The Washington Examiner spoke to members of Congress and asked what they wished President Joe Biden would mention in his State of the Union address. Many focused on the economy as voters are seeing record-high inflation.
“Biden will try and paint our economy as rosy and that everything is great like he has been saying all along,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said. “Which is completely not the reality the American people are facing.”
There is a long list of issues the country is facing, some that Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) believes have only gotten worse during the Biden administration. “He’s going to say he’s beat inflation but that’s not true,” said Donalds. “He’s not going to mention the border because it’s a disaster. He’s not going to mention fentanyl because it’s the No. 1 killer of people between the ages of 18 and 45.
Rep. Mike Cloud (R-TX) predicted Biden’s speech will be full of excuses. “Probably some sugarcoating over how bad the economy is. He’ll probably cherry-pick some numbers and try to convince the American people that things are going well when they know good and well it’s not going well.”
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Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) thinks the country is going in the wrong direction and Biden should not try and convince the public any different. “He believes we are on the right trajectory here in America, that he’s set the right course. That’s simply not the case. From our border security crisis to our economic crisis to our foreign affairs crisis, things we have seen in just this last week, we know America is on the wrong course.” Moran says he would like to hear Biden talk about how he plans to change the current course of the country, saying, “I simply just don’t expect that though.”
Some tried to be positive and wished Biden could say in his speech he is willing to work across the aisle. “I expect that he’s going to zero in on the areas that we can should work together. At least, I’m hopeful for that,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). “We have a lot of challenges to deal with as a country. I’m hopeful he will talk about how we can work together on those challenges.”
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However, Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA) says he has seen the president has no interest in working with his fellow Republicans: “Based on what we’ve seen over the last two years, this administration has no interest in working with the Republicans.”
