President Bush gave the annual State of the Union address on Jan. 20. The speech was a combination of showing the things Bush has achieved in the past year, as well as a proposal of plans for the next year – and beyond.
Bush’s speech focused on the War on Terror, the economy, and affordable healthcare. The President also used the occasion to introduce several new plans, including ones for job-training, public education, and counterterrorism actions.
One such proposal was a four-year, $300 million Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative, designed to help recently released prisoners obtain job training, housing, and mentoring.
These programs could push America towards the $500 billion deficit mark. Bush’s 2005 budget will be released Feb. 2.
In his speech, Bush also asked Congress to renew pieces of the U.S. Patriot Act and to double funds for abstinence education.
A federal judge in California has since ruled that parts of the Patriot Act are unconstitutional. “The judge’s ruling said the law, as written, does not differentiate between impermissible advice on violence and encouraging the use of peaceful, nonviolent means to achieve goals,” cnn.com reports.
Perhaps what will turn out to be the most controversial part of the speech was when Bush said, “our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.”
“If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process,” he said.
Bush praised President Clinton’s Defense of Marriage act, signed in 1996, which says that one state cannot define marriage for another state. In addition, the act describes marriage as “a union between a man and a woman,” Bush said.
The president stopped just short of actually endorsing a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.
Reactions to Bush’s speech were varied.
“You can tell from listening to the State of the Union message … that the President is facing re-election. I wish he’d face reality,” Sen. John Kerry told CNN.
“President Bush’s State of the Union address was not what I was expecting at all,” sophomore Alice Simpkins said. “He talked about new plans that are going to cost billions and billions of dollars. “The U.S. is in enough debt as it is. The U.S. needs to move towards change, but … not by digging ourselves deeper and deeper into debt.”
Senior Brian Pearson disagreed. “He didn’t say anything ground-shaking. He just recapped everything he thinks he’s done well, in the sense of homeland security and the intelligence agencies. It wasn’t a bad speech.”
“I thought this speech ranked among the best I’ve ever been privileged to hear in that chamber,” Senator John Warner (R) of Virginia told CNN.A transcript of the President’s Speech is available online at http://www.cnn.com

A recording of the 54-minute speech can be viewed at http://www.c-span.org