The President of the United States used last night’s State of the Union address to focus on the state of his country’s economy.

Barack Obama told the joint session of the US Congress that the United States is stronger, but the American economic revival is unfinished. He said corporate profits are skyrocketing, but wages and incomes have barely budged. He called on Congress to work to “re-ignite the true engine of America’s economic growth — the middle class.”

Although all the country’s lawmakers were in the same room, they are rarely of the same mind. Obama called on the deeply divided Congress to find common ground in boosting job creation and strengthening the middle class, and to avoid the brinkmanship that has seen the US stagger from one crisis to another.