President Biden delivered a State of the Union address Democrats will be thrilled with. He struck notes of his traditional unity message, pledging to work with the new Republican House leadership and touting his legislative accomplishments in the past year.
But he also laid out an Average Joe America vision for 2024 chock full of poll-tested issues, as well as a healthy dose of left-wing populism. Populism, as a former president might say, that’s “big league.” Both Biden and that former president, Donald Trump, have struck populist notes, the little guy vs. the people in power, but from very different perspectives and for very different ends.
Biden was also able to deftly bait the right, and they took it. That was best represented by Biden essentially debating House Republicans, in true former-senator fashion, on Social Security. Biden was careful in that section to note that “Some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset every five years.”
That was something Rick Scott, R-Fla., the former National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, opened to door to with his Rescue America Plan. Democrats have run with it, even though newly minted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said cuts to Medicare and Social Security are “off the table.” Biden’s accusation enraged House Republicans, who had been admonished by McCarthy before the speech to be on their best behavior.
The exchange took the lid off any semblance of comity for the evening. Republicans hectored Biden on various occasions from then on, with McCarthy visibly shushing members of his conference on at least three occasions. It’s exactly the distinction Biden and Democrats wanted to show for what will likely be the president’s largest television audience this year — ahead of Biden’s expected 2024 reelection announcement.
Republicans will dismiss the speech, but Biden has suffered from a lack of intensity with Democrats, many of whom have told pollsters they would rather someone else run. This speech had to make more of Democrats comfortable with Biden being the party’s standard-bearer next year, despite his advanced age of 80. He showed he was able to make and prosecute the case ably — not just for reelection, but for a Democratic America.
Arkansas' newly elected governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the Republican Party's response, telling Americans: "Biden and the Democrats have failed you."
President Biden repeated the phrase "Let's finish the job" in his address — a refrain likely to be heard as his unofficial pitch for a second term in office.
Biden used his address to push for the Junk Fees Prevention Act, a push to limit hidden fees and surcharges in the travel and entertainment industries.
Here's who was on the guest list, including cancer survivors, a veteran and his caregivers, a health care professional from a Navajo reservation, a Holocaust survivor and more.
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