...we’ve seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade, our deficits cut by two-thirds, a stock market that has doubled, and health care inflation at its lowest rate in fifty years.

- President Barack Obama, 2015 State of the Union Address

Tuesday night President Obama addressed the country and laid out his plan to focus the nation’s policies on middle-class economics. Below are a few of the highlights from the President’s address that I felt would be particularly relevant to you. You can also follow my social media responses.

The President reminded us of the substantial progress our economy has made during his time in office. More importantly, he recognized that while our economy has come back strong, there are too many Americans who work hard every day but have not seen the benefits of our economic progress in their daily lives:

It’s now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next fifteen years, and for decades to come. Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well?  Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?

Today, we have new tools to stop taxpayer-funded bailouts, and a new consumer watchdog to protect us from predatory lending and abusive credit card practices.  And in the past year alone, about ten million uninsured Americans finally gained the security of health coverage.

So the verdict is clear.  Middle-class economics works.  Expanding opportunity works.  And these policies will continue to work, as long as politics don’t get in the way.  We can’t slow down businesses or put our economy at risk with government shutdowns or fiscal showdowns.

College affordability as well as expanding higher education was a core component of the President’s plan. The President stressed the need to reduce the student loan burden on students and graduates so that they are not deprived of economic security due to onerous debt. Additionally, he presented his plan to make two years of community college free to all American students willing to put in the hard work:

We still live in a country where too many bright, striving Americans are priced out of the education they need.  It’s not fair to them, and it’s not smart for our future.That’s why I am sending this Congress a bold new plan to lower the cost of community college – to zero. 

I want to spread that idea all across America, so that two years of college becomes as free and universal in America as high school is today.

President Obama spoke on our national security, particularly our preparedness against cyber attacks:

No foreign nation, no hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets, or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids.  We are making sure our government integrates intelligence to combat cyber threats, just as we have done to combat terrorism.

In closing, the President discussed two of my legislative priorities for this Congress renewal of the Voting Rights Act and the need for criminal justice reform:

We may go at it in campaign season, but surely we can agree that the right to vote is sacred; that it’s being denied to too many; and that, on this 50th anniversary of the great march from Selma to Montgomery and the passage of the Voting Rights Act, we can come together, Democrats and Republicans, to make voting easier for every single American.

Surely we can agree it’s a good thing that for the first time in 40 years, the crime rate and the incarceration rate have come down together, and use that as a starting point for Democrats and Republicans, community leaders and law enforcement, to reform America’s criminal justice system so that it protects and serves us all.

To watch the State of the Union Address in its entirety online click here.