House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) touted Joe Biden’s “blue collar” credentials ahead of a State of the Union address in which the president is expected to highlight Democrats’ legislative achievements in the last Congress.
Jeffries joined members of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee in a Tuesday press conference to promote the Democratic agenda as Biden prepares to address a Republican-majority House for the first time. He pledged that House Democrats would “build on our track level of success” to bring costs down for the working class, a mission he said the president understands.
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“President Biden is a blue-collar president, he’s a pro-union president, he’s a pro-middle-class president,” Jeffries said. “It’s in his bones. It’s in his DNA. It’s in his background. That is who Joe Biden is. That is who House Democrats are, and that is who we will continue to be in delivering for the people.”
Jeffries’s colleagues drew a contrast between the laws passed last Congress and the spending cuts Republicans are proposing as part of its debt limit negotiations with Biden.
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) accused Republicans of wanting to slash entitlement programs and said she invited as her guest to the State of the Union a cardiac intensive care unit nurse whose life would be “turned upside down” by cuts to Social Security.
“While this extreme Republican majority tries to pay for more tax cuts for billionaires and corporations, by slashing Social Security and Medicare, Democrats will fight to defend these vital programs and the right to retire with dignity,” she said.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has repeatedly said he wouldn’t touch programs such as Social Security or Medicaid in debt limit talks. Following a pledge not to raise taxes he made this week, he’s left with even less room to negotiate budget cuts.
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“Let’s take those off the table,” he said during a CBS interview last month. “If you read our Commitment to America, all we talk about is strengthening Medicare and Social Security. So, and I know the president says he doesn’t want to look at it, but we’ve got to make sure we strengthen those.”
The State of the Union will start at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
