Joe Biden to tout economic gains in State of the Union

In his State of the Union address, Joe Biden will tout his leadership on shoring up democracy, combating Covid-19 and rebuilding the economy.

US President Joe Biden gives his State of the Union address today. Picture: AFP.

In his State of the Union address this afternoon (AEDT), President Biden is set to tout his leadership on shoring up democracy, combating Covid-19 and rebuilding the economy, while adding he is willing to reach across the aisle to Republicans who now control the House.

“The story of America is a story of progress and resilience,” Mr. Biden will say according to three paragraphs of excerpts released by the White House Tuesday evening.

The president will note that the country’s democracy has remained strong, revisiting a theme that he often discussed during his first two years in office. During the November midterm elections, voters overwhelmingly rejected high profile candidates who questioned the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

“Two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken,” Mr. Biden is expected to say.

Mr. Biden will also try to strike a balance between bragging about his administration and empathizing with many Americans who say they are worried about the economy. The president has had a series of positive economic news, including strong jobs numbers. But in polls, Americans don’t credit Mr. Biden with about 60 per cent saying the president has not accomplished very much, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

“Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible,” Mr. Biden is expected to say. “Maybe that’s you watching at home. You remember the jobs that went away. And you wonder whether a path even exists anymore for you and your children to get ahead without moving away. I get it.”

For the first time as president, Mr. Biden will speak to a divided government where his party doesn’t control both chambers of Congress. The president will acknowledge this new reality during his speech.

“If we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress,” Mr. Biden is expected to say.

Excerpts from President Biden’s State of the Union Address as prepared for delivery:

- The story of America is a story of progress and resilience…We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it. That is what we are doing again. Two years ago our economy was reeling. As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs – more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years. Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much. Today, COVID no longer controls our lives. And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.

— My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten. Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible. Maybe that’s you watching at home. You remember the jobs that went away. And you wonder whether a path even exists anymore for you and your children to get ahead without moving away. I get it. That’s why we’re building an economy where no one is left behind. Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back because of the choices we made in the last two years. This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives.

— To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress. The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere. And that’s always been my vision for the country: to restore the soul of the nation, to rebuild the backbone of America: the middle class, to unite the country. We’ve been sent here to finish the job!

Address comes ahead of re-election bid

The annual speech, to be delivered in the House chamber before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), offers Mr. Biden an opportunity to test his message in front of a large audience weeks or months before he is expected to announce his re-election bid. Recent polls show a majority of Democratic voters don’t want him to run for a second term, and his approval ratings remain low.

The president’s mission on Tuesday, according to advisers, is to explain to the public how they stand to benefit from the trillions of dollars in spending Mr. Biden helped shepherd through Congress — including a wide-ranging infrastructure bill; a climate, healthcare, prescription-drug and tax package; and a measure to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. He will argue that his policies have helped the U.S. economy recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, his advisers said, pointing to recent positive economic news, including that the unemployment rate is at a 53-year low.

Mr. Biden’s efforts to focus on his economic accomplishments have been complicated this year by the launch of a special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents, which were found at one of his homes and a think tank. The new House GOP majority is holding its own hearings and probing several of Mr. Biden’s policies and the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden.

The White House is also in a stalemate with House Republicans over the debt limit, with Speaker Kevin McCarthy demanding spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. The president is expected to underscore his position that the debt ceiling should be raised without conditions, warning of the economic fallout if the US defaults on its debt.

Mr. Biden’s aides contend the president’s tenure at the White House has been one of the most successful in decades, comparing his run of legislative and policy victories to Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.

Recent surveys indicate the president’s agenda isn’t resonating with many Americans. A Washington Post-ABC News poll published this week found that 62% of the public thinks Mr. Biden hasn’t accomplished much during his first two years. About 43% of the public approves of Mr. Biden’s job performance and roughly 52% disapprove, according to FiveThirtyEight’s aggregation of public polls.

The president has said public opinion on his record will change as his policies are implemented. Implementation will be a major focus of the next two years, administration officials said.

“Even as we’ve passed historic legislation that will invest in America and help bring economic opportunity back to places across this country, we have a lot of work to do to actually implement and demonstrate that that kind of investment can unlock economic opportunity,” National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told reporters Monday. Mr. Deese said the president would express optimism about the economy, while acknowledging that the administration has more work to do to help the public cope with the fallout from the pandemic and deal with inflation.

Mr. Biden plans to build on the “unity agenda” he announced in last year’s State of the Union speech, which focused on addressing the opioid epidemic, improving mental health, supporting veterans and fighting cancer. In Tuesday’s remarks, Mr. Biden will describe the progress U.S. policy makers have made on those issues and detail several new efforts, including a crackdown on illegal fentanyl distribution, funding and rules to deal with the country’s mental-health crisis, more assistance for veterans and a push to reduce cigarette smoking, officials said.

The president is expected to outline several new economic proposals during the speech. He will propose quadrupling the 1% tax on stock buybacks that took effect in January, arguing that the change would encourage companies to invest in their growth instead of boosting shareholders. He will also announce his administration is proposing guidance to require that construction materials for projects backed by the infrastructure law are made in the U.S.

Mr. Biden also plans to talk about imposing minimum taxes on very wealthy Americans, who can often pay little in taxes if they don’t sell their investments and realise income. He proposed that idea last year, and it didn’t become law while Democrats were in control of Congress.

Asked about some of the White House plans on Monday, Mr. McCarthy said, “We’re not raising taxes and we’re not raising a clean debt ceiling.” In addition, Mr. Biden will call on Congress to extend to all Americans a measure included in the Inflation Reduction Act that caps the out-of-pocket cost of insulin at $35 a month for Medicare beneficiaries; pass legislation cracking down on so-called junk fees like early termination charges for cancelling internet and phone services; renew the expanded child tax credit, which lapsed last year; and to expand Medicaid to the states that haven’t already done so. He will also encourage politicians to improve the affordability of child care and housing. Those efforts all face hurdles in the divided Congress.

Mr. Biden is also planning to revive his call for politicians of both parties to pass legislation imposing tougher oversight of big technology and social-media companies, administration officials said. The president has previously said such legislation should protect users’ privacy by putting in place limits on how companies use, collect and share personal data. He has also recommended limiting targeted advertising and rewriting part of a law that shields companies from liability for content users post on their sites. The president made a similar push in last year’s speech, but politicians have so far failed to hammer out a broad, bipartisan compromise on the issue.

The president will urge Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would make it easier to prosecute police officers for misconduct, the White House said Mr. Biden fine-tuned the address at Camp David on Sunday and Monday with his senior advisers, as well as his speechwriter, Vinay Reddy, according to people familiar with the matter. The historian Jon Meacham, a longtime informal adviser to Mr. Biden, also participated in the discussions, the people said.

The president practised his speech behind a lectern with television-style lights trained on him, reading from a teleprompter to mimic the conditions in the House chamber, the people said.

Mr. Biden and other administration officials are expected to travel across the country following his speech. The president will visit Wisconsin on Wednesday to talk about job creation and Florida on Thursday to discuss ways to protect Social Security and Medicare. Vice President Kamala Harris will make stops in Georgia and Minnesota.

The speech comes days after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean after the balloon traversed the country for days. Mr. Biden told reporters on Monday that the incident won’t significantly change his speech, though U.S. competition with China more broadly is expected to be a part of the remarks.

The president is planning to make the case that he has strengthened U.S. alliances abroad as countries in Europe and Asia have marshaled a largely unified response to the war in Ukraine, administration officials said.

Dow Jones