ti ashffigton 4i05t February 13, 2013 Obama, in State of the Union, makes case that middle class is job one By Scott Wilson President Obama challenged Congress on Tuesday night to assist an American middle class squeezed by rising costs and stagnant wages, making clear that he will devote much of his second term to closing the income gap between rich and poor. In his first State of the Union address since reelection, Obama called restoring the country's middle-class promise "our generation's task," casting the ability to work and prosper as a basic American principle in jeopardy because of a changing economy and partisan dysfunction in Washington. Arguing for an active government role to tackle inequality, Obama proposed a series of ways — some old, some new — to improve access to education and expand job training programs. He would raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour — a nearly 25 percent bump — over the next three years. Many of his previous economic plans have stalled in a divided Congress. But speaking from a position of political strength — and facing a deficit of less than $1 trillion for the first time in his administration — Obama suggested that the American public supports many of his goals, even if many in the chamber do not. In an hour-long address focused tightly on domestic issues, Obama also announced that he will bring 34,000 American troops home from Afghanistan over the next year, cutting the U.S. presence there by almost half. The U.S. military mission in Afghanistan concludes at the end of 2014, and Obama intends to keep only a small force there for training and counterterrorism missions beyond that date. "After a decade of grinding war," the president said, "our brave men and women in uniform are coming home." The speech, interrupted repeatedly by raucous and sometimes strictly partisan applause, was Obama's fourth State of the Union address. He used the annual ritual to attempt to turn the page on a first term preocc