[3][4] Senate President pro tempore Orrin Hatch[5] and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson[6] were the designated survivors for the 2016 address.
He recognized people's generally low expectations for meaningful legislation due to 2016 being an election year, and thanked the House Speaker Paul Ryan for his help passing the budget and making tax cuts permanent for working families.
He expressed hope that progress could be made on "bipartisan priorities like criminal justice reform, and helping people who are battling prescription drug abuse."
He stressed that these traits are what got the country through the recent economic crisis, and what led to affordable health care, the resurgence of the US energy sector, greater benefits for troops and veterans and the legal acceptance of Gay marriage.
He then listed what he called four big questions the country has to answer: He praised the US economy as the strongest in the world, and noted the strong recent job growth, along with a reduction in deficits.
He called on strengthening social security and Medicare, and using the Affordable Care Act to cover people in the event of catastrophic health disasters.
After criticizing opponents of climate change mitigation, he stressed that even for those who don't believe in global warming, they should embrace "the chance for American businesses to produce and sell the energy of the future."
He asked for an increase in clean energy research, and a push for higher taxes for oil and gas production, to better reflect the cost to the environment of those fuels.
He discussed the threat of al Qaeda and ISIL, but pointed out that they did not threaten "our national existence," and dismissed claims otherwise as harmful propaganda.
He then detailed the American and 60 country coalition efforts to defeat terrorism and to "cut off ISIL’s financing, disrupt their plots, stop the flow of terrorist fighters, and stamp out their vicious ideology.
He invoked several high-profile captures and killings, including the deaths of Osama bin Laden and the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, and the imprisonment of the perpetrator of the Benghazi attacks.
It says America will always act, alone if necessary, to protect our people and our allies; but on issues of global concern, we will mobilize the world to work with us, and make sure other countries pull their own weight."
The President also asked for support ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as a way to "open markets, protect workers and the environment, and advance American leadership in Asia."
He then listed a few areas of American leadership: fighting climate change, defending Ukraine, resolving the war in Colombia, feeding the poor in Africa, ending HIV/AIDS and trying to eliminate Malaria.
He quoted Pope Francis “to imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place.” He then invoked the opening words of the constitution, “We the People”, to transition into his fourth and final question, how to fix domestic politics.