WASHINGTON | President Joe Biden declared Wednesday night in his first address to a joint session of Congress that “America is rising anew,” and pointed optimistically to the nation’s emergence from the pandemic as a vital moment to rebuild the U.S. economy and fundamentally transform government roles in American life.
Biden marked his first 100 days in office as the nation pushes out of a menacing mix of crises, making his case before a pared-down gathering of mask-wearing legislators because of pandemic restrictions.
Speaking in highly personal terms while demanding massive structural changes, the president urged a $1.8 trillion investment in children, families and education to help rebuild an economy devastated by the virus and compete with rising global competitors.
He speech took place in a setting unlike any other presidential address in the familiar venue, with the U.S. Capitol still surrounded by fencing after the building was stormed in January by insurrectionists protesting his election. The nationally televised ritual of a president standing before Congress for the first time was one of the most watched moments of Biden’s presidency so far, a chance to sell his plans to voters of both parties, even if Republican lawmakers prove resistant.
“America is ready for takeoff. We are working again. Dreaming again. Discovering again. Leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world: There is no quit in America,” Biden said.
“I can report to the nation: America is on the move again,” he said. “Turning peril into possibility. Crisis into opportunity. Setback into strength.”
COLORADO COMMENT
Colorado Democratic Congressman Joe Neguse: “Tonight, President Joe Biden provided a compelling, hopeful and optimistic vision for our country and America’s future. While it has been a tough year for Coloradans, it’s clear from the President’s remarks tonight that America is on track to crush this virus and continue a robust economic recovery. The American Rescue Plan, passed in March, has increased our vaccination speed, and it is helping families and communities receive the help they need, putting money in pockets and people back to work. President Biden has outlined an ambitious agenda to build back better, through major investments in infrastructure, clean energy, child care, education and supporting America’s families, and it is an agenda I strongly support. His American Jobs Act both prioritizes job creation and makes critical investments to tackle the climate crisis. We are ready to get to work in the Congress to make these priorities a reality.”
Halisi Vinson, Executive Director of the Colorado Democratic Party: “This is what a President is supposed to sound like. President Biden presented an optimistic and ambitious vision for how our country can meet the promises of our Founding Fathers, and it’s clear that he has a much stronger grasp than his predecessor did of how people across our state and country need support. Democrats have made it clear with their words and actions that they are the party of working people, while Republicans have consistently stood in the way of policies that would support their constituents. Under President Biden, we’re getting back on track both as a state and as a country, and I think working voters are going to continue to see that Democrats are focused on passing policies that ensure the biggest corporations and wealthiest billionaires start to pay their fair share and that the economy is not rebuilt on the backs of working families!
Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet: “Tonight, the president outlined an agenda that the majority of Coloradans support, including extending the Child Tax Credit, passing paid family and medical leave and immigration reform, increasing access to affordable health care and child care, and creating millions of good-paying jobs to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure. We have an incredible opportunity ahead of us to unite the country, strengthen our democracy, and earn the confidence of the American people by responding to their needs. It’s our job to seize this moment and finally invest in the American people.”
Democratic Gov. Jared Polis: “In their first 100 days in office, the Biden administration has gotten out millions of life-saving vaccines to communities across the country, provided much-needed relief to American families who were hit hard by this pandemic through the American Rescue Plan, and are working toward the passage of a landmark infrastructure bill that would help our country’s economy recover faster and stronger. But we know there is still a lot of work ahead at both the state and federal level. Tonight, President Biden laid out a bold agenda to help rebuild our economy, get women back into the workforce, support American families, fix our broken immigration system, bolster our education system and increase clean energy jobs — all priorities we share here in Colorado. Every day we are working to power the comeback, getting vaccines into arms and helping our economy build back stronger, and I look forward to our continued partnership with President Biden and his administration as we race toward the end of this pandemic and the Colorado comeback.”
Colorado GOP Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown: “President Biden has spent the first 100 days of his term pushing extreme, costly, and disastrous policies. This administration has turned their backs on our energy workers, refused to admit there is a serious humanitarian & security crisis on the border, and has recklessly spent trillions of dollars on far-left policy dreams.”
Colorado Democratic Congressman Ed Perlmutter: “Since January 20th, the Biden Administration has successfully ramped up production and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine and worked with Congress to enact the American Rescue Plan to aid in our economic recovery while also rolling back many of the harmful policies put in place by the previous administration. In his first 99 days, President Biden has stepped in and stepped up to help a country in need.”
Colorado Democratic Congressman Jason Crow: “As a veteran, hunter, and responsible gun owner, I appreciate President Biden’s call to address our nation’s gun violence epidemic and join him in demanding the Senate follow our lead and act now. Reforming our broken immigration system will take more work, but I agree with the President that protecting dreamers, TPS holders, and farmworkers is the place to start. Our communities are still mourning the loss of George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Elijah McClain, Breonna Taylor, and so many others whose lives were cut short by a racist system. I echo the President’s call to reform and re-imagine policing in this country and will be introducing my own legislation in the coming weeks.”
Crow held a socially-distanced viewing of the address at Stanley Marketplace. McClains mother Sheneen, anti-gun violence advocates and small business owners joined Crow at the small event.
On the past 100 days, Crow said: “It’s a really big difference. I don’t even know where to start in terms of how big the difference has been. President Biden came in priority number one was to getting his arms around the pandemic, making sure we got vaccinations out, we were saving small businesses, reopening our schools and passing the American rescue plan. I don’t think we can overstate what a difference-maker that has been. Had we not had the leadership of President Biden, in collaboration with the House, we wouldn’t have been able to get that bill passed. We would be in a very different situation right now. These vaccinations that are happening, the ability to be able to start normalize, that’s happened because of that (rescue plan).”
This year’s scene at the front of the House chamber had a historic look: For the first time, a female vice president, Kamala Harris, was seated behind the chief executive. And she was next to another woman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both clad in pastel.
The first ovation came as Biden greeted, “Madam Vice President.” He added “No president has ever said those words from this podium, and it’s about time.”
The scene was familiar yet strange, with members of Congress spread out, a sole Supreme Court justice in attendance and many Republicans citing “scheduling conflicts” to stay away. There was no need for a “designated survivor,” with so many Cabinet members not there, and the chamber was so sparsely populated that individual claps could be heard echoing off the walls.
Biden was upbeat and forceful.
“I have never been more confident or more optimistic about America,” he said. “We have stared into an abyss of insurrection and autocracy — of pandemic and pain — and ‘We the People’ did not flinch.”
He repeatedly hammered home how his plans would put Americans back to work, restoring millions of jobs lost to the virus. He laid out a sweeping proposal for universal preschool, two years of free community college, $225 billion for child care and monthly payments of at least $250 to parents. His ideas target frailties that were uncovered by the pandemic, and he argues that that economic growth will best come from taxing the rich to help the middle class and the poor.
For Biden, whose moment has been nearly a half century in the making, his speech also provided an update on combating the COVID-19 crisis he was elected to tame, showcasing hundreds of millions of vaccinations and relief checks delivered to help offset the devastation wrought by a virus that has killed more than 573,000 people in the United States. He also championed his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, a staggering figure to be financed by higher taxes on corporations.
Unimpressed, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said in the Republicans’ designated response that Biden was claiming too much credit in fighting the pandemic and reviving the economy.
“This administration inherited a tide that had already turned,” Scott said. “The coronavirus is on the run.”
Seizing an opportunity born of calamity, Biden has embraced major action over incremental change. But he will be forced to thread a needle between Republicans who cry government overreach and some Democrats who fear he won’t go big enough.
The Democratic president’s strategy is to sidestep polarization and appeal directly to voters. His prime-time speech underscored a trio of central campaign promises: to manage the deadly pandemic, to turn down the tension in Washington in the aftermath of the insurrection and to restore faith in government as an effective force for good.
Biden also was addressing an issue rarely confronted by an American president, namely that in order to compete with autocracies like China, the nation needs “to prove that democracy still works” after his predecessor’s baseless claims of election fraud and the ensuing attack on the U.S. Capitol.
No American politician has more familiarity with the presidential address to Congress than Biden. He spent three decades in the audience as a senator and eight years as vice president seated behind President Barack Obama during the annual address.
Yet the desire for swift action is born from political necessity. Biden understands that the time for passing his agenda could be perilously short given that presidents’ parties historically lose congressional seats in the midterm elections, less than two years away. The Democrats’ margins are already razor-thin.
He spoke against a backdrop of the weakening but still lethal pandemic, staggering unemployment and a roiling debate about police violence against Blacks. Biden also used his address to touch on the broader national reckoning over race in America, and to call on Congress to act on prescription drug pricing, gun control and modernizing the nation’s immigration system.
In his first three months in office, Biden has signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill — passed without a single GOP vote — and has shepherded direct payments of $1,400 per person to more than 160 million households. Hundreds of billions of dollars in aid will soon arrive for state and local governments, enough money that overall U.S. growth this year could eclipse 6% — a level not seen since 1984. Administration officials are betting that it will be enough to bring back all 8.4 million jobs lost to the pandemic by next year.
A significant amount proposed Wednesday would ensure that eligible families receive at least $250 monthly per child through 2025, extending the enhanced tax credit that was part of Biden’s COVID-19 aid. There would be more than $400 billion for subsidized child care and free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds.
Another combined $425 billion would go to permanently reduce health insurance premiums for people who receive coverage through the Affordable Care Act, as well a national paid family and medical leave program. Further spending would be directed toward Pell Grants, historically Black and tribal institutions and allow people to could attend community college tuition-free for two years.
Funding all of this would be a series of tax increases on the wealthy that would raise about $1.5 trillion over a decade.
Biden wants to raise the top tax rate on the most affluent families from 37% to 39.6%. People earning in excess of $1 million a year would see their rate on capital gains — the profits from a sale of a stock or home — nearly double from 20% to 39.6%, which would mean the wealthiest Americans could no longer pay at a lower rate than many families who identify as middle class.
He took aim at a hallmark achievement of the Trump presidency, saying the 2017 tax cuts failed to deliver on Republicans’ promise of strong growth. It was a recognition of how narrow the common ground is between the two parties.
“When you hear someone say that they don’t want to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% and on corporate America – ask them: whose taxes are you going to raise instead, and whose are you going to cut?” Biden said.
Republican lawmakers in Congress so far have balked at the price tags of Biden’s plans, complicating the chances of passage in a deeply divided Washington.
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Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Michael Tackett contributed to this report.
After four years of listening to the bleak, dark, and divisive picture of America spewed by the previous president and his minions, it was so uplifting to hear the optimistic positive message of President Biden last night. And how disappointing to see McConnell and his ReTrumplicant lackeys’ stone-faced reactions to the exciting future the President laid out.
There is so much to be done after 4 decades of negligence by the Party of No. I continue to hope that, unlike Senator Scott and Chairwoman Brown, we will start to see some principled Republicans emerge and begin to change their party into one that works to represent the will of the people, rather than one that exists to obstruct progress and keep us divided over invented narrow petty culture war positions.
You tell ’em, Joe! But it’s going to take a coming together of the American people and this the naysayers and haters are not going to allow. They truly believe that by spreading falsehoods and by stoking fears and discord, they are working towards the election of Donald Trump in 2024. They don’t care if what they are doing is damaging to our country.