2010 State of the Union Address
speech by President Barack Obama
The 2010 State of the Union Address was given by the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, on January 27, 2010, at 9:00 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives to the 111th United States Congress. It was Obama's first State of the Union Address and his second speech to a joint session of the United States Congress. Presiding over this joint session was the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, accompanied by Joe Biden, the vice president, in his capacity as the president of the Senate.
The theme for President Obama's speech was “Rescue, Rebuild, Restore – a New Foundation for Prosperity”. Among the topics that Obama covered in his speech were proposals for job creation and federal deficit reduction.
Newly inaugurated Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell delivered the Republican response following the speech from the floor of the House of Delegates at the Virginia State Capitol in front of over 300 people.
Legislative initiatives and policies
The following items were mentioned by the President as potential policy changes, legislative initiatives, or goals coming out of the address:
Fees on the country's largest banks (to follow up on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP))
Giving $30 billion from recovered TARP money to community banks to extend credit to small businesses
Job creation
Building clean energy facilities
Giving rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy-efficient
Slash tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas (giving those breaks to companies that create jobs in the U.S.)
Encourage American innovation (focus on clean energy)
Building nuclear power plants
Exploring off-shore areas for oil and gas
Investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies
Comprehensive energy and climate bill to make clean energy profitable
More exports of goods (goal: double exports in 5 years)
Launch of a National Export Initiative
Invest in the skills and education of our people
Renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Revitalize community colleges
Ending taxpayer subsidies to banks for student loans
$10,000 tax credit for families for four years of college
Increase Pell Grants
Only 10% of income to student loans
All student loan debt forgiven after 20 years, or after 10 years if they choose a career in public service
Cost cutting at colleges and universities
Middle Class
Nearly double the child tax credit
Giving access to a retirement account for every worker
Expanding the tax credit for those who start a nest egg (retirement fund)
Refinancing to make more mortgages affordable
Tackling childhood obesity (headed by the First Lady, Michelle Obama)
Health care reform
Deficit reduction
Starting in 2011, freeze government spending for 3 years on discretionary programs (excluding national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security)
Eliminate programs that are unaffordable or don't work
Extend middle-class tax cuts
Bipartisan fiscal commission to provide solutions (created by Executive Order, if necessary)
Restoring pay-as-you-go law
Require lobbyists to disclose every contact they make
Limits on contributions that lobbyists give to candidates
Reform for earmarks, publish them in a single location on the web
Crack down on violations of equal pay laws
Immigration reform
Repealing Don't ask, don't tell policy within the year to allow homosexuals to serve in the military openly
Treating the nation of Israel with respect
Supreme Court Justices' response
During the address, Obama condemned the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, stating, "Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections." Justice Samuel Alito was seen frowning and mouthing the words "not true" when Obama criticized the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice John Roberts later commented on the subject at the University of Alabama, saying, "The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court – according to the requirements of protocol – has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling."
In response to Roberts, Justice Breyer said he would continue to attend the address: "I think it's very, very, very important—very important—for us to show up at that State of the Union, because people today are more and more visual.
“2010 State of the Union Address” enters the record as speech by President Barack Obama. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what State, Union and Address can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“2010 State of the Union Address” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, State, Union and Address provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4618465. Authority coordinates are 38.889, -77.009. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010 and 2011.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “2010 State of the Union Address”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 2010 State of the Union Address primary sources, 2010 State of the Union Address archive and State research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “2010 State of the Union Address”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “2010 State of the Union Address” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.