US President Joe Biden will issue a rallying cry for his economic agenda on Tuesday night, saying he is building an “economy where no one is left behind” that will bring tangible benefits to the world’s most forgotten households. blue-collar America.
According to excerpts from his State of the Union address released by the White House, the US president will tout the 12 million jobs created under his leadership over the past two years in a rapid rebound from the damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden will argue that the recovery benefits middle- and low-income families who have suffered for decades. Despite the strength of the labor market, he has low approval ratings for his handling of an economy that has been hammered by high inflation during his tenure.
“My economic plan is to invest in places and people who have been forgotten. Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated as if they are invisible,” Biden will say.
“Maybe it’s you looking back at home. You remember the jobs that have gone. And you wonder if there’s still a path for you and your kids to move on without walking away. I get it. C This is why we are building an economy where no one is left behind,” he added.
Biden’s speech comes at an inflection point in his presidency, after his first two years in office were dominated by recovery from the worst of the pandemic, an economic explosion that fueled record job creation but also high inflation, and the response to the full-scale war in Ukraine.
After November’s midterm elections, Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, which will inevitably hamper Biden’s legislative ambitions and could lead to big clashes, including over raising the debt ceiling. But Democrats still have a majority in the Senate, which means the president will be able to seek confirmation of judicial nominations and executive appointments.
“To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there’s no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress. People sent us a clear message. Fighting for fighting, power for power, conflict for conflict, gets us nowhere,” Biden will say.
The president is also expected to devote much of the speech to foreign policy. His remarks come as tensions between the United States and China suddenly flared after the Pentagon detected a Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States and shot it down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Caroline from the south.
The episode led to the cancellation of a planned trip to China by Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, and dashed hopes of a detente between Washington and Beijing after Biden’s meeting with Xi Jinping, the president. Chinese, in November.
As for Europe, Biden is expected to renew his call on the US Congress and US allies to continue supporting Ukraine with military and financial assistance to resist the Russian invasion as the war enters a second year. But there is some tension on the economic front, with European capitals unhappy that Biden has passed such an extensive clean energy subsidy program that it could divert green investment from Europe to the United States.
The mixed midterm election result bolstered Biden’s standing within his party as he avoided the most sweeping defeats in the congressional races that typically hit presidents in their first terms. Despite concerns about his age – Biden is 80 – he is expected to launch his 2024 re-election campaign in the coming weeks or months.
The president’s approval ratings have rebounded in recent months, but he remains unpopular. According to the Realclearpolitics.com poll average, 51.5% of Americans disapprove of his job as president, while 44.2% approve.
White House officials hope that Biden’s multiple legislative achievements, particularly on the economy, will soon begin to have a more tangible political impact. He is expected to tout the benefits of the large government subsidies he has decreed to boost domestic manufacturing.
Biden will also seek higher taxes on big business and the wealthiest Americans, including quadrupling a tax on stock buybacks and introducing a tax on billionaires to cut the deficit.
