(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
President Barack Obama has delivered the annual State of the Union address that, basically, lays out his agenda for the coming year.
He used the occasion to suggest he has reached a point where he will take some action himself if Congress does not act on that agenda.
It comes after the US Congress has stifled much of what Mr Obama wanted to do over his first five years in office.
Ron Sutton reports.
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Barack Obama has taken the first step in what could be a year-long battle to circumvent the US Congress where the country's constitution allows it.
Mr Obama has announced he will issue an executive order to raise the US minimum wage for federal contractors from $7.25 an hour to $10.10.
The announcement came during the annual presidential State of the Union address, where the President also warned Congress he is ready to act independently on other issues.
"I'm eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still -- and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do." (cheering)
The minimum wage is the first area Mr Obama says he is acting on without legislation if necessary in the coming weeks.
By comparison, Australia's full-time minimum wage is just over $16 an hour.
President Obama says a bill put forward by two Democratic Congressmen would at least fix what other US minimum-wage workers have lost over more than three decades.
"Today, the federal minimum wage is worth about 20 per cent less than it was when Ronald Reagan first stood here. And (Congressmen) Tom Harkin and George Miller have a bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to $10.10. It's easy to remember -- 10.10. This will help families. It will give businesses customers with more money to spend. It does not involve any new bureaucratic program. So join the rest of the country. Say yes. Give America a raise." (cheering)
But an executive order would cover only a small percentage of workers, even a small percentage of federal contractors.
Congress would need to agree to the new minimum wage for all workers to get $10.10, a move it has resisted even though opinion polling shows three in four Americans want it.
That fight typifies the battle between the President, a Democrat, and a Congress where opposition Republicans control the House of Representatives.
And in a year when many Congressional seats will be up for election in November, House Speaker John Boehner's reaction to the wage increase proposal was more resistance.
"Let's understand something: this affects not one current contract. It only affects future contracts with the federal government. And so I think the question is, 'How many people, Mr President, will this executive action actually help?' I suspect the answer is somewhere close to zero."
Mr Boehner acknowledged he believed the President had the power to make the move, though.
Along with a minimum-wage increase, Congress has stymied the President's attempts to push immigration reform, gun-control laws and other issues up to now.
Republicans have shown a willingness to work together on immigration reform, but the most conservative are resisting any legal status for immigrants now illegally in the country.
And some Democrats see the lack of movement on the issue as a chance to attract Hispanic voters in the elections.
President Obama cited areas like gun control, as well as education and the environment, in referring to working without legislation if necessary throughout his speech.
As usual, the State of the Union address was aimed at the domestic audience, and Mr Obama ventured into foreign policy only briefly.
He defended the interim nuclear deal with Iran and voiced support for free expression in Ukraine.
He expressed confidence that al-Qaeda's core leadership is headed for defeat, but voiced concern about evolving threats in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and Mali.
As the United States prepares to withdraw most of its troops from Afghanistan, Mr Obama also stated a desire to keep the US out of another war.
"I will not send our troops into harm's way unless it is truly necessary. Nor will I allow our sons and daughters to be mired in open-ended conflicts. We must fight the battles that need to be fought, not those that terrorists prefer from us -- large-scale deployments that drain our strength and may ultimately feed extremism."
Finally, back home, but perhaps in a nod to his international audience, the US President returned to a theme from early in his presidency -- closing down the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba.
"With the Afghan war ending, this needs to be the year Congress lifts the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and we close the prison at Guantanamo Bay (cheering ...), because we counter terrorism not just through intelligence and military action but by remaining true to our constitutional ideals. (cheering fades out ...)"
Barack Obama first promised to close Guantanamo Bay back in 2008 - the year before he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
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