Pictured are United States President Donald Trump (wearing blue tie), Ohio State Representative Bill Patmon, Ohio Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (wearing red suit jacket) and Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-WASHINGTON, D.C.- United States President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address before a joint chamber of congress Tuesday night, his first since taking office last year amid a politically divided country on issues ranging from healthcare to tax reform, scientific research, public education, homeland security and women's and Civil Rights.
While he ignored education, scientific research, Civil Rights, and the growing women's rights and MeToo movements that have drawn nationwide protests at a historic level, the president touched on several of the aforementioned, in addition to other public policy matters, including terrorism, infrastructure reform, and immigration, the latter of which was a focus of his speech, and the impetus, in part, for the temporary government shut down.
His performance as to the nearly hour and a half long address was lackluster, said political pundits, particularly in comparison to the ultra- articulate Barack Obama, Trump's predecessor and the nation's first Black president.
CNN reports that less than half of people who watched it have favorable views, the worst rating of a presidential State of the Union address in 20 years.
Experts and critics quickly took to the airways and to social media, and deemed much of the president's speech orchestrated "lies."
"Together we are building a safe, strong and proud America," said Trump, a Republican and billionaire businessman and reality television star turned president who edged Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state and the Democratic nominee, in a heated presidential election in 2016.
The president annoyed some Black leaders during his speech when he erroneously took credit for lower unemployment rates in recent years in the African- American and Hispanic communities, which were due largely to policies initiated by the Obama administration.
And he angered them further, and others, when he lobbied against what he calls chain migration, immigrants having green card leeway under the law to bring distant relatives to America with them..
"We were the only people who came to America in chains," said state Rep Bill Patmon (D-10), a Cleveland Democrat and former city councilman who is Black and ran unsuccessfully for mayor last year. "And the unemployment rate in the Black community is still below par."
According to research by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate nationally is at 4.7 % and for Blacks it dropped to 6.8% in December, the lowest since the government began tracking the figure in 1972.
It peaked for Blacks at 16.8% in 1984 and has declined about a percentage point over the last eight years, and after Obama took office in 2009.
The unemployment rate for Latinos is at a low of 4.8 %, which was reached also in 2006 and 2007.
"The unemployment rate in inner cities is as high as 40 percent in some instances, and reducing that by a few points is not nearly enough," said state Representative Patmon. "They need to do more to train and fully employ young Black men in particular."
Trump emphasized his initiative for immigration reform and urged bipartisan support of the Republican sponsored bill, a four- tiered legislative proposal that gives some 1.8 million undocumented immigrants potential relief over a possible 12-year period, and that calls for the securing of the border via 'a wall,' and for vague requirements to gain citizenship such as moral character. The fourth prong of the bill creates more stringent standards for getting green cards.
Four of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices were in attendance, namely Chief Justice John Robers, Elena Kagan, whom Obama appointed and one of three women on the bench, and Stephen Bryer, and Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee who won confirmation amid opposition from liberal groups and most of the congressional Democrats.
The president pushed for infrastructure reform, complimented himself as to congressional passage of the VA Accountability Act, and said jobs have become increasingly more available to Americans since he took office.
And he addressed the opioid crisis, a nationwide epidemic that has dogged Ohio in recent years, among other states.
He said he wants to bridge the partisan divide, an unlikely agenda, whether sincere or not, given his stances on issues such as healthcare, and immigration and tax reform, stances that his critics, largely Democrats, say are racist, and detrimental to the nation's most vulnerable people.
The president's claims of nationwide tax relief across the board since congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December have been dismissed as disingenuous by congressional Democrats, all of whom, at least in the House of Representatives, voted against the controversial bill that is now federal law.
Opponents of the new tax law, including Democratic Congresswomen Marcia Fudge and Marcy Kaptur, whose constituents include Clevelanders, say poor people, seniors on fixed-incomes, minorities and other disenfranchised groups do not benefit, and that the bill was passed on the backs of the middle class and working poor.
“Despite what Republicans claim, trickle-down economics doesn’t work," said Congresswoman Fudge, one of two Blacks from Ohio in congress, the other of whom is U.S, Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Columbus Democrat
A Warrensville Heights Democrat who represents Ohio's majority Black 11th congressional district, which includes Cleveland. and several of its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, and a largely Black pocket of Akron and staggering suburbs of Summit County, Rep. Fudge said the tax cuts referenced by Trump in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday benefit the wealthy.
"History has proven that tax cuts for the wealthy add to our nation’s deficit, they do not decrease the debt or create jobs," said Fudge.
Republicans control both chambers of congress and the White House.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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