WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour and warned he will use executive powers to get his way on issues from climate change to manufacturing if Congress does not act, laying out an assertive second-term agenda sure to provoke Republicans.
In the first State of the Union address since winning re- election, Obama proposed making preschool available to all 4- year-olds, negotiating a new trade agreement with the European Union and spending $50 billion on urgent infrastructure projects. He lauded steps by companies including Apple Inc. and Ford Motor Co. to bring jobs back to the US.
"It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation," Obama said in the text of the speech delivered to a joint session of Congress.
Obama spoke as he and congressional Republicans are at loggerheads in negotiations to head off $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to begin taking effect on March 1. He is also in a political struggle over the government's role in addressing economic inequality, a central theme of his re-election campaign and his inaugural address.
"The country's unfinished task is assuring that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few," Obama said in the speech text.
The address signals Obama's plans to move quickly in his second term to use his political capital after last Novembers re-election by challenging the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives to schedule votes on his agenda. It also illustrates his decision to test the limits of his executive powers to push ahead on his priorities without the House or even the Democratic Senate majority.
Obama said his proposals would not add a single dime to the deficit. He repeated his demand that Republicans accept raising tax revenue along with spending cuts as part of any balanced approach to his goal of $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reduction over a decade.
Starting Thursday the president will hit the road for events in North Carolina, Georgia and Illinois aimed at promoting his agenda.
While he focused on economic appeals to middle-income Americans, Obama also touched on domestic initiatives on immigration and gun control and on foreign policy.
He described turning away from more than a decade of war with the withdrawal of 34,000 US troops from Afghanistan this year, cutting the American force there by about half.
He also talked about his targeted approach to fighting terrorists. While Obama did not mention the use of remotely piloted drone aircraft, he said the U.S. will continue a policy of direct action to kill terrorists, including U.S. citizens when warranted.
Raising the hourly federal minimum wage to $9 from $7.25 by the end of 2015 would return it to its highest inflation- adjusted value since 1981, under President Ronald Reagan, according to a White House fact sheet.
Such an increase, affecting an estimated 15 million people, would require approval by Congress. Republican lawmakers have repeatedly criticized such proposals, saying a higher minimum wage would throw lower-paid employees out of work because of the cost to businesses.
While the U.S. pulled out of its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression after Obama took office, unemployment has remained high and the ranks of jobless workers has cut employees leverage to gain wage increases.
Declining Incomes
Real median household income declined to $51,088 in December 2012 from $55,012 when he took office in January 2009, according to an analysis of census data by Sentier Research, an economic-consulting firm in Annapolis, Maryland.
Real average weekly earnings showed no gain for the year ended in December, and the unemployment rate in January rose 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent the month before.
A report showing the economy unexpectedly shrank by 0.1 percent during the final three months of last year raised fresh concerns about the strength of the U.S. recovery.