(by Claudio Salvalaggio)
"Let's finish the job together": this is the refrain of Joe Biden's speech on the state of the Union, in which he claimed his (undeniable) successes, outlined the future agenda as if it were already the electoral program of his awaited re-nomination and launched a call for bipartisan collaboration to Republicans.
He, however, without renouncing to attack them on more than one occasion, being reciprocated with interruptions and insults such as "liar".
An optimistic speech lasting 73 minutes, in which the president skilfully alternated reflective and ecumenical tones with more fierce and combative ones.
Aware that the job can only be finished by finding compromises with the Grand Old Party, which now controls the Chamber, but knowing that otherwise it will be able to campaign by unloading the blame for the stalemate on its opponents,
as did Bill Clinton and Barack Obama with a divided Congress.
Biden only dedicated the finale to foreign policy, reiterating his commitment "to stay by Ukraine's side as long as necessary" and warning China that the US will act whenever Beijing "threatens our sovereignty, as we have demonstrated last week", with the shooting down of the alleged spy balloon.
The president began with a joking opening towards the new speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy: "I don't want to ruin your reputation but I can't wait to work with you".
"If we could work together in the last Congress - he then continued - there is no reason why we can't do it in this new one. People sent us a clear message. Fight for fight,
power for power, conflict for conflict gets us nowhere.
This has always been my vision for the country: to restore the soul of the nation, rebuild its backbone, the middle class, to unite the country." Then he quoted his plan for the American economy, "which is in the position best in the world to grow": "we are building an economy where no one is left behind.
The jobs are coming back, the pride is coming back for the choices we've made in the last couple of years.
This is a blue-collar project to rebuild America.
My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten". Biden then outlined his roadmap: police reform, gun ban
assault, the restoration of the right to abortion (with the threat of vetoing any ban on a national level), the 'made in USA' for building materials in federal projects, the climate challenge as an "existential threat", the protection of minors against the exploitation of social networks, a fairer tax system with the minimum tax for the rich and the quadrupling of taxes on the buyback of large companies, such as oil companies, "which make scandalous profits by paying zero federal taxes".
And the defense of welfare, against the cuts evoked by the Republicans to social security (social security) and Medicare (health care for the over 65s).
“Liar,” Marjorie Taylor Green and other GOP MPs shouted at him,
with Biden ready to show copies of their proposals but also to cleverly collect the outcry: "I like conversions".
Sparks also sparked in the courtroom when the president accused the Grand Old Party of holding the US economy "hostage" to the debt ceiling it does not want to raise.
Biden has not forgotten even a mention of the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021: "two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the days of the civil war. Today, although wounded, our democracy remains indomitable and intact The story of America is a story of progress and resilience…We are the only country to emerge stronger from any crisis."
Sparks also sparked in the courtroom when the president accused the Grand Old Party of holding the US economy "hostage" to the debt ceiling it does not want to raise.
Biden has not forgotten even a mention of the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021: "two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the days of the civil war. Today, although wounded, our democracy remains indomitable and intact The story of America is a story of progress and resilience…We are the only country to emerge stronger from any crisis."
Sparks also sparked in the courtroom when the president accused the Grand Old Party of holding the US economy "hostage" to the debt ceiling it does not want to raise.
Biden has not forgotten even a mention of the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021: "two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the days of the civil war. Today, although wounded, our democracy remains indomitable and intact The story of America is a story of progress and resilience…We are the only country to emerge stronger from any crisis."
our democracy has faced its greatest threat since the civil war.
Today, though wounded, our democracy remains untamed and intact.
The story of America is a story of progress and resilience…We are the only country to emerge stronger from any crisis."
our democracy has faced its greatest threat since the civil war.
Today, though wounded, our democracy remains untamed and intact.
The story of America is a story of progress and resilience…We are the only country to emerge stronger from any crisis."