Jan 20, 2015 9 min read

Wake Up To Politics - January 20, 2015 - State Of The Union Day

To read today's edition of Wake Up To Politics in a PDF format, click here. Continue reading to find the text of the Wake Up in the body of the email!

Tuesday, January 20, 2015
663 Days Until Election Day 2016Obama SOTU proposals, Senate considers Keystone amendments, SCOTUS hears judicial campaigning case, and SOTU history: It's Tuesday, January 20, 2015, I'm Gabe Fleisher for this State of the Union edition of Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
To send me questions, comments, tips, new subscribers, and more: email me at wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com. To learn more about WUTP or subscribe, visit the site: wakeuptopolitics.com, or read my tweets and follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/Wakeup2Politics or read stories on Wake Up To Politics by clicking the media logos below.

It's one of the most exciting days of the year to be a political junkie: State of the Union Day, A day steeped in trivial traditions, and consisting of pre-analysis, live analysis, and post-analysis (a pundit's dream)! Tune in at 9 PM Eastern tonight to hear the President, and then check your inbox tomorrow for the Wake Up To Politics review of Obama's speech!
White House Watch

STATE OF THE UNION Six years ago today, President Barack Obama was sworn in as 44th President of the United States for the first time. Now as he enters the last two years of his Presidency, his sixth State of the Union address is a chance to shape what he is framing as his “fourth quarter”. As the President said last month, “My presidency is entering the fourth quarter. Interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter.”
The seventh year of the Obama Administration thus begun (at noon), here is what President Barack Obama will announce in his penultimate State of the Union address:
Trust Fund Loophole In the plan President Obama will announce in his State of the Union address (tonight at 9 PM Eastern Time), the largest capital gains tax loophole will be closed to “ensure the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share on inherited assets,” according to the White House.
Capital Gains Obama’s plan would also raise the top capital gains tax rate to 28 percent, where it was during the Reagan Administration.This will be achieved by cracking down on the “stepped-up basis,” which Politico explains here: “If you sell stock for $1 million that you bought for $100,000, you pay capital gains taxes on the $900,000 profit. But if you die, and your kid gets the stock, he or she is excused from paying taxes on the $900,000. For your child, the new starting point in calculating capital gains taxes is the $1 million, so that $900,000 escapes taxation. It’s a tax break that mostly, though not exclusively, benefits the wealthy. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it cost the Treasury about $50 billion in 2013, and 21 percent of the tax benefits went to the top 1 percent.”
EITC President Obama’s plan would also expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program to extend the child tax credit, which is expiring, and create a new credit for low-income workers without children.
Education Tax Breaks According to Politico, “The administration wants to extend the American Opportunity Tax Credit, the administration’s signature higher-education tax benefit that’s scheduled to expire at the end of 2017, while making it more valuable to low-income students.”
Bank Tax Obama also plans to levy a tax on large financial institutions, imposing a 7 basis point fee on the about 100 banks in the U.S. with over $50 billion in assets.
Summary In all, over the next decade, the Obama tax plan will raise $320 billion and cut $175 billion in taxes. Obama will do so by raising taxes for wealthy Americans, which will go towards cutting taxes for lower-income Americans and to other programs the President will announce. One of these programs will allow some students to attend a community college for two years without tuition, which the White House says will result in a lot of jobs…and a $60 billion price tag.
With this plan, President Obama is able to shape a legacy as Robin Hood: taking from the rich and giving to the poor.
For more on the Obama tax plan, watch the State of the Union tonight or read the White House fact sheet here.
For more on State of the Union history, read my column (the very last one in today’s Wake Up)
And…for fun things to do during SOTU, check out the parlor games here and here!Capitol Hill News
Senate: Status Update When the Senate meets at 10 AM today, the chamber will begin with Leader remarks, and then an hour of morning business, with Democrats controlling the first half and Republicans in control of the second.
After that hour, the upper chamber will turn to S.1, the controversial bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Before the Senate recesses at 12:30 (for weekly caucus meetings), there will be votes on amendments to the Keystone bill.
Amendments pending include one offered by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) to “ensure that oil transported through the Keystone XL pipeline into the United States is used to reduce United States dependence on Middle Eastern oil,” one offered by Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to “require the use of iron, steel, and manufactured goods produced in the United States in the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and facilities,” and one offered by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) which is a form of the energy efficiency bill the two have sponsored before and which has passed the U.S. House – but might not have much Democratic support.
Finally, at 8:30 PM, Senators will gather in the Senate chamber to proceed together to the House chamber at 8:30, before the 9 PM State of the Union.

Court Report

Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Judges Campaigning The U.S. Supreme Court today will hear oral arguments in a case questioning whether candidates running be judges can ask for money.
The questions comes from the case of Lanell Williams-Yulee, who in 2009 ran for a Hillsborough County trial court judgeship in Florida (one of 39 states where judges are elected). Williams-Yulee signed a mass-mailed letter asking for donations to her campaign, which is prohibited under Florida judicial election law, requiring requests for money come from campaign committees and not the candidate themselves.
The Florida Bar challenged William-Yulee’s letter, and the case went to the state Supreme Court , which fined her $1,860 and gave her a public reprimand.
Since, 10 courts – six federal circuit courts and four state court – have ruled in the case, and come up with split decisions, which is how the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lanell Williams-Yulee asked for just $25 to $500, low by modern standards, and not a single recipient of the letter gave money. Williams-Yulee was defeated in the election, and has not spent a day serving on a judicial bench. Yet, she is the face of this case which asks questions rooted in the Surpreme Court’s 2020 Citizens United case: if money is First Amendment speech, then why can’t judicial candidates ask for it?

"He Shall from Time to Time"

Tonight, as President Obama delivers a report on the State of the Union, he fulfills a requirement enshrined in the Constitution itself. “He shall from time to time,” Article II, Section 3 reads, “give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
The State of the Union address has been going on for so long, many customs and traditions have grown around it. The timing, guests, mediums…everything is choreographed. But how did each little tradition begin? Let’s find out:
Delivery President George Washington delivered the first “annual message” to a joint session of Congress in January 1790. Washington would go on to deliver seven more addresses to a joint session, in the same fashion President Obama will do so later tonight. John Adams would follow this precedent in his four annual messages, as well. But in December 1801, instead of appearing before Congress to read his annual message, President Thomas Jefferson had a clerk read his message to legislators. Jefferson believed the Washington/Adams style that had so far been in use was too similar to a monarch’s “Speech from the Throne,” and discontinued the precedent. Jefferson’s style would continue in use for over a century, until President Woodrow Wilson in 1913 returned to the initial delivery. Since 1913, Presidents have gone before Congress to read their messages in person – with just 13 exceptions in the past century. The last President to send a written address was Jimmy Carter in 1981.
Name From its emergence, the speech was referred to as “the President’s Annual Message to Congress,” until President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the constitutional language in 1934, referring to the address as the “State of the Union”. By 1947, it was in common use.
Date The “State of the Union” was usually delivered in December, until the 20^th Amendment (ratified in 1933) changed the new terms of members of Congress to begin in January. Since 1934, the speech has been delivered at the beginning of the new year – in January or February.
Timing While the address was originally delivered during the day, in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson changed the timing of the speech from day to night. This was an attempt to address the American people , as well as Congress, and since then, Presidents have followed suit. The speech is normally delivered at 9 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Designated Survivor In recent years, a State of the Union parlor game for Washington insiders has been watching the audience to find out who the “designated survivor” is. A practice going back to at least the 1960s, when fears of a nuclear war were high, the designated survivor is the one Cabinet member asked not to attend the State of the Union.
During the State of the Union, it would be easy for a terrorist to drop a bomb on the Capitol and wipe out the whole line of succession gathered there, wreaking havoc in America. To fix that, the Secret Service picks one Cabinet secretary who stays at an undisclosed location with top Presidential protection. That is who becomes Commander-in-Chief if tragedy strikes.
Secretary of Energy Ernest Moinz was “designated survivor” in 2014; the actual identity of the potential next President is not disclosed until during the speech, for security reasons.
“Lenny Skutniks” In 1982, President Ronald Reagan established a new tradition – asking special guests to join the First Lady at her House chamber viewing box during the State of the Union. These guests are often called “Lenny Skutnik’s” – since that was the name of the first guest asked to join the First Lady, a Congressional Budget Office employee who dived into the icy Potomac to save a woman whose airplane had crashed.
Since then, Presidents have invited individuals who exemplify a message or theme from their speech, and often point the guests out during his address.
This year, individuals who will join Michelle Obama in the First Lady’s box include Dr. Jill Biden, the Second Lady (whose husband Vice President Joe Biden will join House Speaker John Boehner at the dais behind President Barack Obama); White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett; 13-year-old Malik Bryant of Chicago, who wrote a letter to ask Santa for “safety”; community college student Chelsey Davis; medical school student and cystic fibrosis patient William Elder, Jr.; construction worker LeDaya Epps; Rebekah Erler, who wrote the President on her economic situation; Victor Fugate, a health care worker who wrote the President; retired Army Staff Sergeant Jason Gibson, a wounded warrior and writer to the President; Alan Gross, the U.S. government contractor who was recently released after being jailed in Cuba after 5 years, and his wife Judy Gross; sea level rise researcher Nicole Hernandez Hammer; astronaut Scott Kelly; “Reach Higher” imitative student Anthony Mendez; CVS Health President and CEO Larry Merlo; Katrice Mubiru, a teacher who wrote the President; letter writer Astrid Muhammad; U.S. Digital Service employee Kathy Pham; Maryland Senate Majority Leader Catherine Pugh; small business owner Carolyn Reed, who wrote the President; Dr. Pranav Shetty, who has fought Ebola in Liberia; Los Angeles Police Captain Phillip Tingirides; Watts United Weekend co-founder Prophet Walker; Michigan mom Tiairris Woodard; DREAMer and letter writer Ana Zamora.
Opposition Response Immediately after the President’s State of the Union, it is traditional that a member of the opposition party – the one out of the White House – broadcast a rebuttal to the speech. The responder is always a Governor or member of Congress – and in recent times, always delivers the response alone. Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-IL) and then-Rep. Gerald Ford (R-MI) delivered the first opposition response in 1966.
This year’s official opposition response will come from freshman Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, who took office just over two weeks ago. The Republican Party will also have freshman Rep. Carlos Curbelo (FL), a supporter of House GOP leadership-opposed immigration reform, give the Spanish response
This year, though, the responses won’t stop at the official GOP one. Or the official GOP Spanish response. Since 2011, conservative PAC Tea Party Express has sponsored a “Tea Party response” to the State of the Union. Florida Rep. Curt Clawson, another freshman legislator, will deliver the Tea Party response immediately after Ernst’s.