I found all the clapping and standing very disruptive. It was not as bad as last year when Nancy Pelosi clapped and stood every time the President took a breath, but I still felt made the speech disjointed.

The President is a wonderful speaker but I felt the speech was lacking.

Government policy that makes it cheaper for companies to maintain a workforce in the United States? Single-payer healthcare.

Because foreign engineers from Russia, Romania, China, India, etc. who come here on worker visas will work for less. $50k is a fortune in Romania, but do you think an American engineer will be happy to make that?

We bring in so many foreign engineers in this country that the kids studying engineering in American universities can't get jobs. So a lot of kids aren't choosing engineering anymore. My husband, who is an aerospace engineer, says he would never advise a college student in the U.S. today to study engineering - our country's companies just don't want to hire American engineers anymore. Proof: it took more than 10 years for my husband to get an engineering job in aerospace, first at a government contractor, but finally at Boeing (after applying for various positions within the company over 14 years). He has engineering degrees from one of the best engineering schools (Michigan), a MBA, post-grad experience from a year study in Russia, and he's one of the smartest people I've ever met...he's seriously a genius. When he finally got to Boeing, he met all the foreign contractors he was competing with for jobs. Not only do they have less education than him, but they have no emotional investment in the company they're working for or the country they're working in. They're all here to make a tidy sum, then go back to their home countries where they can live rich and use the information and experience gained at America's largest exporter against us. It really infuriates him, and me. Same thing happens at all the technology companies.

I don't think healthcare should be connected to employers at all.

... which is how a single-payer system benefits employers.

I wasn't disagreeing, just making a statement that I think it's stupid that this country still depends on employers to supply health care.

Eta: to be clear, I believe a universal, socialized system, when done right, could be a good thing for this country.

Dey Turk yeeerr job! If you think it's bad now, just wait til immigration "reform" makes it easier for even more foreign labor to flood the market. ;)

The standing and clapping was disruptive? Every SOTU from every president always has the standing and clapping. I don't see how it's more disruptive this or last year than it ever has been.

No, they are not taking our jobs, they are coming here to be educated and then going home, because the job opportunities for PhD's in other countries are better than those here.

I agree, but I don't think we should have a single payer system either. I think employers should give health insurance vouchers and allow us to shop for our own. This would increase competition among health insurance providers and make us their REAL customers while providing them incentives to keep costs down, because we could switch if we are unhappy. Currently, their customers are the employers. Why should our employer get to choose our insurer? I want options.

I wasn't particularly moved by the speech but I did like that the seating was mixed up and that everyone seemed a lot less angry than we've seen in a long time.

Agreed. I guess I missed the part where it was particularly disruptive.

And ggforever, Pelosi was far from the most disruptive person last year, but that's a different discussion.

Agreed on your first point, although I missed most of the speech so maybe I would have been better moved if I had heard the whole thing.

And wasn't there a guy last year who screamed out "You're a liar!"?

What would be the point of the vouchers? If they were going to give you a $200/month voucher, and you purchase your own health insurance, why would that be different from them just paying you $200 more than they would have?

Blah, blah, blah investments... blah, blah blah competition. ZZZZZZ

His jokes fell flat and made me feel sorry for him. Don't think that was the intent.

Time to forget all that blather and take an ax to the budget. Let's go back to 2001 (last year the budget was in balance or had a surplus) for the budget and then go with a 10% across the board cut in all budget items and programs.

Allow those who wish to opt out of SS to do so and raise the retirement age 3 years for those who wish to remain in the program. Privatize it for those who wish to invest their own funds. Others can remain in the program as is.