State of the Union

The State of the Union Speech should stop being a speech in Congress.

Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution states:

He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.

First of all, from time to time.  George Washington's precedent was annually.  But maybe it should be more often.  Maybe less often.  Just time to time.  Don't be surprised if I ever skip one of these things if I'm ever President, or give a report in July, for example.

Secondly, these are recommendations.  Not mandates, not threats, not announcements.  This is the part where the President should give his input to Congress.  This is part of why it might need to be more than annually.

The speech is traditionally given the House chambers, since they are larger.  If I was the Speaker of the House, I would simply not allow the President to enter the chamber.  Or at the very least refuse to cede the floor to him.

Another thing, why is the Supreme Court even there?  They don't clap, according to Wikipedia, "in order to retain the appearance of political impartiality." How about not showing up to retain the appearance of political impartiality.  It seems to be an invasion of the House of Representatives and a show of force from the judicial and executive branches of government.  The House should be free to vote to ignore the report of the President, if they so choose.  Or to agree to read it on their own time, or have it read by the reading clerk.

Then we could just all tune in to C-SPAN if we want to hear it, and the local evening news can give us the highlights.