President Barack Obama has pledged in his annual State of the Union speech to revive the sluggish U.S. economy by creating "good, middle-class jobs."
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| President Obama delivers his annual State of the Union speech |
He also called for efforts to reduce gun violence and urged bipartisan immigration reform.
In the Republican response, Senator Marco Rubio urged Mr Obama to end his "obsession" with raising taxes.
'North Star'
Barack Obama delivers the 2013 State of the Union address Mr Obama argued that "we can not just cut our way to prosperity"
Speaking in the House of Representatives, Mr Obama told his audience that his generation's task is "to reignite the true engine of America's economic growth - a rising, thriving middle class".
Delivering growth and jobs will be the "North Star that guides our efforts," he added.
But he INSISTED that nothing he proposes will raise the deficit "by a single dime."
Republicans are strongly opposed to Increased government spending, amid a rancorous political divide over how to tame the U.S. budget deficit.
Mr Obama proposed reforms to reduce the cost of Medicare, a federal healthcare program for pensioners, but argued "we can not just cut our way to prosperity".
In his speech, Mr Obama also called for federal investment in infrastructure, clean energy and education.
People on either side of the gun control debate, roomates flared up again after December's school massacre in Connecticut, watched the president speak from the gallery.
First Lady Michelle Obama sat with the parents of a Chicago teenage band Majorette shot and killed just days after performing at last month's presidential inauguration.
Mr Obama said an "overwhelming" majority of Americans supported "commonsense reforms" on firearms Including background checks and tighter restrictions on "weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines".
And he urged gun-control opponents to allow a vote in Congress on his proposals.
"The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence - they deserve a simple vote," he said.
Conservative divisions
In addition, Mr. Obama Announced the withdrawal of U.S. Troops from 34.000 Afghanistan by next year.
Less than a day after North Korea tested a nuclear device, Mr Obama said the U.S. will "lead the world in taking firm action in response to these threats".
He praised the bipartisan efforts to draw up an immigration reform bill, adding that if he is sent legislation, "I will sign it right away".
Mr Obama will take to the road in the coming days to push his economic recovery proposals, stopping in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Georgia and in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois.
Mon Rubio, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016, delivered his party's official riposte.
In it, he attacked Mr Obama's economic policies and said "more government is not going to help you get ahead, it's going to hold you back".
The Cuban-American senator, who also made his address in Spanish, Referred to the pain felt by residents of the working-class neighborhood he grew up in roomates.
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