5 takeaways from Biden’s first address
He frames expanded government — new programs, taxes on the rich — as crucial to an American rebirth.
WASHINGTON — President Biden closed out his first 100 days in office urging a pandemic-fatigued nation to remain vigilant, but also underscoring how far it has come since he moved into the White House: lockdowns are lifting, the economic outlook is brightening, and a big stimulus package put money in people’s pockets and created landmark improvements to the social safety net.
Now comes the most challenging part: using that honeymoon period as a springboard for the rest of a costly, contentious agenda that Biden says would heal the nation and restore America’s place as a global leader. Many critics have deep reservations about those plans.
In his first presidential address to a joint session of Congress — masked and socially distanced — Biden laid out the course he will chart to overcome them.
Some takeaways from Biden’s 65-minute speech:
Go big or go home
Biden was deliberate in his framing of a historically ambitious agenda that would vastly expand the role of government and rebalance who pays for it. His plans include free community college for all, universal pre-kindergarten, an expansion of the Affordable Care Act and 12 weeks of guaranteed paid family leave for all Americans. He promised his infrastructure blueprint would generate millions of jobs upgrading such things as transportation networks and water systems, and transitioning the nation to green energy.
The president’s pitch for all this spending — and tax hikes for the wealthy to cover the tab — was simple. The nation, he said, is at a crossroads, with democracy under unprecedented stress and its future uncertain. He said the prescription for fixing it is transformative change that pulls millions of Americans out from underneath debt, economic uncertainty and family strain. Biden invoked how Franklin D. Roosevelt guided the nation through an earlier time of deep anxiety.
Redef ining ‘middle’
Biden took the stage under fire from Republicans, who brand him as anything but the moderate he claims to be. Most of the initiatives Biden has pushed forward don’t have GOP buy-in, and congressional Democrats are moving with urgency on his agenda as they face the prospect of losing control of Congress in the midterm.
But the measures Biden is championing are broadly popular, and not just with Democrats. His administration is taking the approach that the opinions of voters matter more than the opinions of lawmakers, and that Biden’s agenda is not radical so long as it impresses voters across partisan lines.
Biden invoked the Jan. 6 insurrection in urging Republicans to work with him on his plans.
“Can our democracy deliver on the most pressing needs of our people?” he said. “America’s adversaries
— the autocrats of the world — are betting it can’t. They believe we are too full of anger and division and rage. They look at the images of the mob that assaulted this Capitol as proof that the sun is setting on American democracy.
“They are wrong,” Biden said. “We have to prove democracy still works. That our government still works — and can deliver for the people.”
Racial justice focus
One of the most poignant moments of Biden’s early days in the White House was his address with Vice President Kamala Harris the evening a Minneapolis jury found a former police officer guilty of murdering George Floyd. Biden channeled the outrage of millions of Americans at the country’s lack of progress in confronting racial injustice, and he forged a bond with the Floyd family.
On Wednesday, the president made clear that moment was not a one-off, and that he finds it unconscionable that a year has passed since Floyd’s death and still no major criminal justice reform package has been passed. Biden laid down a marker when his address turned to racial justice: Meaningful change in the criminal justice system will be a central theme of his tenure.
“We’ve all seen the knee of injustice on the necks of Black Americans,” Biden said. “Now is our opportunity to make some real progress .... The country supports this reform, and Congress should act. We have a giant opportunity to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice. Real justice.”
Making rich pay
Biden’s big plans don’t come cheap. And after the president already signed a $1.9-trillion stimulus and COVID-19 relief package in March, critics are saying the nation cannot afford another round of spending that large. Biden’s answer to that is clear: target wealthy tax dodgers. He made the case that there is more than enough in unpaid taxes sloshing around if the IRS were only empowered to go after it. But his plan to spend tens of billions of dollars bulking up IRS enforcement is certain to become a target for the GOP, which will look to tap into taxpayer antipathy toward the agency.
Biden noted that 20 million Americans lost their jobs during the pandemic as 650 billionaires increased their wealth by $1 trillion.
“Trickle-down economics has never worked,” he said. “It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out.”
Immigration plea
Even as Biden struggles to make good on campaign vows to treat undocumented migrants more humanely, he was resolute on immigration reform, calling for an end to “our exhausting war over immigration.”
He demanded Congress pass a bill that both secures the border and creates a pathway to citizenship. Biden highlighted the role Harris will play in the effort, focused on addressing the corruption, violence and hunger in Central America pushing residents to leave.
Biden called for Congress to pass protection for “Dreamers,” as well as immigrants temporarily seeking refuge from natural disasters and violence at home. He demanded a “pathway to citizenship for farmworkers who put food on our tables.”