The State Of The Union Address--From The Oregon AFL-CIO

A great statement from the Oregon AFL-CIO:

President Barack Obama will address the nation at 9:00pm on Tuesday. As we sit down to hear the 44th President of the United States we can assume that jobs and the economy will be at the heart of his address. And rightly so.

But it's time for the President to send a message to America that he might too easily miss: that our elected officials have our back.

President Obama has appealed to the wealthy through many of his policies, such as getting the banks and investors back on their feet and prolonging tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans. The time has come for President Obama to appeal to those whose work keeps our nation running: the dwindling middle class. The time has come to assure the unemployed that jobs are around the corner. Retirees need assurance that their hard work was not in vain, and that Social Security is indeed secure.

And it's time to send a message to Congress and Federal agencies that their priority must be rebuilding the middle class via policies which protect high-wage jobs, a strong dependable safety net and an economy that values work and the workers.

We hope that on Tuesday President Obama remembers the people who work in the jobs companies create, and not just the companies that benefit from our hard work.