gotten a lot tougher.
Americans understand that at some point in their careers, in this new economy, they may have to retool and they may have to retrain. And for Americans short of retirement, basic benefits should be just as mobile as everything else is today. That, by the way, is what the Affordable Care Act is all about. Nearly 18 million people have gained coverage so far. And in the process, health care inflation has slowed.
And our businesses have created jobs every single month since it became law. A little applause right there. Just a guess. But there should be other ways parties can work together to improve economic security. I also know Speaker Ryan has talked about his interest in tackling poverty. America is about giving everybody willing to work a chance, a hand up. But there are some areas where we just have to be honest -- it has been difficult to find agreement over the last seven years.
It was tempting for the President to follow the lead of his predecessors, take a victory lap and mainly tout his administration's achievements. But Obama's instruction to his team was simple: Don't do that. As his top aides have described it, Obama has chosen to deliver a "nontraditional" State of the Union.
Gone is the laundry list of policy proposals funneled into the White House from agencies across the federal government. No more "MyRA's," one official quipped, pointing to the previous idea for a new government savings account that was inserted into a past State of the Union. Read More. Obama previewed his plan to talk about his vision for the future in a video teaser tweeted by White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. The America we believe in," Obama said in the video. Vision for U.
One of those "big things" will be the President's vision for U. A senior White House official said Obama will urge the nation to follow his preferred foreign policy approach of diplomacy and multilateralism. To illustrate that call, the President is likely to tout the administration's response to the Ebola outbreak, the climate change agreement in Paris and his decision to normalize relations with Cuba.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, Obama will also seek to reassure Americans once again about their safety. Senior administration officials said Obama plans to devote part of the speech to his vow to protect the American home front and put the nation on a path to destroying ISIS, a mission aides concede likely won't be accomplished on his watch.
Obama did offer an explanation for what is happening. Companies in a global economy can locate anywhere, and face tougher competition. As a result, workers have less leverage for a raise. Companies have less loyalty to their communities. And more and more wealth is concentrated at the very top. This is fair enough as an analysis of the broad trends in whose grips we all find ourselves—although Sen. Sanders and organized labor might beg to differ.
Better systems of education and training are necessary, as the president suggested, but there is no reason to believe that they will be sufficient.
Obama agrees. But here, as so often in this speech, the president was content to play the role of analyst while the people are demanding action. Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence. The randomness and unpredictability of terrorist attacks magnifies these fears.
Here, as with the economy, the president did little to address the powerful emotions that are driving so much of the political debate in this presidential election.
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