Biden spoke loudly and mostly clearly
Coming two days after Super Tuesday set up a rematch of the 2020 election with former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden's Thursday State of the Union address set the tone for the grueling march to Nov. 5.
Both sides are going to blast away with no holds barred until voters decide the matter. But the winner will be the one who wins the moderates in the middle. At one hour and 13 minutes the State of the Union address approached President Bill Clinton's record of one hour and 29 minutes in 2020, and showed Biden's stamina. While Biden fumbled some lines, he exceeded the very low bar set for him by critics who focus on his age and related issues, as he maintained an energetic delivery.
An election-year SOTU is intended to solidify the president's base while attracting moderate voters. Biden tilted toward the base with his laundry list of new programs: money for mortgages, home care, elder care, student loan relief, Pell grants, universal tutoring and pay raises for K-12 teachers. Where's the money for that going to come from with the federal debt $34 trillion and rising, and interest payments $1 trillion a year? He was right to criticize “my predecessor,” his phrase for Trump, for running up the debt another $8 trillion.
But saying he “reduced” the yearly deficit “by over $1 trillion” isn't that comforting when the Congressional Budget Office projects it will be $1.5 trillion for fiscal 2024, which begins in Oct. 1 — then rising in 2025 to $1.8 trillion and to $2.6 trillion by 2034.
To pay for his new programs and supposedly reduce the deficit, he asked “to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21% so every big corporation finally begins to pay their fair share,” and to end tax breaks for Big Oil, Big Pharma, private jets and “massive executive pay.” He shouted, “End it now!” But higher taxes would just be passed on to consumers in higher prices, while reducing American companies' investments in innovation at a time they're facing fierce competition from China, India and other countries. Although Biden was right to tout unemployment is at 50-year lows, a major factor that will help him, higher taxes would end that quickly.
Biden tried to have it both way on some important issues. He plumped for the bipartisan Senate immigration bill, which he said would bring 1,500 more security agents and officers and 100 more immigration judges to deal with 2 million backlogged cases. He rightly said, “I will not demonize immigrants saying they `poison the blood of our country,'” citing Trump's words; and he would not separate families nor ban immigrants “because of their faith.”
But he also made reference to “an illegal,” which has drawn criticism from his progressive base. In any case, the perceived lack of action on the border, true or not, will remain a political problem for him.
On foreign policy, he backed Israel and decried the Oct. 7 attack on its people by Hamas. He called for a ceasefire and more humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. And he advanced again the two-state solution for the Israel-Palestinian ongoing crisis. His political problem is he needs to win Michigan, where “Uncommitted” just over a week ago received 100,000 votes in the Democratic primary to protest his Gaza policy.
He called for passing $60 billion for Ukraine in its war with Russia. But the war has not gone well in recent months and new weapons and ammunition might not even reach the front lines in time. His military also is warning that America's own stockpiles are depleted from transfers to both Ukraine and Israel. A major conciliatory note on foreign policy was, “We want competition with China, but not conflict.” But, obviously, these policy details are often secondary to the broader message. Biden paints himself as essential to defending America against the threat of norm-busting Donald Trump and his authoritarian, anti-democratic impulses. And many Americans no doubt will believe that to be true.
This editorial board is indeed troubled by the worst elements of Trumpism. What's most unfortunate is that the American people have to choose between such deeply flawed choices. Big government leftism and big government MAGAism are antithetical to liberty and what the American experiment is supposed to be about.