President Obama delivered his State of the Union address Tuesday night seeking to capitalize on growing public discontent over income inequality in the United States. In his remarks, Obama characterized the challenge for collective prosperity as a choice between a system favoring the wealthy and one providing all with a “fair shot.”

President Obama: “The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot and everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What’s at stake aren’t Democratic values or Republican values, but American values.”

Among his proposals, Obama called for the so-called Buffet rule of taxing millionaires a minimum of 30 percent per year. The tax proposal comes just after Obama’s potential Republican rival, Mitt Romney, revealed he payed as little as 13.9 percent on millions of dollars in investment income.