Biden to present economic election program
2023.02.07 13:42
Biden to present economic election program
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – In Tuesday’s State of the Union speech, which is anticipated to serve as a blueprint for a 2024 re-election campaign, U.S. President Joe Biden will face Republicans who question his legitimacy and a public concerned about the country’s direction.
Biden is anticipated to explain how he is attempting to reshape the economy following the pandemic in his first address to a joint session of Congress since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives. He will also highlight massive infrastructure and inflation bills passed in 2022 and emphasize that a bitterly divided Congress can still make laws in the year to come.
After returning from the presidential retreat Camp David, where he spent the weekend working on the speech, Biden told reporters on Monday, “I want to talk to the American people and let them know the state of affairs… what I’m looking forward to working on from this point on, what we’ve done.”
According to the White House, Biden will urge Congress to intensify the last year’s bipartisan action on a “unity agenda” that focuses on advancing cancer research, supporting veterans and lowering their high suicide rates, expanding mental health services in general, and eliminating the “opioid and overdose epidemic.”
Christen Linke Young, deputy assistant to Biden for health and veterans affairs, stated to reporters that Biden would urge lawmakers to “build on these historic bipartisan achievements” in order to improve the lives of Americans.
The White House stated that he will also go over a wish list of economic proposals, many of which are unlikely to be approved by Congress. They include a minimum tax on billionaires and a tax on corporate stock buybacks that is quadrupled.
Biden is expected to emphasize the U.S.-led response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the strength of the NATO alliance, and tensions between the U.S. and China, which were recently brought to light by the downing of a Chinese spy balloon by the U.S. military this week.
The prime-time speech, which Biden’s aides say will attract millions of viewers and could be the president’s biggest ever audience on television, is seen as a significant step toward the second presidential campaign that Biden is expected to launch in the coming weeks.
Recent polls indicate that many Democratic voters are concerned about the fact that Biden, who celebrated his 80th birthday in November, would begin a second term at the age of 82.
One of his aides stated that the administration sees a need for stronger privacy protections and that he will ask Congress to collaborate on tightening regulations on the technology sector.
Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is one of Biden’s guests at the speech, indicating that he intends to discuss the threats posed by extremism in the United States.
After four years of Democratic control of the House, Biden will face a fractious group of Republican lawmakers who are eager to impose their conservative views on U.S. policy.
For the first time, Speaker Kevin McCarthy will sit behind Biden during the speech. The $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, which must be raised in the coming months to prevent a default, is a source of contention between the two.
Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential contest against former President Donald Trump has been questioned by some House Republican lawmakers, who have indicated that they intend to conduct an investigation into his Cabinet and family. However, Republicans struggled to elect a speaker due to their narrow majority and intraparty divisions, and it is anticipated that they will continue to struggle to unite their more moderate and far-right members on legislation.
According to National Economic Council director Brian Deese on Monday, Biden will make it clear in his speech that raising the debt limit is not negotiable and should not be used as a “bargaining chip” by lawmakers.
“Finding compromise is exactly how governing in America is supposed to work and exactly what the American people voted for,” McCarthy said in her Monday call to Biden to agree to spending cuts and compromises.
According to polls, even though the U.S. economy continues to outperform expectations, people’s faith in Biden is being undermined by ingrained political divisions, high prices, and worries about his age.
According to a poll conducted by Monmouth University and released this week, only four out of ten Americans consider the state of the union to be strong. A significant number of respondents attributed Washington’s issues to a lack of compromise.
Senior aides to Biden intend to use the speech to argue that his policies are the best way to reduce inflation and increase well-paying jobs, which have helped stabilize the U.S. economy following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deese stated that Biden intends to explain his strategies’ “clear contrast to the trickle-down economic philosophy that has pervaded thinking for years and decades in the past.”
