It’s a strong State of the Union tradition, particularly under President Barack Obama, to use the speech before both houses of Congress to lift up some pretty lofty progressive ideas: free community college, equal pay for women, investment in child care for working families, and more. But with Republican majorities in the House and Senate, most of these policies are at best a long shot.
Republicans took to mocking Obama’s free college proposal with Taylor Swift gifs and his spokesman dismissed it as “more like a talking point than a plan.”
For all this congressional gridlock, there are a few proposals could get real traction with the new Congress.
Trade Deals: It’s no secret that Obama has been waiting for an opportunity to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership treaties, trade deals that have united unlikely allies in Congress, from Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) to Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) in opposition. More moderate Republicans and Democrats, however, have a history of backing such deals, and Obama reportedly met with Democrats on Thursday to push the proposals among his own caucus.
Tax Reform: Though the dream of major tax reform proposals in the gleam of the eye like Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and closing corporate loopholes are unlikely to get much traction in the new Congress, but there may be some room for to smaller-scale reforms on the international front, including the idea taxing companies that bring back profits from overseas. Such an idea has gained currency on both sides of the aisle.
Infrastructure Investment: It seems clear that the days of big infrastructure investment on the level of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is nowhere to be seen, but if there’s some success in closing tax loopholes on overseas profits or other creative means of raising revenues, there may be some interest in a long-term solution for the Highway Trust Fund. This weekend, Sen. Jim Hoven (R-ND) said during an interview on C-SPAN, “I think we can get a long-term highway bill done this year, because I think if you use repatriation you have an opportunity to have those revenues to do the highway bill without raising taxes.”
Investment In Hot New Medical Treatments: One of the guests Obama invited to the State of the Union speech is Bill Elder, a 27-year-old Ohio resident who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and has been the beneficiary of a treatment called precision medicine. This type of medicine almost sounds futuristic, taking into account genetic and environmental factors to come up with a tailored medical treatment. Though few Republicans have come out in support of this type of research, recent threats of Ebola making it to U.S. shores could scare Congress into investing more into research on this front.
Apprenticeship And Job Training: One piece of the community college proposal that could have currency among Republicans is the apprenticeship and job training component, which seeks to more closely align what students learn in class to the skills major employers in the community need. The administration has already spent $2 billion on the Trade Adjustment Community College and Career Training program, which they say shows early signs of success. And Speaker John Boehner became something of a broken record touting Republican-backed jobs bills in the lead up to the midterm elections, so there’s a chance Republicans could be willing to work on expanding the program.
To be sure, the State of the Union speech will likely be viewed as more of a tool for Obama to lay out a Democrats’ vision of pushing middle-class economics — and drawing a contrast to conservative trickle-down economics — but there are a few, minor policy proposals that may actually see the light of day.