President Obama gave his first State of the Union address to both houses of Congress and selected guests last week. Obama has been in office for just more than a year. While he has done a commendable job to stabilize our nation, grow our economy, provide for our security, improve our health, and build on our foundations for long-term prosperity, there is still much work to be done.

Taking a signal from the voters in Massachusetts, President Obama highlighted a refocused agenda on economic strength, job growth, long-term stability and new prosperity.

As a first order of business, Obama called on Congress tonight to pass a robust jobs bill aimed at jumpstarting the private sector with investments in small businesses; green jobs and clean energy; roads, bridges, rail, and port projects; and other policies aimed at increasing exports of American made products. The focus on jobs will be crucial for the President and the country as record unemployment continues to put a heavy strain on the American middle class.

The President also called on Congress to enact financial reforms and to finally create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency that he has been pushing for over the past 6 months. Obama believes that we must protect average Americans from predatory lending practices, bait and switch financing, and the power of the large banks on Wall Street in order to ensure that the financial crisis we have experienced does not reoccur.

During his address, the President asked both Democrats and Republicans to continue working on health care reform in order to deal with continuously rising premiums, and to alleviate Americans' struggles to afford even the most basic health services. A healthy America is a strong America.

Domestically, Obama called on Congress to pass education and energy reforms to ensure that America is powered by clean energy and that our students are prepared for the unique challenges of the future.

On foreign policy, the President discussed his administration’s plans to continue work that ensures the security of America. He discussed that we are in the midst of two wars, have a new plan in Afghanistan and thousands of troops are still fighting abroad for our freedom at home. He also mentioned the country's recent efforts to help aid those suffering in Haiti.

The President also addressed a fiscal deficit, a growing concern among voters. He implemented a freeze on all discretionary spending, which will not impact entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or the Department of Defense's budget, but it will limit how much his administration spends on education, agriculture, and other programs. This will reduce the deficit by about $250 billion over 10 years, and many of his other policies will eventually have deficit benefits as well, such as health care reform, which, if passed, could significantly reduce our deficit.

Lastly, the President stressed that our work is not yet done. Change does not come easy, nor does it come quickly. The America that President Obama inherited when he took office was on the brink of complete financial collapse. His policies have saved millions of jobs - many of them union jobs - and have brought stability to the banking system.

During the next three years of his administration, Obama said that he intends to rebuild the economic security that has historically been at the core of American prosperity. Small businesses need to be bolstered so that they can grow and create new jobs, education needs to be affordable and accessible for all Americans, health care needs to be a right and not a luxury, and the system needs to work for the people instead of for corporations and wealthy special interests.