Obama warns he will bypass Congress to tackle inequality

President Barack Obama has promised to make 2014 a "year of action" warning Congress that he would sidestep the rifts paralysing US politics by acting without legislation to tackle economic inequality.

With his popularity languishing around George W Bush levels and his legacy at stake, Mr Obama used his fifth annual State of the Union address to try to reboot his presidency, mapping out a plan to bypass Congress to achieve goals that include improving economic opportunity and upward mobility in American society.

Swapping the ambitious wish-list of last year’s address for attainable goals this year, a more pragmatic American president warned a hostile Republican opposition with control of the House of Representatives and blocking power in the Senate that he would act without them where possible.

“What I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class,” he said.

“Some require congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Mr Obama’s “with or without Congress” approach will do little to soothe relations with Republicans. House Speaker John Boehner said the party would ensure he did not exceed his authority by his use of executive orders.

During a 65-minute televised address, the president called for the restoration of the promise that if you can work hard, there can be opportunity, saying this was “the defining project of our generation.”

He referred to General Motors chief executive Mary Barra, one of his invited guests in the House chamber during his speech, to illustrate that promise, showing how the daughter of a factory worker could become chief executive of America’s biggest car manufacturer.

Mr Obama said that he would direct US government contract workers to be paid a minimum hourly wage of $10.10 (€7.39) in future and create a new savings bond for workers to build retirement nest eggs.

Despite his plea falling on deaf ears in Congress last year, the president again called for the national minimum wage to be raised to $10.10 from $7.25 an hour.

“Give America a raise,” he told US lawmakers.

He called for free pre-school education and more equal opportunities for women in the workplace, saying that it was “time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a ‘Mad Men’ episode.”

The president urged Congress to restore unemployment benefits that recently lapsed for 1.6 million Americans and asked Republicans to drop their opposition to his signature healthcare legislation.

“Now I do not expect to convince my Republican friends on the merits of this law,” he said, to laughter, referring to his divisive legislation that last year led to the first government shutdown in 17 years.

“But I know that the American people are not interested in refighting old battles.”

He appealed to Congress to “fix our broken immigration system,” a call that elicited a warmer response this year from the opposition.

Republicans in the House appear to be moving closer to a bill that would give legal status if not citizenship to 11 million illegal immigrants, including tens of thousands of Irish.

Following humiliating defeats on his proposals last year, Mr Obama virtually glossed over gun control compared with how passionately he pushed the issue in his 2013 address a month after the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut.

On foreign policy, Mr Obama said he would veto any bill from Congress introducing new sanctions on Iran that would derail negotiations aimed at halting Tehran's nuclear programme.

“For the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance,” he said.

Mr Obama said that as the Afghan war ends “this needs to be the year” that Congress lifts restrictions on prisoner transfers out of Guantanamo and closes the US military prison.

The most high profile speech in Mr Obama’s calendar, coming in this year at more than 7,000 words, generated the traditional pomp that accompanies one of the president’s two official scheduled trips to the US Capitol every year. (The other is for the House Speaker’s annual St Patrick’s Day lunch.)

The address was punctuated by almost 100 rounds of applause and multiple standing ovations, the most prolonged for Cory Rembsurg, an army sergeant who learned to walk again after being wounded by a bomb in Afghanistan.

He sat next to US First Lady Michelle Obama during the president's speech.