President Barack Obama will be delivering his fifth State of the Union address this evening, which will no doubt be live-tweeted by armchair pundits around the country. It's been an interesting year for the president: 2013 marked the introduction of Obama's landmark healthcare reform, the Affordable Care Act, but was also the year the government shut down in a bickering disgrace. In all the excitement in the lead-up to the big speech, a new hashtag has started trending on Twitter: #SOTUinthreewords. We scoured Twitter and found the funniest, the strangest, and the outright ugly reactions to the call for three words to sum up the state of the union.
One thing is almost certain: Obama will unveil some policy initiatives that don’t rely on Congressional action. This usually takes the form of executive orders — unilateral domestic initiatives the president can issue sans congressional approval — but it could also refer to some manner of foreign policy intervention. Given Congress’s obstinacy, it would have been reasonable to assume that Obama would do this anyway, but it’s actually been reported this will be his approach, and the White House has confirmed it, at least when it comes to raising the minimum wage: Obama will sign an executive order mandating that employees working for federal contractors (big caveat there) will be paid at least $10.10 an hour.
If you're planning to tune in to the speech tonight, don't forget to play the State of the Union drinking game, which includes drinking 'Murican beer and Cuba Libres. What are you three words for the State of the Union? Let us know @bustle.
