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Brimming with confidence, the president struck a colloquial tone as he rattled off a series of positive statistics about the country’s recent economic rebound. ...The question facing Obama is whether his final two years in the White House can come close to repeating the record of his first two. He has neither the Democratic majority that ushered through major bills revamping the nation’s fiscal and health-care systems, nor the sky-high poll ratings he had shortly after taking office. ... Another factor beyond the White House’s control is the much-anticipated Supreme Court ruling later this year that could undercut the federal subsidies that help millions of Americans buy plans under the Affordable Care Act. “The legacy of the president, and the health-care legacy of the president, depends on those nine people in the Supreme Court,” said Jonathan Oberlander, a professor of health policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Eilperin, 1/20)

At times boastful, confident and even cocky, Obama appeared unfazed by his party’s electoral pounding in the midterm election less than three months ago or his year of slouching approval ratings. ... Obama pledged to veto any measures that would undo his sweeping immigration executive actions or his healthcare law. ... In the end, though, he returned to the heart of his message, an economic policy aimed at strengthening the middle class. (Hennessey and Parsons, 1/20)

President Obama claimed credit on Tuesday for an improving economy and defiantly told his Republican adversaries in Congress to “turn the page” by supporting an expensive domestic agenda aimed at improving the fortunes of the middle class. ... In the speech, he promised that any attempt to roll back his health care law, an overhaul of regulations on Wall Street or his executive actions on immigration would also face vetoes. (Shear and Hirschfeld Davis, 1/20)

Republicans are hoping to use their newfound control of both chambers of Congress to nullify Obama's executive actions on immigration, and make major changes to Obama's health care law and to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul. But Obama says the U.S. can't put businesses or the economy at risk through government shutdowns. He says the U.S. must not take away Americans' health insurance, refight previous immigration battles or unravel new rules governing Wall Street. (1/20)

President Barack Obama called for a new medical research push in his State of the Union address, which the White House says will include fighting antibiotic resistance and the pursuit of targeted therapy based on a patient’s genetic makeup. The beefed-up research into antibiotic resistance, while not further specified, would potentially include new medicines that could be reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration, and new ways to avoid antibiotics’ becoming less effective. The White House said the plan is to nearly double the federal investment into grappling with the issue of antibiotic resistance. (Burton, 1/20)

While his party suffered significant setbacks in the November elections, the president arrived at the Capitol Tuesday night with some political momentum, with the economic outlook brightening and his job-approval ratings ticking upward. Some 46% of Americans approved of Mr. Obama’s job performance in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released this week, up from 40% in September. (Lee and McCain Nelson, 1/20)

Whereas last year, President Barack Obama used nine full paragraphs of his State of the Union speech to sell his health care plan, the subject got less attention tonight. (Kane, 1/20)

Ten years ago, President George W. Bush briefly mentioned electronic health records in a State of the Union address and the federal government is now in the midst of a multibillion dollar effort to promote the technology. Can the same thing happen with cybersecurity? President Barack Obama's proposed federal cybersecurity legislation has healthcare data security experts applauding. (Conn, 1/20)