President Joe Biden gave a speech at the White House in which he evaluated his first year in office. In his speech, Biden touched upon many issues from the Covid-19 pandemic to the economy, from bills stuck in Congress to Russia’s tension, and answered questions.
The President noted that his year in office has been one of challenges, but one that has made great progress.
Drawing attention to the progress made in the fight against Covid-19, Biden stated that the number of vaccinated Americans, which was 2 million when he took office, is 210 million today, his administration created 6 million new jobs in a year, and unemployment decreased by 3.9 percent.
“Despite all these progress, I know that there is still disappointment and fatigue in the country,” Biden said, noting that the reason for this is the Covid-19 pandemic and that the Omicron variant has become the new enemy.
We are in a different place in the fight against the pandemic
Biden said for Omicron, “After two years physically, emotionally and psychologically, this is a very difficult burden for many of us to lift,” but said that they are now in a very different place in the fight against the epidemic. Reminding that there are now vaccines, supplemental doses, masks, drugs and tests in the fight against the pandemic, Biden stated that 75 percent of adults are vaccinated, the number of unvaccinated Americans has decreased from 90 million to 35 million a year before he took office, and noted that 9 million vaccines are added every week. “We will continue these efforts because vaccines work,” Biden said. Please get vaccinated and get your booster doses,” he said.
Biden, who also made a self-criticism about the test shortage during the Christmas holiday, said, “Should we have done more tests before? Yeah. But now we do. 375 million home tests hit the market this month, while there was no home test a year ago. Insurance will cover the cost of the tests you buy at the pharmacy. “1 million home tests will be sent to homes,” he said.
Biden: “Covid-19 is not going anywhere, but I am not giving up either. Some might call it the new normal, I call it unfinished business’. It will get better. We are going to times when Covid 19 will not interrupt our daily lives. “We’re not there yet, but we’ll get there,” he said.
“It’s the FED’s duty to prevent price increases from settling in”
Pointing out that one of the major difficulties experienced in the last year is the increase in prices, Biden said that it is appropriate for the US Federal Reserve (FED) to re-adjust its support to the US economy in the light of rising prices and the pace of economic recovery.
President Biden noted that the critical task of preventing price increase from becoming entrenched rests with the Fed, and listed price stability as the FED’s two responsibilities by ensuring full employment.
While inflation is at its highest rate in 40 years, FED officials have signaled that they may increase interest rates several times, starting from March this year.
At his reappointment session earlier this month, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told members of Congress that he would not allow inflation to persist and that more stringent policies were needed to sustain economic growth.
Biden also called on Congress to approve his nominations for the Fed’s board without further delay.
“I didn’t make more promises than I could keep”
Biden was asked at the press conference if he made more promises to the Americans than he could keep. Biden denied this rhetoric and said “no, I didn’t make more promises than I could keep”.
Biden admitted that the economic and social spending law Build Back Better is almost dead in its old form. Instead, he said he expects “large pieces” of this bill to pass through Congress, if not the whole package.
Biden had pushed hard in December to get the spending bill passed by Congress. The package was envisioned to provide free preschool care for all, paid family leave and other social safety nets, and billions of dollars to fight climate change. The cost of these expenditures was planned to be met by taxes levied on large corporations and wealthy Americans.
But West Virginia’s conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin withdrew his support from the package in December after voicing concerns about the current account deficit and inflation. Biden said he now needs to narrow the scope of the bill to gain Manchin’s support.
“We can split the social spending package”
“I think we can split the pack,” Biden said. “Right now we take as much as we can and then we come back and fight for the rest.”
Biden said he is likely to cut back on free public college and child tax credits.
Narrowing the scope of the package might gain Biden the support of Manchin, but the need for the bill to pass may draw backlash from the progressive faction of the party.
“I couldn’t meet the black voters enough”
Biden also admitted that he didn’t meet the black electorate as much as he wanted in his first year.
“I find myself in a place where I don’t get a chance to look people in the eye because of both Covid and what’s going on in Washington, where I can’t go out and do the things I’ve always been able to do very well,” Biden said.
Activists and black voters are expressing disappointment at the lack of progress on the voting rights bill.
“If there is a full occupation, Russia will pay a great price”
Biden also answered questions about the escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Biden predicted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would make a military move into Ukraine, but said a full-scale invasion would cause a major backlash and would be costly for Russia and its economy.
Biden promised to target Russia with unprecedented sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine, “If it invades, Russia will be held accountable. “They will pay a huge price,” he said.
America is worried that Russia may attack Ukraine within days or weeks. Biden noted that the response of the US and the West will depend on Russia’s move.
Biden also noted that a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin is still among the possibilities.
“It is too early to lift Chinese customs duties”
Referring to the trade war with China, Biden said that it is still early to remove the tariffs imposed by the US on trade with China.
Pointing out that China has not yet fulfilled its obligations that came with the Phase 1 trade agreement signed under the former President Donald Trump, Biden said, “I would like to be at a point where I see they keep their word, then I can remove some (customs duties), but we are not at such a point yet.”
China has fallen far short of its promises under its two-year Phase 1 trade agreement to purchase an additional $200 billion in US goods and services in 2020 and 2021. It remains unclear how this gap will be filled.
Biden said he is aware that some business groups want Trump to start removing tariffs of up to 25 percent placed on billions of dollars of Chinese imports, so trade representative Katherine Tai is working on the issue.
Didn’t apologize for Afghanistan
Biden also defended the steps he took to withdraw from Afghanistan, “At the end of 20 years, there was no way we could easily withdraw from Afghanistan. I will not apologize for this,” he said.
Stating that it costs a billion dollars a week to keep the American army in the country, Biden said, “The main question was: would we continue to spend this much money knowing that the idea of success is very far and that the soldiers will continue to lose their lives?” said.
“We would have been sending more troops if we hadn’t left Afghanistan. Do I regret what happened because of the incompetence of the Taliban? “Yes, I do,” Biden said, adding that they cannot solve every problem in the world and that he does not see this as a matter of “competence”.
“This is not the time to abandon diplomatic solution with Iran”
Biden noted that progress has been made in the Iran nuclear talks and this is not the right time to abandon the diplomatic solution. Biden said other negotiating countries are also on the same page as the United States.