In State of the Union, Obama Makes Middle-Class Pitch - WSJ

President Lays Out Steps to Aid Moderate-Income Americans to a Skeptical Congress

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Tuesday night declared an end to the U.S. economic crisis as he made the case to Americans, and a skeptical Congress, that now was the time to focus on resolving the most stubborn impediment to a full-fledged recovery: lagging progress among the middle class.

“The shadow of crisis has passed,” Mr. Obama said in his annual State of the Union address, arguing that a revitalized economy should guide Washington leaders to confront what he called “middle-class economics.” Laying out a broad vision for his last two years in office, Mr. Obama asked lawmakers of both parties to “commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort.”

“At this moment—with a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, and booming energy production—we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth,” he said.

But Mr. Obama’s economic agenda, which hinges on raising taxes on high-income Americans to fund initiatives to benefit those at lower income levels, faces a deeply uncertain path in a Congress that for the first time in his presidency is fully controlled by Republicans.

GOP lawmakers, bolstered by their gains in November’s midterm election, dismissed the president’s pitch as a recycling of proposals never intended to secure bipartisan support.

Mr. Obama, addressing the nation at a moment of emerging economic optimism at home but also heightened anxiety over new threats overseas, called on Congress to show support for the American-led military operation he credited with blunting the advance of Islamic State militants by passing a resolution authorizing the mission.  Read More at  In State of the Union

• Transcript - Analysis
• President Obama Upbeat on Foreign Policy