Biden asks Congress for another boost to his ambitious social agenda: "We can't stop now"

President Joe Biden made, in his first speech before the United States Congress, a capital defense of the federal government in and of its ambitious plans for social protection and investment in infrastructure, which add up to four trillion dollars and that, if successful, they will represent the largest expansion of the Welfare State in decades. On the eve of his first 100 days in office, Biden asked Republicans for support for a new framework that would bury the neoliberal creed that has reigned since the 1980s and took his chest for the measures taken in these months: "The United States is moving forward, not we can stop now ”.

The president's address to the Senate and House of Representatives, an annual rite of American politics, took place this year in anomalous conditions, as has practically everything in the past year as a result of the pandemic. The around 1,600 guests were reduced this time to about 200 and security was reinforced around the perimeter of the Capitol, the alarms turned on since the assault suffered on January 6 by some ultras who were precisely trying to torpedo Biden's arrival. to the White House.

Flanked for the first time by two women - the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and the Vice President of the country, Kamala Harris -, the Democrat made a statement that he hardly imagined during the 36 years he served as a senator in that same place and where he was forged a reputation as a centrist Democrat. “My countrymen, the trickle economy never worked. This is the time to make it grow from below ”, he stressed, in a speech lasting just over an hour, in which he also called for strengthening unionism and raising taxes on the richest.

Biden displayed that optimism that is part of the country's DNA - “America is on the move again. Turning danger into possibility. Opportunity crisis ”- after a pandemic that has claimed more than 500,000 lives in the country. He highlighted the 1.3 million jobs created in three months - a record for the first 100 days of any president in history - defended his results against child poverty and called for more artillery.

The democrat has taken the reins of the country in an unusual and critical time, faced with a major challenge, and has decided to take advantage of this crisis to launch a stimulus package and structural reforms of great social significance: in March he managed to approve a rescue plan of 1 9 billion that already seemed excessive to Republicans; then he presented an infrastructure plan of 2.3 billion and this Wednesday he took advantage of the meeting with the Americans and their legislators to present a new program, one aimed at families that expands public education, for another 1.8 billion.

To finance them, it proposes more resources to combat tax evasion, tax increases for companies and for those citizens who earn more than $ 400,000 annually, from 37% to 39.6%. What should be the size of the government and its intervention in the economy divides Americans. Republicans reject new spending measures while Democrats consider them an investment. For Republicans, raising taxes is bumming, especially after the big cut approved by Donald Trump in 2017, but the president assures that his focus is only on the "richest 1%" and that the middle classes will not pay more .

Biden dedicated a good part of his message to the worker in blue overalls, the one who lost out in the economic transformations of recent decades and that Trump knew how to lean on his side. After years of criticism, in which the Democrats have been accused of failing to read the anguish of factory America, the Democrat has tried to assure him that he is thinking of him in each and every one of those economic plans that he has raised. For example, Wednesday night has laid out the ambitious environmental goals the United States has just committed to as a source of technical and industrial jobs, rather than the death sentence for factories. "When I think of climate change, I think of jobs," he emphasized. There is no reason, it has continued,whereby the turbines for the windmills "are not produced in Pittsburgh, instead of Beijing."

“You feel like you have been abandoned and forgotten in a rapidly changing economy. Let me tell you that these jobs are well paid and cannot be outsourced, ”said the Democrat. "90% of infrastructure jobs," he added, "do not require a university degree."

In a very evident twist with respect to the Barack Obama Administration, he has also defended the strengthening of the union movement, emphasizing: “Wall Street did not build this country, the middle class built this country. And the unions constitute the middle class ”. And he has challenged Trump for the banner of economic patriotism by promising that the employment plan will be based "on a single principle", which he summed up with these words: "Buy American product." "The US taxpayer dollars are going to be used to buy American products that create American jobs," he said.

Biden has completed his first 100 days in office with reasonably good approval ratings (59%, according to Pew Research data, compared to 39% obtained by Trump around the same time), with the management of the pandemic as the best aspect valued and immigration, as the worst. At a peak in the arrival of undocumented migrants at the border, the Democrat has urged lawmakers to pass his bill to increase border security and provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. there are in the United States.

He also referred to China and Russia, rival countries towards which the Democrat maintains a tough tone. He assured that he does not seek an "escalation of tension" with the Kremlin, but warned that his actions - such as electoral interference and computer attacks - "have consequences"; just as it does not seek a "conflict" with Beijing, in his words, but it will combat unfair economic competition.

The Republican has also addressed the death of African American George Floyd under the knee of agent Derek Chauvin, who was found guilty last week by the jury in Minneapolis, and has asked Congress to take advantage of the anniversary of the crime, next May 25, to pass a police reform law that helps prevent abuse and bears his name. He has called to "heal the soul of this nation", has stressed that white supremacism "is terrorism" and has also addressed the war for voting laws, urging that their expansion be approved, instead of the restrictions that promote the Conservative states. Biden has referred to the assault on the Capitol to insist, as he did when taking office 100 days ago, that "we must show that democracy still works."

Donald Trump's last speech to Congress, in February 2020, exhibited the climate of hostility that prevails in American politics. It took place just one day before the absolute verdict of the first impeachment was voted and, as soon as it began, the Republican denied the greeting to the speaker of the House of Representatives, the powerful Democrat Nancy Pelosi. He then spoke for more than an hour, defending his management and lashing out at immigration. When finished, Pelosi stood up and tore the pages of Trump's speech with obvious contempt.

This time there was no drama, nobody tore their clothes or papers, but the Republicans left the House speaking out against the expansion plans of the Government that you have just heard, making it clear that the negotiations in Congress will be arduous and the promise of Biden of an era of bipartisan cooperation, difficult to fulfill.

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