State of the Union Message (US)

President Biden delivered a plea to Republicans on Tuesday for unity in his second State of the Union address, but vowed not to back off his economic agenda and offered no far-reaching, new ideas in a speech filled with a familiar litany of exhortations from more than four decades in political life.Reading rapidly through his prepared remarks and occasionally sparring with his congressional adversaries in real time, Mr. Biden — at 80 the oldest president in history — used the biggest platform of his office to frame his argument for an expected re-election bid by portraying Republican policy proposals as out of step with most Americans even as he offered to work across the aisle.For Mr. Biden, the speech was a moment to demonstrate to his supporters that he still has the political skills to lead them to victory in 2024 even as polls show a large majority of Democrats want someone from a new generation (he would be 86 at the end of a second term). After a few stumbles at the beginning, the president turned energetic and combative, and even showed flashes of humor and effective off-the-cuff retorts to Republican hecklers in a setting not known for improvisation.His performance could help address doubts about his vigor as a 2024 campaigner.At key moments, Republicans heckled Mr. Biden with shouts of “liar” and angry shakes of their head. But if the goal was to rattle the president or demonstrate his frailty, it had the opposite effect. Mr. Biden snapped back at the Republican shouters with sharp retorts and even a sense of humor in some moments. When Republicans accused him of misstating their desire to cut Medicare and Social Security, the president turned the heckling against them, saying quickly that he was glad to see their “conversion” on the issue.For Mr. Biden’s supporters — some of whom have expressed doubts about whether he is up to another six years in office — the moment was an opportunity to imagine how the president will perform on the 2024 campaign trail. For the president’s campaign advisers, his agility on his feet was most likely a source of relief.He defined his rationale for a second term.In an hourlong speech, Mr. Biden repeatedly pledged that America needed to “finish the job,” a barely veiled argument that voters should give him a second term to do just that. Nearly a dozen times, he bragged about his administration’s accomplishments — on keeping drug prices low, increasing taxes on the wealthy, making child care and housing affordable, and more — but said he had more to do.After two years in office, the president’s assessment of the country’s progress was intended as a hinge to his next campaign, a way to set up the terms of debate, whether he faces former President Donald J. Trump again or another Republican contender.Biden’s State of the Union AddressChallenging the G.O.P.: In the first State of the Union speech of a new era of divided government, President Biden called on Republicans to work with him to “finish the job” of repairing the unsettled economy.State of Uncertainty: Mr. Biden used his speech to portray the United States as a country in recovery. But what he did not emphasize was that America also faces a lot of uncertainty in 2023.Foreign Policy: Mr. Biden spends his days confronting Russia and China. So it was especially striking that in his address, he chose to spend relatively little time on America’s global role.A Tense Exchange: Before the speech, Senator Mitt Romney admonished Representative George Santos, a fellow Republican, telling him he “shouldn’t have been there.”He scaled back his agenda for an era of divided government.Mr. Biden returned again and again to a familiar set of assertions that have become part of his presidential routine: a pledge to “restore the soul of the nation”; a promise to “build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out”; efforts to create “an economy where no one is left behind”; criticism of “big tech” and “big oil”; and references to advice for “Joey” from his father.But there were no major new initiatives in Mr. Biden’s address, a nod to the reality of divided government, with Republicans now controlling the House. That was a striking departure from the president’s previous appearances before a Democratic-controlled Congress, when he called for trillions of dollars in new spending to significantly reshape government programs on health care, child care, climate change, taxes, infrastructure and more.He did not back off from those priorities, some of which he managed to achieve, at least in part, over the past two years, and he renewed his call for others. But on Tuesday night, his focus was on less ambitious proposals aimed at stepping up efforts to cure cancer, improve mental health care, fight opioid addiction and help veterans.He emphasized threats to democracy at home and abroad.At the end of the speech, Mr. Biden returned to one of the biggest themes of his presidency — that the United States and the world stand at an “inflection point” in history, with democracy at stake at home and abroad. As he has before, the president linked “the Big Lie” about the 2020 election to the war in Ukraine, which threatens the sovereignty of a European nation for the first time in a generation.But unlike former President George W. Bush, who used his 2002 State of the Union address to declare an “axis of evil” on the eve of the Iraq war, Mr. Biden urged Americans to remain optimistic and hopeful as a way of inspiring supporters of democracy elsewhere. Declaring that “we are not bystanders to history,” the president said the United States must confront hate and extremism, referring to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.The president talked up the economy, with a big focus on blue-collar workers.Mr. Biden spent the first half of his speech describing what he said was the nation’s economic progress, including a record 12 million jobs created in the first two years of his presidency. He ran through the economic benefits — many of them just starting to come online — from bills he signed to invest in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and low-emission sources of energy, along with reducing the cost of prescription drugs.But the president lingered in particular on the parts of his agenda that he says would help blue-collar workers, often in parts of the country that have been left behind in the changing global economy. He stressed spending that will create high-paying jobs that do not require a college degree — clear outreach to the wide swath of swing voters in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan who did not graduate from college.Aides had said Mr. Biden would acknowledge in his speech the continued economic pain Americans feel, particularly from rising prices, and he did to a degree. But he spent most of his energy trying to sell workers on the gains the economy has made on his watch and casting himself as a fighter for their interests.He baited Republicans on Social Security and Medicare.Mr. Biden has regularly hammered Republicans over some members’ plans to reduce future spending on Social Security and Medicare. He did it again in the speech, and this time, he baited some Republican lawmakers into agreeing with him on the issue.Mr. Biden started by caricaturing a plan from Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, which would force Congress to reauthorize existing programs, including Social Security and Medicare, every five years. “Some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” he said.Republicans in the chamber loudly objected to the characterization. Mr. Biden shot back: “Anybody who doubts it contact my office. I’ll give you a copy.”The Republican boos and objections grew louder. Mr. Biden parried back and forth with the critics in the crowd. Then he declared victory. “So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security, Medicare is off the books now, right? All right. We’ve got unanimity.”Biden made a forceful call for police accountability.Mr. Biden has always opposed the “defund the police” calls from some on the left of his party, but on Tuesday night he used his speech to condemn the lethal police beating of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols in Memphis and made an impassioned call for more police accountability.“Imagine if you lost that child at the hands of the law,” Mr. Biden said after pointing out that Mr. Nichols’s mother and stepfather, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, were sitting in the first lady’s box, prompting a standing ovation. “Imagine having to worry whether your son or daughter will come home from walking down the street, playing in the park or just driving their car.”In an example of his instinct to reach for a middle ground, Mr. Biden, however, still struck a balance between pressing for change and expressing support for the police, whom he said were “good, decent, honorable people.” He called for supporting law enforcement with additional resources to increase training for officers.The president is limited in just how much he can reform state and local police departments. But he has faced increasing pressure from Democrats and supporters of overhauling the criminal justice system to push more forcefully for legislation advancing their goals.“Let’s commit ourselves to make the words of Tyre’s mom true,” Mr. Biden said. “Something good must come from this.” More

Cuando el presidente de Estados Unidos, Joe Biden, dé su discurso del Estado de la Unión el martes, tendrá mucho de qué ufanarse.Durante su presidencia se han creado una cantidad récord de trabajos y tiene la tasa de desempleo más baja en más de 50 años. Mientras que los planes de infraestructura de Donald Trump eran motivo de burla, Biden aprobó la mayor inyección de fondos federales en infraestructura en más de una década. Su Ley de Reducción de la Inflación hizo una inversión histórica en energía limpia; el director de la Agencia Internacional de la Energía la describió como la acción climática más importante desde el Acuerdo de París de 2015. (Y, por cierto, la inflación finalmente está bajando). Biden cohesionó a las naciones del mundo occidental para que apoyaran a Ucrania contra la invasión imperialista de Rusia y le puso fin a la larga e infructuosa guerra de Estados Unidos en Afganistán, aunque con una salida atroz e ignominiosa. Su gobierno impuso un tope a los precios de la insulina para las personas mayores, codificó a nivel federal el reconocimiento del matrimonio igualitario y derribó ese globo espía que nos asustó a todos. También, está en camino de nombrar más jueces federales que Trump.Biden también puede adjudicarse el éxito de que la influencia de Trump esté disminuyendo. Muchos especialistas resoplaron cuando Biden intentó presentar las elecciones de medio término como un referéndum de la amenaza a la democracia estadounidense que representa el movimiento MAGA. Los votantes, no. La derrota en 2022 de candidatos trumpistas como Kari Lake en Arizona y Herschel Walker en Georgia, incluso más que el fracaso electoral de Trump en 2020, convenció a muchos republicanos de que deben dejar atrás a quien fue alguna vez su héroe.En otras palabras, Biden ha sido un gran presidente. Ha cumplido una cantidad inusual de promesas de campaña. El presidente debería ser celebrado el martes. Pero no debería buscar la reelección.Se ha reporteado mucho que Biden planea usar el Estado de la Unión para plantear su reelección. Hay una división en el Partido Demócrata sobre si esa decisión es prudente para una persona de 80 años. Los funcionarios demócratas están en gran parte de acuerdo que sí, al menos de manera pública, pero la mayoría de los votantes demócratas no lo están. “Los demócratas dicen que ha hecho un buen trabajo, pero que es demasiado grande”, dijo Sarah Longwell, una estratega republicana anti-Trump que con regularidad organiza grupos de enfoque de votantes. “Al final de su segundo mandato estaría más cerca de los 90 años que de los 80”. Es posible que una encuesta del Washington Post/ABC News refleje esa dinámica: aunque el 78 por ciento de los encuestados demócratas e independientes de tendencia demócrata aprobaron el trabajo que Biden ha hecho como presidente, el 58 por ciento de ellos quiere un candidato diferente para el próximo año.Los argumentos para seguir con Biden no son menores. Además de su historial exitoso, tiene el beneficio de ya estar en el cargo. Organizar unas elecciones primarias es costoso, agotador y doloroso. Si Biden fuera tan solo unos años más joven, al Partido Demócrata no le convendría pasar por eso.Pero es difícil ignorar el costo de la edad de Biden, sin importar lo mucho que los demócratas electos lo intenten. De alguna manera, cuanto más simpatices con Biden, más difícil puede ser verlo trastabillar, una propensión que no solo puede explicarse por su tartamudeo. Longwell dijo que los demócratas en su grupo de enfoque mencionaron que contenían la respiración cada vez que el presidente habla. Y aunque Biden pudo hacer campaña de manera virtual en 2020, en 2024 es casi seguro que habrá otra vez un calendario de campaña agotador en el mundo real, que tendría que cumplir mientras también gobierna el país. Es una tarea hercúlea para un hombre de 60 años, y casi imposible para un octogenario.Si Biden se llegara a enfrentar a Trump, quien cumplirá 78 años el próximo año, la edad podría no importar. Es preocupante que, según la encuesta del Washington Post/ABC, Trump esté ligeramente por delante de Biden en una hipotética revancha, pero los aspectos negativos de Trump tienden acentuarse cuanto su presencia en el ojo público aumenta, y una campaña presidencial generará muchas oportunidades para recordarle a los estadounidenses de su singular malignidad. Pero como hay muchas encuestas que muestran que la popularidad de Trump está disminuyendo, y con la acaudalada red de Koch alineándose en su contra, hay muchas posibilidades de que el contendiente de Biden sea alguien mucho más joven, como Ron DeSantis, quien en 2024 tendrá 46 años. A menos que se produzca un cambio radical en el estado de ánimo del país, los candidatos se disputarán el liderazgo de un Estados Unidos profundamente descontento y desesperado por un cambio. Para los demócratas, el contraste visual, por sí mismo, podría ser devastador.A muchos demócratas les preocupa que si Biden se hace a un lado, la candidatura será para la vicepresidenta, Kamala Harris, quien tiene números deficientes en las encuestas. Pero los demócratas tienen varias alternativas, que incluyen a políticos que han ganado en estados pendulares importantes, como la gobernadora de Míchigan, Gretchen Whitmer, y el senador por Georgia Raphael Warnock. Biden dijo que quería ser un puente para la próxima generación de demócratas. Hay muchas opciones prometedoras que están calificadas para cruzarlo. Una elección primaria le dará al Partido Demócrata la oportunidad de encontrar al candidato adecuado para este momento.La última vez que escribí sobre Biden y su edad avanzada, el presidente no estaba en su mejor momento: la inflación estaba descontrolada y su agenda de Build Back Better permanecía estancada. Si en ese momento Biden hubiera anunciado que no buscaría la reelección, probablemente habría parecido la admisión de un fracaso. Ahora, su legado político parece más seguro. Lo consolidaría si tiene la sabiduría, pocas veces vista, de saber cuándo ha llegado el momento de anunciar una despedida, no un relanzamiento.Michelle Goldberg es columnista de Opinión desde 2017. Es autora de varios libros sobre política, religión y derechos de las mujeres, y formó parte de un equipo que ganó un Pulitzer al servicio público en 2018 por informar sobre acoso sexual en el trabajo. @michelleinbklyn More