The tone was optimistic. He wants to “finish the job”, give popular America back its “pride” and the divided nation its “unity”: Joe Biden, who plans to run for a second term, delivered a speech to Congress on Tuesday, February 8 which already had country accents. If the exercise of the “State of the Union speech” is generally a stuffy exercise, punctuated by the ovations of the presidential party, the 80-year-old Democrat this time had to deal with the invectives of certain parliamentarians from the radical right. .
In a combative mood, visibly relaxed, Joe Biden replied with a few jokes, without turning away from his message: “We must be the nation that we always were when we were at the top. Optimistic. ‘coming”. Even where supporters of Donald Trump tried, on January 6, 2021, to prevent Congress from certifying his election, the president considered that American democracy, certainly “bruised”, remained “inviolate and preserved”.
Biden complimented by Trump
The former president also commented live on his predecessor’s speech on his social network, Truth Social, even giving him an extremely rare compliment: “I oppose the majority of his policies, but he put words to what he felt and ended the evening much better than he had started it“, he greeted.
In the camp of the president, we are frankly delighted: “Joe Biden must be delighted, it was a masterstroke”, applauded David Axelrod, former adviser to Barack Obama. Joe Biden knows that, according to the polls, Americans do not want a second game between him and Donald Trump in 2024.
Working for the “forgotten” of growth
Throughout his speech, Joe Biden presented himself as a president who “understands” difficult weekends, devoting most of his more than hour-long speech to the problems of everyday life. Promising to work for the “forgotten” of growth, those whom the previous president and current candidate Donald Trump was able to seduce in part, he lamented: “For decades, the middle class has been crushed”.
“And, over time, we lost something else. Our pride. Our self-confidence,” he lamented, promising to restore them. Struggling in the polls, he played the pragmatism card, writing the article – in the most precise detail – of his major bills supposed to bring back jobs and factories, and make life easier for consumers.
Tax billionaires
He also called on Republicans to join him in adopting a whole series of major reforms – knowing full well that he will never be followed by the most radical parliamentarians, on whom the Republican Party depends to control the House of Representatives. Joe Biden has called for heavy taxes on billionaires and multinationals. He called for the passage of “the minimum income tax for billionaires” during his state of the union address. “No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher or a firefighter,” he said.
The tax would require households worth more than $100 million to pay at least $20 on their total income, including unrealized investment income. Joe Biden also said he is proposing “that we quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks and encourage long-term investments instead.” “They will still make a considerable profit,” he added.
Added to this is also a cap on the price of insulin, a harsh regulation of the tech giants who “conduct experiments on (the) children and siphon off the data of adolescents to fuel their profits”. The president also applauded the parents of Tire Nichols, a young African-American man who died after being beaten by police in Memphis. And judged that America “could not turn away” from the problem of police violence.
Call to ban assault weapons
Joe Biden has called for an assault weapons ban. The US President has issued an impassioned call to renew the assault weapons ban as he recognizes the heroic efforts of Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the Monterey Park shooting suspect last month in California and was asked to attend the speech.
“Ban assault weapons now, once and for all. We’ve done it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994. In the 10 years the ban was in place, mass shootings decreased. After we let it expire in a Republican administration, the mass shootings tripled. Let’s finish the job and ban those assault weapons,” Biden said.
Support for Ukraine reaffirmed
The White House tenant underscored US support for Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion as the war nears its first anniversary. “Together we did what America always does best,” Joe Biden said. We led. We united NATO. We have built a global coalition. We opposed Vladimir Putin’s aggression. the courage of his people.” The head of state on Friday announced the latest package worth more than $2.17 billion which includes longer-range missiles for the first time.
The question of China quickly swept aside
While a year ago, Joe Biden, speaking a few days after the invasion of Ukraine, had insisted a lot on international issues, this time he passed on the subject quite quickly. The American president was especially expected on China: the affair of the Chinese balloon shot down on Saturday after flying over American territory for several days earned him criticism of weakness on the right. America “will act” if Beijing “threatens its sovereignty”, he warned, calling however, there too, for “unity” between Democrats and Republicans to win the “competition” with Beijing.
“We will firmly defend China’s sovereignty, security and development interests” but we call on Washington to “work with us to put bilateral relations back on the path of healthy and stable development”, replied Wednesday before the press Mao Ning, a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy a few hours after the speech of the American president.