9:56 PM: For running updates out of the speech, check out the latest on TPMLiveWire.
9:58 PM: Here’s the passage on counter-terrorism policy and transparency …
As we do, we must enlist our values in the fight. That is why my Administration has worked tirelessly to forge a durable legal and policy framework to guide our counterterrorism operations. Throughout, we have kept Congress fully informed of our efforts. I recognize that in our democracy, no one should just take my word that we’re doing things the right way. So, in the months ahead, I will continue to engage with Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention, and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world.
10:02 PM: And here’s the picture of Ted Nugent at the SOTU.
10:04 PM: Okay, just look at this picture of McCain, Schumer and Graham.
10:07 PM: Basic decision White House made after the election was that voting rights was critical agenda item but that Voter ID was almost hopeless from a political standpoint. The focus had to be on lines, that you shouldn’t have to wait hours in line to exercise your core right as an American.
10:11 PM: Interesting pivot making it about getting a vote. A pretty hard request to snub. Here’s the passage …
Hadiya’s parents, Nate and Cleo, are in this chamber tonight, along with more than two dozen Americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. They deserve a vote.
Gabby Giffords deserves a vote.
The families of Newtown deserve a vote.
The families of Aurora deserve a vote.
The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote.
9:33 PM: I wouldn’t say President Obama is shouting this speech. But it’s not just the words that make it a fighting speech.
9:35 PM: For a second I thought Biden was lighting up a cigarette.
9:38 PM: I was sort of surprised to see Boehner clap for the energy waste line.
9:42 PM: The White House thinks there’s potential traction with this pre-school idea because they’ve identified some of the most innovative efforts in deep red states. No accident that Oklahoma and Georgia got the name check.
9:47 PM: Still sort of amazes me that Al Franken is a senator. And he’s pretty well positioned to get a second term.
9:49 PM: The pattern of members standing just there on immigration reform confirms me in being an immigration reform skeptic. I think it’ll happen eventually. But I think it’s going to be a much tougher grind than people imagine.
9:11 PM: On the CNN lead-in to the address, there was a good example of where the top tier DC stands on the basic issues of fiscal policy and social insurance. John King said, in a seemingly unremarkable tone, that it was a given that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid need to be cut as part of any grand bargain. And possibly revenues. That outlook, which is highly questionable in policy terms, and not clearly supported by the public at large, shapes the whole Washington debate.
9:15 PM: It’s a stunning new tradition that the Republican appointees to the Supreme Court, or most of them, simply don’t show up to the State of the Union address any more. Certainly there’ve been no shows before. I don’t remember it ever being the case in the past that there were ones that followed blocs or party affiliation. Was there anything similar under Reagan or Bush II? If anybody knows, please send me email.
9:18 PM: Here’s the PDF from the White House of the policies that the President is outlining tonight.
9:19 PM: Here’s the text of the speech itself.
9:19 PM: For Prime readers, we just opened up this thread to discuss.
9:21 PM: Okay, when does the Ted Nugent freak out part happen?
9:23 PM: In pre-speech discussions, the White House put central emphasis on this hike in the minimum wage as its big policy move.
9:25 PM: Here’s the text of the portion about Medicare …
On Medicare, I’m prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission. Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs. The reforms I’m proposing go even further. We’ll reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors. We’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn’t be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital – they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive. And I am open to additional reforms from both parties, so long as they don’t violate the guarantee of a secure retirement. Our government shouldn’t make promises we cannot keep – but we must keep the promises we’ve already made.
9:27 PM: I don’t know if the House is just mic’ed differently. But the sound of grumbling or booing sounds different to me than it has in the past. Anybody else hearing it that way?
9:28 PM: “The greatest nation on Earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next.”
9:29 PM: If ‘full faith and credit’ a boo line?
9:30 PM: For the White House this is the fulcrum of the speech: “But let’s be clear: deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan. A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs – that must be the North Star that guides our efforts.”
When inviting someone to attend the President’s State of the Union address probably best not to invite someone who’s been questioned by the Secret Service for threatening the President in the previous year.
The cabin where Christopher Dorner was making his final stand has gone up in flames. Watch.
Armed Services Committee sends Hagel nomination to Senate floor on 14-11 party-line vote.
Pretty incredible audio in this live streaming video of a gun battle in Big Bear, Calif., that local media is reporting involves the manhunt for ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner.
Such a proud moment when the Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee accuses the President’s Defense nominee of being “endorsed by Iran.”