1. Keith Schemel
Professor Blanco
First Year Seminar
3 February 2014
State of the Union Analysis
On the evening of 28 January 2014, President Barack Obama addressed the nation in the
president’s annual State of the Union, which is a recap of his following year, as well as sets a
blueprint for ways to achieve new ideas for the country in order to make America prosper.
President Obama focused on minimum wage, the conclusion of two wars, economic equality,
amongst other controversial issues. Upon watching the speech via internet the following day, I
could not help but be irritated with the president and his agenda, stemming from my right wing
views on politics.
The president’s first point one inequality was nothing short of a typical liberal statement
regarding how women do not earn as much as men in the workforce, despite accounting for 50%
of the force. When you look deeper into statistics, men are more educated, in an academic sense,
on average, for instance, 71% of students who obtained a PhD. In 2012 were men. Furthermore,
there are more men serving as medical doctors, engineers, and lawyers, as well as other “money-
making” professions. This is not a result of inequality since women are open to the same
education opportunities as men. Yes, women make $0.23 less than men on average, which is a
remarkably insignificant number to be arguing over about.

2. Obama’s stance on minimum wage led to another disagreement between me and the
president. Raising minimum wage to $10.10, as Obama announced, will do nothing but damage
an economy just coming out of a terrible recession. As history states when it comes to raising
minimum wage, it will work for a brief period of time until consumer prices begin to increase
ultimately creating a stalemate once again, this was evident in 1978 when President Carter was
able to increase wages leading to massive inflation that his predecessor, Ronald Reagan had to
deal with.
The one and only part of President Obama’s speech that I agreed with was his position on
searching for alternative energy sources. This, as well as his position on gay marriage, are the
only two issues that I agree with. However, I disagree on his stance that the burning of fossil
fuels are contributing to climate change, but alternative energy sources are needed to replace the
eventual extinction of fossil fuels.
All in all, I am disappointed with our president for lacking common sense, and only
acting on what is in his heart. Furthermore, the failure to address the NSA, or the other several
scandals, like Benghazi and the IRS, frustrated me. America does not need three more years of
the Obama Administration.