--- title: State of the Union: Transcript of Barack Obama's Remarks description: As prepared for delivery. canonical: https://time.com/4178279/state-union-transcript-2016/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-13T01:57:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:04:14.754Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read the Full Transcript of Obama's Final State of the Union og:description: As prepared for delivery. og:url: https://time.com/4178279/state-union-transcript-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54f6a4f5dc8b6836/698878e3524fc0191edf6452/president-barack-obama-state-of-the-union-3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama Delivers His Last State Of The Union Address To Joint Session Of Congress og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read the Full Transcript of Obama's Final State of the Union twitter:description: As prepared for delivery. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54f6a4f5dc8b6836/698878e3524fc0191edf6452/president-barack-obama-state-of-the-union-3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read the Full Transcript of Obama's Final State of the Union by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jan 13, 2016 1:57 AM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union speech before members of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 12, 2016 in Washington. U.S. President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union speech before members of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 12, 2016 in Washington.Alex Wong—Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jan 13, 2016 1:57 AM UTC President Obama gave his final State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday. This is a full transcript of his remarks, as prepared for delivery. --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- State of the Union: Transcript of Barack Obama's Remarks ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4178279/state-union-transcript-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4178279/state-union-transcript-2016/"},"headline":"Read the Full Transcript of Obama's Final State of the Union","datePublished":"2016-01-13T01:57:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:04:14.754Z","description":"As prepared for delivery.","url":"https://time.com/4178279/state-union-transcript-2016/","keywords":["state of the union","Barack Obama","Obama","State of the Union 2016"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54f6a4f5dc8b6836/698878e3524fc0191edf6452/president-barack-obama-state-of-the-union-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54f6a4f5dc8b6836/698878e3524fc0191edf6452/president-barack-obama-state-of-the-union-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Delivers His Last State Of The Union Address To Joint Session Of Congress","caption":"U.S. President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union speech before members of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 12, 2016 in Washington.","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/state-of-the-union/","name":"state of the union"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4178279/state-union-transcript-2016/","name":"Read the Full Transcript of Obama's Final State of the Union"}}]}] ```