Having vowed not to fade into the background in the final year of his eight-year tenure that he enters next week, President Barack Obama is set to deliver what will be his last State of the Union address on January 12.
White House officials have already indicated that Obama will be delivering a “non-traditional” speech to the American people that focuses on his vision for the country, instead of the usual long list of legislative priorities.
As Obama himself asserted at his recent year-end news conference before embarking on a fortnight-long Hawaiian vacation, he proposes to
use all the opportunities in 2016 to focus on the “unfinished business”.
Following it up with an email to his supporters through the “Obama for America” network over the weekend, he said: “I’ve got 12 months left to squeeze every ounce of change I can while I’m still in office. And that’s what I intend to do.”
Officials have indicated the possibility of executive actions to tighten gun laws in the face of non-cooperation from the Republican-controlled Congress, which has effectively stymied his omnibus immigration reform plan as well.
Analysts believe Obama, in his final year, will really be tested on his response to the mounting ISIS challenge in the wake of the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California by individuals pledging allegiance to the terrorist formation.
In his email, Obama has catalogued “a lot of remarkable things” achieved this year, notably creation of jobs and rising economic growth, spreading healthcare insurance coverage, the Iran nuclear deal and the global accord on climate change.
“When we took office, we were losing nearly 750,000 jobs a month. But over the last 69 months, our businesses have created more than 13.7 million new jobs -- the longest streak of private-sector job growth on record -- and the unemployment rate is down to 5 per cent,” Obama noted.
As he put it, more than 90 per cent of Americans are now covered for the first time under health insurance, with more than 17 million people gaining coverage under Obamacare.