Tonight, President Obama will deliver his sixth State of the Union address, which he’s hinted will focus squarely on proposals to address worsening economic inequality. Along with nearly every member of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Cabinet, a handful of special guests will be attending the event, and in keeping with a decades-long practice, their presence will be used to make — or score — political points.
Students, students, students
Students are a popular choice for State of the Union guests. Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) is bringing a technical college student from her district to highlight her new bill to support STEM education. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, (R-OH) invited a Cincinnati college student majoring in government and public policy.
President Obama’s guest list includes Ana Zamora, a senior at Northwood University in Texas. Zamora is an undocumented DREAMer who has lived in the US since age one, and was granted relief from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allowed her to work and attend school. Because Zamora has siblings who are U.S. citizens, her parents are potentially eligible for the new Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program announced by the President last November.
Another student on the President’s guest roster is Chelsey Davis from Knoxville, Tennessee, who has participated in the state’s free community college model that President Obama has proposed implementing nationwide.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is bringing a student from Columbia University who has become one of the most visible crusaders for justice for survivors of rape and sexual assault on the nation’s college campuses. For months, senior Emma Sulkowicz has carried her dorm mattress everywhere she goes — both as a performance art piece she calls Carry That Weight and as a protest against the Columbia Administration’s decision not to take action against the student she says raped her on that very mattress. Sulkowicz has inspired solidarity actions at Columbia and colleges around the country, and Senator Gillibrand will highlight her story when she calls for a vote on her Campus Accountability & Safety Act. The bill will push schools to offer survivors better services and resources, and impose stiffer penalties on campuses that fail to address the epidemic of sexual assault.
Cuba vs. Cuba
The group sitting with First Lady Michelle Obama tonight will include USAID contractor Alan Gross, who was released just weeks ago from five years of captivity in Cuba. His release back to the US was a major piece of the beginning of a new era in US-Cuba relations, which will include increased travel, trade and diplomacy. Gross openly supports President Obama’s efforts to normalize relations and chip away at the 50 year embargo, and his invitation to the State of the Union signals that Obama will urge reluctant lawmakers to get on board with the plan.
But Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) — who adamantly opposes the President’s shift on Cuba — is also bringing a guest to back up his views. Rubio has invited Rosa María Payá, daughter of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, who died in a car crash in 2012 that his daughter, Rubio and others claim was caused by the Castro regime.
Rubio’s press release noted that he will work to block policies that give Cuba “greater access to American dollars it will use to fund its machine of repression” and said of his State of the Union guest, “Her father’s murderers have not been brought to justice, and the U.S. is now, in fact, sitting at the table with them.”
Obamacare vs. The Affordable Care Act
If the avalanche of lawsuits, threats of repeal, and efforts to “fix” Obamacare weren’t enough, one need only look to the roster of State of Union guests to know the battle over the President’s health care reform law is far from over.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will be bringing Maineville, Ohio businessman Fritz Borke to the Capitol tonight. Borke, who specializes in plastics moulding, supports Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act even though his business is exempt from any changes and is allowed to keep its existing health plan.
President Obama’s guest list, unsurprisingly, is heavily weighted with Americans who have benefited from the Affordable Care Act.
Among them is Astrid Muhammad from Charlotte, North Carolina, who was previously denied insurance because of a brain tumor considered a preexisting condition. In August of this year, after gaining insurance through the new federal marketplace, she had the tumor removed. She wrote to the President to thank him, noting that her doctor said without surgery the tumor could have turned fatal in just two years. Another guest, Victor Fugate of Kansas City, MO, was able to get insurance through the federal exchange after he was laid off from his job as a financial counselor. Carolyn Reed, the owner of Denver, Colorado’s Silver Mine Subs sandwich shop, is an enthusiastic participant in her state health care exchange.