Portside

'Well, I do agree that the unfinished task is to make sure that people who work hard and take care of their responsibilities can get ahead, but he has not—and neither has anyone in Congress—laid out how we’re going to get there. The big problem—the biggest problem facing the country still is employment: too many people out of work and too many people underemployed. Now, the president touched on some of the things that we need to do. We need to rebuild infrastructure, invest in research and development. He talked about some things related to climate change, you know, weatherizing buildings from coast to coast, which would put lower-income people to work. But all of those things cost money. And he also emphasized in his speech that nothing that he’s proposing will add even a dime to the budget deficits. So, one part of the speech is fighting another, so I don’t know how we make headway here, if we’re not going to make investments in those things that ultimately will put people back to work.'