State of The Union: Not that Great

This is What Young People Really Want to Hear During Trump’s 2018 State of the Union

On January 30, President Donald Trump will deliver his State of the Union address. The SOTU is historically when a President reviews the past year’s accomplishments, but as this is his first address, it will undoubtedly be a platform for the president to lay out his vision for the future — which is of course our future. We know the SOTU isn’t usually must-see TV for many young Americans, but like past State of the Unions, there is a great likelihood that the president will offer up a bunch of ideas that could have a real impact on the lives of young people. And, as Trump seems to have an opinion on almost everything (at least over Twitter), we want to hear what he’s going to say to, and about, our generation. He hasn’t been scoring any points with young people lately — in the fall of 2017, Harvard’s Institute of Politics put out a poll that showed President Trump’s approval rating at just 25% among Americans age 18–29, with two-thirds of youth “fearful about America’s future.”

As soon as the president leaves the SOTU podium, news analysts, political operatives, and anyone/everyone with a Twitter handle will be digging into and analyzing what plans he has — or has not — announced for the country.

We are determined to have our voices heard through all the clutter.

On Student Debt and the Cost of Higher Education

44 million Americans hold more than $1.4 trillion in student loan debt. The issue is simple: college costs too much.

It’s been a scary year for higher education policy. Before reconciliation, in the proposed House version of the tax bill, student loan interest deduction and tax free waivers were on the chopping block. Twelve million people rely on this deduction to make their student loans more affordable and hundreds of thousands of graduate students almost saw their tax bill increase by four hundred percent.

We want to hear the president’s plans to:

• Invest in the future by funding primary education, vocational schools and workforce readiness programs.
• Provide borrowers with better repayment plan options including opportunities to refinance their student loan debt.
• Reign in the exploding costs of higher education. Better yet, eliminate those costs.

On Political Equality

Like education, politics shouldn’t only be for those who can afford it. Remember when President Trump ran his campaign on the idea of “draining the swamp” and fixing the rigged system of politics? We agree with him that by any measure, we are not working with a fair political system.

In 2016, corporations and other special interest groups spent more than $3 billion lobbying federal government officials with an army of more than 11,000 registered lobbyists. It is estimated that 6,000 lobbyists worked on the recent Trump tax bill.

We’re hard at work on our own young person’s lobby to elevate these important issues, but in the meantime, we want to hear the president’s plans to:

• Level the playing field by reigning in the influence of money in politics. Limit outside spending on campaigns. What if we mandated that representatives spend the same amount of time working with lobbyists and fundraising as they spend talking to constituents?
• Ensure fair elections by cracking down on voter suppression, stopping partisan gerrymandering immediately, and keeping the voter registration act intact. Make sure that the ballot box is accessible to everyone who wants to vote.

On Criminal Justice

The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population, yet 25% of its prisoners. This type of backwards criminal justice system is destroying communities, especially communities of color where one in four black men will serve time during their lifetimes. Our jail and prison system costs us an insane amount of money. In Los Angeles, a new $3.5 billion jail was recently proposed. That money should not be spent not on a jail, but invested back into communities to create opportunity.. Not to mention, far too many young people are being sent to jail for non-violent drug offenses like marijuana possession. Not only is incarcerating non-violent drug offenders wrong, it’s a financial drain on the state.

We want to hear the president’s plans to:

• Reform our criminal justice system by moving away from antiquated bail policies that favor the wealthy, and that criminalize non-violent drug offenders.
• Invest in communities and harm reduction strategies that will reduce crime.
• Defend DACA! The roughly 800,000 undocumented young adults who are now in legal limbo are our friends, classmates, our co-workers.This is their country, too.
• Dedicate significant resources to dealing with the destructive opioid crisis.

On The Environment

The planet matters to us, because it’s the only one we’ve got. We’re young so we’re going to have to live here for a while — and we’ll continue to need basic things like clean food to eat, clean air to breathe, and clean water to drink.

Association of Young Americans member Amanda L., from Florida, put it best in her note to her FL Senators Marco Rubio (R) and Bill Nelson (D) when she said, “From water quality testing programs to vehicle emissions testing, it is crucial to me and my friends that you prioritize clean air, water and land for all Americans. It should be important to you, too. Pollution itself is linked to 200,000 US deaths a year, and automobile pollution kills more people than automobile accidents.”

We want to hear the president’s plans to:

• Fund the EPA so they can continue to monitor drinking water quality and ensure that communities have access to safe water.
• Enforce criminal and civil violations by holding those that put our health at risk, and those that break the law, accountable.
• Research chemicals and the potential harm they cause — and don’t let the Monsanto’s of the industry dictate the rules and regulations!
• Test and enforce vehicle emission regulations to limit pollution.

We’ll be tuning in on Tuesday night because we, the 80 million Americans ages 18 and 35 years old, care about our future. We are the largest, most educated, and most diverse generation in the history of this country. We really hope President Trump will take this time away from Twitter to tell us what we want — and need — to hear.

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Ben Brown is the founder and CEO of Association of Young Americans.