President Joe Biden is expected to reach out to blue-collar workers and Republicans during his first State of the Union address flanked by new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) amid 2024 reelection speculation.
Biden will pitch his economic plan as one that is “investing in places and people that have been forgotten,” according to excerpts provided by the White House.
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“Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible,” Biden will say. “Maybe that’s you watching at home.”
“That’s why we’re building an economy where no one is left behind,” he will add. “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.”
Senior White House aides previewed the update to Biden’s so-called Unity Agenda, which he will propose to a divided Congress for the first time. The agenda’s four pillars are ending cancer “as we know it,” delivering on “the sacred obligation” to veterans, tackling the mental health crisis, and beating the opioid and overdose epidemic.
“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,” Biden will say. “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.”
“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,” he will add. “We’ve been sent here to finish the job.”
Biden will also portray the country as one emerging from two crises, one created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the other by the Jan. 6 sacking of Capitol.
“Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much,” Biden will say. “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.”
Specifically, Biden is anticipated to call for a “billionaire minimum tax” and a quadrupled stock buyback levy, in addition to more “Made in America” manufacturing rules, an insulin price cap for everyone, “junk fee” prevention legislation, an 11-state Medicaid expansion, and a more generous child tax credit extension.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had earlier underscored how Biden would focus on his bipartisan and partisan policy achievements, such as the 2021 $550 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as well as last year’s $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act and $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act. Supplementing a message of optimism, Jean-Pierre and White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese similarly promoted the president’s economic accomplishments, which they contend include eased inflation and low unemployment.
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First lady Jill Biden‘s special guests, too, punctuate many of the topics the president is likely to address during his remarks, from Ukraine to police reform, gun control, and political civility. Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova, Tyre Nichols’s parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, Monterey Park Lunar New Year shooting hero Brandon Tsay, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s (D-CA) husband, Paul, have been invited to watch the president’s speech from the first lady’s box.
