To the Editor:

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech laid out a vision for an America so clear and forward-looking that I could actually imagine what our great country could look like if Congress could enact the laws and initiatives he has asked them for.

In this version, we can put the train wreck that was the George W. Bush presidency behind us. We would eliminate corporate welfare to the oil industry, making profits in the billions. Businesses would hire again due to optimism over expansion of our technology, bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., infrastructure improvement and the jobs this would create. Clean energy development, a strong housing market, trimming a bloated military, strengthening laws to address our looming climate crisis, and a country absent the threat of slaughter from high-capacity assault weapons could be ours. Our hard-earned social safety programs would be funded and thriving.