“President Joe Biden exhorted Congress Tuesday night to work with him to ‘finish the job’ of rebuilding the economy and uniting the nation as he delivered a State of the Union address aimed at reassuring a country beset by pessimism and fraught political divisions.” AP News
The right is critical of Biden’s speech, arguing that he exaggerated his accomplishments.
“[Biden] inherited an economy that had been unplugged by an artificial, state-induced shutdown. If the government compels businesses to shudder, it doesn’t ‘create’ jobs when allowing them to open. On more than one occasion during the night, a mercurial Biden contended that Covid-19 had shut down the economy. No, states did. Politicians did. Biden was an aggressive proponent of those shutdowns…
“Three years ago, the unemployment rate was at 3.5 percent. Today, Biden reminded us that it was at a historic low of 3.4 percent. More than 30 million people lost their jobs to Covid lockdowns. Biden claims to have ‘created’ 12 million jobs during the past two years. The one big difference is that [the] labor participation rate still [hasn’t] recovered to pre-Covid numbers.”
David Harsanyi, The Federalist
“Biden brought his Walter Mitty fantasies to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night… His fabled accomplishments this time included ending the Covid pandemic, reducing inflation and the deficit, and bringing the country together. He pledged heroically to block cuts to Medicare and Social Security and a national ban on abortion — none of which have a remote prospect of reaching his desk, as he tacitly conceded in the case of the entitlement programs…
“Some of the posturing was, however, politically shrewd. He did a balancing act on the police, praising most of them while also calling for reform. The social causes the administration has spent much of its energy pursuing were relegated to a few sentences tucked more than an hour into the speech. Instead, he concentrated on a doubtless poll-tested economic agenda.”
The Editors, National Review
“Biden just gave a State of the Union speech whose key themes and most enthusiastic riffs could have been lifted — albeit with more Bidenisms and fewer insults — from Trump’s populist campaign. There was an implicit condemnation of both parties for their neglect of the heartland and industrial policy and infrastructure. There was a lament for the forgotten man, the Americans ‘left behind or treated like they’re invisible’ and ‘the jobs that went away.’…
“And there was a none-too-subtle subtext in the policy boasts: What Trump once promised, I’m delivering. A bipartisan infrastructure bill. Tougher buy-American rules. Reindustrialization… Meanwhile, Roe v. Wade and the supposed crisis of democracy, so central to the Democrats’ midterm campaigns, were invoked as partisan rallying cries but mostly pushed deep into the speech, long after the president was finished with his main pitch — an argument for a new economic nationalism, brought to you by Blue Collar Joe Biden.”
Ross Douthat, New York Times
The left praises Biden’s speech, arguing that he rightly touted the economy and the Democratic policy agenda.
The left praises Biden’s speech, arguing that he rightly touted the economy and the Democratic policy agenda.
“When he boasted of progress, it was not, as he is wont to say, hyperbole. Inflation is coming down, thanks in part to monetary tightening by a Federal Reserve whose independence Mr. Biden has steadfastly respected. Despite higher interest rates, the unemployment rate stands at an almost 54-year low. On the international front, Mr. Biden has helped Ukraine resist what seemed, a year ago, to be unstoppable Russian aggression without triggering a wider war…
“Biden tried to draw a contrast with Republicans, reprising ideas Democrats failed to pass when they controlled Congress — such as universal prekindergarten and higher taxes on the wealthy. His calls to expand the child tax credit, pass policing reform and codify Roe v. Wade in federal law would help some of the most vulnerable Americans… On the nation’s ever-worsening fiscal picture, he spent a large portion of his speech promising to protect entitlement programs for the elderly, without detailing a plausible plan to keep them solvent.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
“I disagreed with the tinge of trade protectionism, but I’m glad he hailed those ‘left behind and treated like they’re invisible’ — because tens of millions of working-class Americans feel that way and haven’t received adequate help in recent decades from either Republicans or Democrats. When Biden talks about giant companies failing to pay taxes or ripping off consumers with invisible fees or charging unconscionable sums for insulin, those are talking points that resonate everywhere…
“The same is true of Biden’s comments about drug overdoses, which kill more than 290 people each day. (Even Kevin McCarthy grudgingly stood to applaud Biden’s call for action on fentanyl.) Biden’s populism won’t win Republican votes in the House, but they frame the partisan divide in an authentic way that advantages Democrats, and they remind us that America can’t succeed when so many Americans are falling behind.”
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
“With the family of Tyre Nichols in the audience, Biden spoke emotionally about the enduring problem of police violence, particularly its disproportionate effect on Black Americans…
“Biden highlighted the executive order he signed on policing… And he called on Congress to ‘finish the job on police reform’ by passing legislation like the George Floyd Justice in Policing act. But Biden also walked the moderate line on policing he has maintained since the 2020 campaign, arguing both that ‘most cops and their families are decent honorable people’ who need more, not fewer, resources to maintain public safety.”
Sean Collins and Nicole Narea, Vox