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09-02-2023
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden challenged Republicans to lift the US debt ceiling and support tax policies that were friendlier to middle class Americans on Tuesday in a State of the Union speech that served as a blueprint for his 2024 re-election campaign.
Assailing oil companies for making high profits and corporate America for taking advantage of consumers, Biden used his prime time speech to outline key progressive priorities that are important to Democrats and anathema to many Republicans in Congress.
Making his first address to a joint session of Congress since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in January, Biden urged bitterly divided lawmakers to overcome their differences.
Some Republicans heckled him at times during a speech that lasted 73 minutes.
“We’re often told that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together but over the past two years, we proved the cynics and the naysayers wrong,” said Biden, a Democrat. “To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together and find consensus on important things in this Congress as well.”
Biden tested that ability with a challenge to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, which must be lifted in the coming months to avoid a default. The White House has said Biden will not negotiate over that necessity; Republicans want spending cuts in exchange for their support.
“Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage, I get it, unless I agree to their economic plans. All of you at home should know what those plans are. Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans … want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” he said, drawing boos.
He then urged lawmakers to stand up for senior citizens, which they did, prompting Biden to claim victory.
“I enjoy conversion,” he quipped, suggesting the cuts to popular social safety net programs were now off the table.
Biden said the economy was benefiting from 12 million new jobs, COVID-19 no longer controls American lives, and US democracy remains intact despite the facing its biggest threat since the Civil War.
“Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken,” he said.
Since his inauguration in 2021, shortly after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Biden has said he wants to unify the country. And he stuck to that theme, highlighting a massive infrastructure bill and gently ribbing Republican lawmakers who opposed it.
“I want to thank my Republican friends who voted for the law,” he said. (Int’l News Desk)
