Biden crafts sweeping family plan
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden planned to use his first joint address to Congress to pitch a $1.8 trillion investment in children, families and education that would fundamentally transform roles the government plays in American life.
Marking his first 100 days in office, Biden was to make his case Wednesday night before a pared-down gathering of mask-wearing legislators due to coronavirus restrictions. It was set to take place in a U.S. Capitol still surrounded by fencing after insurrectionists protesting his election stormed the doors of the House chamber Jan. 6.
In the nationally televised ritual of a president standing before Congress, Biden outlined 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 made the case that economic growth would best come from taxing the rich to
help the middle class and the poor.
For Biden, whose moment has been nearly 50 years in the making, his speech was set to provide an update on progress in 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 574,000 people in the United States. He also planned to champion his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, a staggering figure to be financed by higher taxes on corporations.
Seizing an opportunity born of calamity, Biden has embraced momentous action over incremental change. But he will be forced to thread the 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 the polarization and make his appeal directly to voters. His prime-time speech was also an opportunity to underscore a trio of central campaign promises: to manage the deadly pandemic, to turn down the tension in Washington and to restore faith in government as an effective force for good.
“He is a big-government Democrat, and he has not been at all reluctant to propose big initiatives in a response to a national crisis,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University presidential historian.
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.
But this year’s scene at the front of the House chamber was set to have a historic look: For the first time, a female vice president, Kamala Harris, was to be seated behind the chief executive and next to another woman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Biden chose to delay this speech, typically given in the afterglow of a presidential inaugural. In doing so, he gave himself the chance to not simply speak of the pain of the COVID-19 crisis but also to talk about progress.
The setting was set to be unlike for any of his predecessors, with members of Congress spread out and many Republicans citing “scheduling conflicts” to stay away.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, “President Biden ran as a moderate, but I’m hardpressed to think of anything at all that he’s done so far that would indicate some degree of moderation.”
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 planned to speak against a backdrop of the weakening but still lethal pandemic, staggering unemployment and a roiling debate about police violence against Blacks. Biden also planed to use his address to touch on the broader national reckoning over race in America, and call on Congress to act on prescription drug pricing, gun control and modernizing the nation’s immigration system.
Earlier, Biden had lunch with several network TV anchors and told them, according to the attendees, that “they’re going to write about this point in history.”
He spoke anew of a need to get the nation’s house in order to prove that a democracy can compete with autocracies like China.
In his first three months in office, Biden has signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill 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.
Federal Reserve estimates suggest the economy will slip to 1.8% growth after at least two years of robust gains.