I had the distinct honor of watching President Obama deliver the State of the Union Address in the House Chamber. It was my first State of the Union as a Member of Congress, where I proudly represent the 15th Congressional District of California. We have big challenges in front of us, but while watching the President with my congressional colleagues I was reminded of our nation’s ability to come together and do big things to move our country forward.
President Obama’s speech laid out a strong agenda that will grow our economy and create jobs – my foremost priority as a Congressman. I was pleased by the President’s unequivocal support for clean energy – an investment I believe will help our economy and our environment. I also agree that we must bring down the deficit in a balanced way, so not to shoulder middle class families, students and seniors with the burden of deficit reduction.
There were many memorable moments from the speech, but one that will always stick with me is President Obama’s impassioned words about gun violence. It was especially moving to hear these words while in the same room as many gun violence victims, including former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
As a prosecutor, I saw too often the impact of gun violence on our communities, and tragic mass shootings from Newtown to Aurora show that we cannot wait any longer to act. We must enact commonsense gun violence prevention measures such as 100 percent background checks when purchasing a rifle and banning access to military-style assault rifles – a law already on the books in California.
One view that is clearly bipartisan is the need for immigration reform – both Democrats and Republican Members were applauding the President’s remarks about fixing our broken immigration system. Immigration reform should include allowing high-skilled foreigners educated at American universities to stay in the U.S. and contribute to our economy rather than competing against us. It also must feature a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers already living in the country.
We cannot do this alone. We need to come together in a bipartisan way to grow the economy and move forward as a country. That is why I arranged to sit next to Congressman David Valadao (R-CA) at the State of the Union as a demonstration of bipartisanship. While there may be policy differences, we can only accomplish big things when we work together.
It is a privilege to represent the 15th district and was a fantastic experience to be on the floor for the first time during a State of the Union Address. I look forward to following-through on the agenda the President laid out during the speech to keep moving America and our economy forward.
You may want to curtail the fluff pieces you and or your PR staff leave around here, because they could be used by your opposition in the next election as to why you should be unseated. This article, about your first State Of The Union Speech up close and personal, will wind up on somebody's mockup of a Baby Book called "Baby's First Congressional Term" and will be mailed out to all the voters in the district and give us voters, especially out here in Livermore if we have not been gerrymandered back out of this district and put into another toxic race in San Joaquin or Contra Costa counties, a good reason to vote for somebody else to represent them. All this article does is show that the bulk of the voters whose votes were counted wound up being cast for a neophyte and that perhaps we needed to keep the incumbent in a little longer until somebody with more experience than a Dublin City Council member and Assistant Alameda County District Attorney who wasn't even old enough to be the median age of his constituents, which is 34, by the way, and that's if the entire county was considered, CD-15's median age is probably even older given that LIvermore, Pleasanton, Dublin and Fremont do have even older median ages to their populations. And if "Baby's First Congressional Term" is done just right, it will make the "Greetings From Maryland" postcard mockup mailed in the last campaign look cheap and amateurish in comparison, like this fluff piece.
Way to sac up & leave your real name. You are an ass. Agree or disagree, like or don't like, the Reprentative is a Representative and your Reprsentative and you should show some respect.
For all we know, "Drew" may refer to Drew Barrymore, the actress ("ooh-la-la!"), or "Drew Sharp", the fictional character from 'Breaking Bad' in Season 5, the McKinley County kid that goes missing when he sees what he isn't supposed to see and gets killed in the process while his body, the motorcycle he was riding and the tarantula in the jar he had with him, go missing and spur a search throughout northwestern New Mexico looking for him. Your protests ring hollow and come off as contradictory in my eyes. And name-calling is only going to get one scorn from me, because all it tells me is that perhaps I am not dealing with a mature and rational human being, but somebody out there who wants to bring on the vitriol in the hopes that I would "take the bait". Hopefully you understand and if you don't, please follow your own advice and show the rest of us that you have some respect for others out there that express their opinions, regardless of what name they use for posting here. Hopefully you can take what I have said here to heart and perhaps learn from it and maybe even grow as a person, or become a better person in the process.
Let me guess public sector worker sucking off the productive people in society? Or are you even capable of working? Go back under the rock from which you came and stay there. Maybe you and Swalwell can go stroke each other some evening....
Tool Much?
always.