the DON JONES INDEX…

 

 

GAINS POSTED in GREEN

LOSSES POSTED in RED

 

  2/13/23…    15,068.43

    2/6/23…    15,137.24

   6/27/13…    15,000.00

 

(THE DOW JONES INDEX:  2/13/23...33,869.27; 2/6/23...33,926.01; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)

 

LESSON for February 13, 2023 – “STATE of DISUNION!”

 

“When a fur-coiffed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene yelled “liar” Tuesday night, among the loudest in an abrupt chorus of boos, the oldest President to ever deliver a State of the Union address (Attachment One) didn’t miss a beat. He smiled and went far afield from his script as GOP lawmakers tried to reject his claims that Republicans were ready to gut social entitlement programs.”  (Time, February 8th, Attachment Two)

“Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? We’ve got unanimity?” he asked. “Apparently it’s not going to be a problem,” he deadpanned at another moment.

“The striking exchange, and Biden’s ease in handling it in front of an audience of millions, illustrated why the Democratic establishment isn’t yet ready to toss their 80-year-old standard-bearer overboard.”

As is so often the case, in this disunited, partisan country teetering on the teeter-totter of fascism (according to the left) or a Socialist apostasy that will bring down the wrath of an angry, Republican God) the right, foes in the know were able to look at and listen to the same damn images and words and see and hear vastly different undertones.  But that was to be expected.

Calling the performance “a (perhaps temporary) high point,” President Joe used his State of the Union speech to portray the U.S. as a country in recovery, “and he is right that there has been a lot of good news lately,” exclaimed the moderately liberal New York Times when the speeching was done and before the post-SOU shouting swelled and then diminished in the face of the Turkish earthquake crisis (said Angry God having a different object of His disaffection.)  Fairly shivering and quivering with partisan pleasure, the Old Gray Lady squirmed and moaned as if Biden were a devotee of Magic Mike who had just thrown off his codpiece and flexed his junk..

 “Price increases have slowed. Covid deaths are down about 80 percent compared with a year ago. Ukraine is holding off Russia’s invasion. Congress passed legislation addressing climate change, infrastructure and gun violence, and some of it was (even) bipartisan.”  (February 8th, Attachment Three)

Another GUK-chuk... (Attachment Four, after the show)... revealed that which no American journalist dared probe... MTG’s strange and politically incorrect fur collar atop that all white coat, as if she was an angel, descended from Heaven to comfort the believers and damn the Democrats.

The internet was “ablaze”, said the Brits, “discussing who Marjorie Taylor Greene most looked like in the white knee-length coat and furry collar that she wore to the State of the Union. It turns out the question shouldn’t have been who but what.

“Nick Dyer, the congresswoman’s communications director, told the Guardian in an email that the $495 Overland coat – made with alpaca wool and fur trim – was meant to “highlight” the president’s lack of comment on the balloon during his State of the Union speech. “Biden refused to mention it, just like he refused to stop the intelligence-gathering operation that traversed the United States and surveilled some of our most important military facilities in the country,” Dyer said.

Political Twitter had its own feelings about what the coat represented. “I dunno why but Marjorie Taylor Greene in that white coat screaming at Biden gave me a powerful ‘Russian Karen vibe’,” tweeted Politico Europe journalist Nika Melkozerova.

If reports are true that the congresswoman is vying for a spot as Trump’s 2024 running mate, “she’s certainly leaning into his playbook,” GUK surmised, “...get on television by any means possible, even if it means dressing up as a balloon.”

Famed fashion designer Paco Rabanne was reported to have died this week, but there was no confirmation that his expiration was due to a glance at MTG’s Hindenberg statement.  “The humanity!  The Humanity!”  (The alpacas... although former department of defense aide Adam Blickstein joked that “Marjorie Taylor Greene’s coat is made from the dogs George Santos said he was rescuing.”

GUK also mentioned... briefly... the iridescent yellow “Big Bird” flounces draping DINO Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, but neither they, any American journalist or even commentators from Pravda, Xinhua or Hamshahri dared venture what statement, if anything, that she was making.  

Leaving politiFashion by the wayside,  the likewise liberal CNN also taking a leaf-blower to the coffin-flies in the room by stating that Biden had spoken with “vigor” (or ‘vigah” as the viminal-appearing but internally decrepit post-Dallas JFK would have said) in its post-SOU “takeaways” menu, (see section below).  They did provide (a somewhat) fair and balanced coverage (albeit editorially shaded... the network citing the Response as a somewhat dark warning against Democratic policies deemed “crazy”)  to Republican respondent Sarah Huckabee Sanders, daughter of an Arkansas Governor (not that one) and President Trump’s former Press Secretary (also below – and beyond). 

 

The SOU began unfolding as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca) sent a letter to Biden back on Jan. 13, inviting the president to address Congress and the nation – a constitutionally mandated tradition that dates back to George Washington as Politico reported (Attachment Five) in its primer on the whys, wherefores and how to watch the show.

Probably swallowing a flask of disgust, if not bourbon, KMac grinned and bore it, saying: “The American people sent us to Washington to deliver a new direction for the country, to find common ground, and to debate their priorities,” the California Republican said in a letter to Biden. “Your remarks will inform our efforts to address the priorities of the American people,” McCarthy added.

Also doing her duty, “White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre quickly announced that Biden accepted and was “grateful” for the invitation.

“He looks forward to speaking with Republicans, Democrats, and the country about how we can work together to continue building an economy that works from the bottom up and the middle out, keep boosting our competitiveness in the world, keep the American people safe, and bring the country together,” Jean-Pierre said in statement shortly after McCarthy sent his invitation.

 

Prior to the SOU, the pollsters and the pundits put their bets down on what topics the President would and would not bring up and... left, center and right (the direction)... they were mostly right (the concurrence) about his statements.

          Pivoting from protocol to probabilities, Politico ventured that Biden seemed unlikely to mention the ongoing saga over classified documents found in his home and office, and was “not expected to announce whether or not he will run again in 2024.”

Two for two!... although Politico repoted that CNN is reporting that the president will launch his campaign shortly after the State of the Union.

In advance of the eve of reckoning, USA Today correspondents Maureen Groppe and Michael Collins predicted that, in delivering the SOU, Biden would will amplify his message that Democrats and Republicans can work together. (Attachment Six)

But facing dim prospects for more major legislative wins, a looming showdown over the federal budget and a GOP House investigating his administration and family, Biden will tout his successes and lay out what more he wants to do if given the chance.

“To me, it sort of sets the stage for I think what’s going to be just a consequential battle this year between Joe Biden and House Republicans,” Robert Gibbs, who was President Barack Obama’s press secretary, said on the “Hacks on Tap” podcast. 

Or, less stated but also noted, a “consequential battle” between Ol’ White Joe and... before November, 2024, any other Democrats on his left or right (or simply possessing the proper credentials, gumption and fundraising) to keep the primaries free of any serious challengers.

Over at The Hill, where a professionalism... valid or not... usually trumps partisanship, opinionater Liz Peek took a dis-usual peek at the President’s motives and integrity and deduced that Biden would “highlight his dishonest take on the economy.”

Noting that President Biden seemed “extremely happy” to take credit for the booming January jobs report, boasting “We have created more jobs in two years than any presidential term within two years. That’s the strongest two years of job growth in history, by a long shot,” he then, according to Peek, “ could not leave well enough alone.

Asked by a reporter whether he took responsibility for manufacturing the highest inflation in 40 years, he snapped “Do I take any blame for inflation? No. Because it was already there when I got here, man.”

He went on: “Remember what the economy was like when I got here? Jobs were hemorrhaging, inflation was rising, we weren’t manufacturing a damn thing here … that’s why I don’t.”

Oh my, Liz fairly collapsed into vapors; “Biden wonders why people think he is dishonest.”

The always-liberal Guardian U.K. also slid in a faint damnation (or, at least, skepticism) with their homage, admitting that President Joe faced a‘tightrope’ in balancing realism and optimism.  (Sunday, Attachment Eight) and made mention of the Republican rebuttal to be delivered by Sanders.

“The American people deserve better than Democrats’ runaway inflation, surging crime, open borders, and failing schools,” the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a statement. He added that Sanders, who at 40 is currently the youngest governor in the country, would deliver a “sharp contrast with this exhausted and failing administration”.

Embracing the opportunity, Sanders said: “We are ready to begin a new chapter in the story of America – to be written by a new generation of leaders ready to defend our freedom against the radical left and expand access to quality education, jobs, and opportunity for all.”

And fellow portsiders at NPR were also informed by Peter Wehner, a former Presidential speechwriter for George W. Bush,  that there’s “a careful balance to strike. (Sunday, Feb. 5th, Attachment Nine)

"You're speaking to an audience that includes the opposition party as well as your own, and you don't want to, as a president, come across as petty or divisive," said Wehner.

"Bill Clinton, he always had the hand out," said Carolyn Curiel, one of his speechwriters regarding another SOUnionizer.  "There is nobody he didn't want to befriend, even those who had done him harm in politics and otherwise. And if he took the stage with any feelings that were bad, he let them go. Because you need as many people in the room as possible to think, 'He's not a bad guy. Maybe I can work with him.'"

But that speech wasn't just about convincing the politicians in the room that Clinton had a political future: it was also about answering lingering questions from the public after a worse midterm shellacking.

Then again, he may have had Monica and Whitewater, but he didn’t have the age problem.

Another dispatch from NPR before dawn, Monday morning (Attachment Ten) picked out Kevin Mac, not the voters nor pollsters, nor the Chinese, as the principal audience (or, perhaps target) of and forvBiden’s message.

"I think he's the Republican leader, and I haven't had much of an occasion to talk to him," Biden said, before quickly shifting topics, when asked about McCarthy in the immediate wake of November's election.

While NPR’s Scott Detrow said that Biden has “a good working relationship” with top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, with whom he worked out several debt ceiling deals during Obama’s regime and who. in Biden's final days as vice president, memorably praised the Democrat, “and moved to rename a piece of legislation after Biden's late son Beau, as Biden presided over the chamber and wiped tears from his eyes,” adding that the President has two main differences in his “dynamics” with Speaker McCarthy.

“Biden's working relationship with the Senate leader is grounded in two things McConnell has that McCarthy doesn't have: decades of time in the legislative trenches alongside Biden; and perhaps more importantly, a firm grip over the politics of his caucus.”

And then there were the peekers and the leaker hunters like Peter Nichols at NBC (Feb. 5th, Attachment Eleven) who disclosed the intent of the President in using the speech “to reach a wider audience that may have only a passing interest in politics and policy, and assure its members that he’s enacted plans that will make their daily commutes shorter and their prescription drug bills lower,” according to “a person close to the White House.”

Finally, Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Central asked the question that certain species of Don Joneses were anxious to have answered... for one way or another... could the new Speaker control his ebullient and often-mutinous troops?

Sincling out Laure Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene as the most likely perpetrators of turning what should have been a “comfortingly boring” night into what he called “a clown show for the ages” in 2022 and then bragged about it in tweets.

“It was, if nothing else, interesting television, in the sense that it was something you don’t see often, like an exploding whale or something. It was also deplorable human behavior and a miserable excuse for governing.”

And with Elon Musk still at the helm of Twitter, sort of, and with Kevin Mac seated right behind President Joe, so as to permit America and the world to watch and assess his every reaction to Biden’s words, and any heckling they might engender... well, said Goodykoontz: “That visual alone should be worth the price of admission.”

As if Don Jones needed instructions on how to watch the SOU (popcorn, chips, dried out breaded... not Buffalo... chicken wings and cheap beer while saving the Michelob for Super Sunday?), Politifact (Attachment Thirteen) and the American Chamber of Commerce (Attachment Fourteen) stood ready on Monday to tell him what to look and listen for and what to believe (or not).

PoliFact, known for its postprandial fact checking of major private and public discourses (as in Attachment Twenty Two, below) recommended that viewers (on all four consumer networks plus PBS, C- and MS-NBC cable along with NewsNation, Telemundo, Univision, various streaming services, radio broadcasts and perhaps the loud lunatic down the street shrieking out the latest through an open window upon the pros and cons of their trio of first responses: Police violence, the Debt Ceiling and Ukraine.

In addition to Huckabee, several brave (or tired) networks will also air responses in Spanish by Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Az, and a “progressive response” from Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Il.

In advance of the SOU, PolitiFact tossed in a teaser about the issues and the President’s response, contending that when they “checked in at the halfway point of his term, we found he has kept many promises around health care, but has been less successful on pledges about criminal justice and has a mixed record on immigration.”

Suzanne P. Clark, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerse stated that President Joe has “an important opportunity to set the tone for what can and should be a year of considerable bipartisan progress,” but, like so many others, also said that enacting legislatation as opposed to wishing and hoping would be a “tall task” due to the loss of the House and the intransigence of both parties on issues from debt to immigration (where the Chamber, ulike other conservative bodies, supports faster protocols that will ensure the flow of cheap labor), a more traditional loosening of permitting regulations, and promoting trade... particularly with China.

Specaking of Celestials, Commies and zeppelin chop suey, Axios (Axios, Attachment Fifteen) made the point that the balloon overflight had “crashed” the SOU.   Biden would have to “signal to Beijing that violating America’s airspace won’t be tolerated, while also convincing Americans — and skeptical Republicans — that he did enough to protect U.S. airspace,” without totally obliterating the capacity of his administration to cooperate with China on everything from the global economy to climate change.

Axios also cited a “big picture” paradigm shift: “In ways subtle and overt, Biden has codified President Trump’s confrontational approach to China. Along the way, he has turned Trump's instincts into the new bipartisan Washington consensus that China needs to be checked and challenged.”

Fox News, unconvinced of Biden’s “come to Djonald” moment scoffed that he had “only mentioned China three times in his 2022 SOU” and that, of late, “the administration has ignored or downplayed the growing threat of the Chinese Communist Party.”  (Attachment Sixteen) 

 “News commentators” (unnamed except, of course for Fox itself) have speculated that “the president won’t mention the balloon incident, which many have criticized as a blunder, at all during his speech Tuesday evening. Whether he takes a tougher stance against China and Chinese President Xi Jinping, however, remains to be seen.”

On Sunday, U.S. officials revealed that another Chinese spy balloon crashed into the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii four months ago, “and at least one Chinese spy balloon flew over portions of Texas and Florida during the Trump administration,” the Fox admitted, despite the former president's insistence it never happened.

Former President Trump and a number of his top national security and defense officials pushed back against Biden admin claims that Chinese surveillance balloons briefly transited the continental United States during the Trump administration in statements to Fox News Dirigible... er, Digital.

Former Trump White House national security adviser John Bolton told Fox News Digital that he never heard of anything like this under his tenure.

"I don’t know of any balloon flights by any power over the United States during my tenure, and I’d never heard of any of that occurring before I joined in 2018," Bolton said. "I haven’t heard of anything that occurred after I left either."

Robert O’Brien, who served as White House national security adviser from 2019 to 2021, told Fox News Digital that he had no knowledge of anything like this occurring.

"Unequivocally, I have never been briefed on the issue," O’Brien said, telling Fox News Digital that his team, which included Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security adviser, and Allison Hooker, who served as senior adviser to Asia, also were not briefed on these activities.”

Will Biden attempt to deflect the criticism by pairing himself with his predecessor on issues dirigible as he is attempting to do on the matter of the pilfered classified documents found in their homes, offices, garages (and even in Mike Pence’s sweaty possession)?  Don Jones would have to wait until Tuesday night for an answer.  (See below)

A conservative cry: “Nuke the State of the Union” came from a predictable source… the National Review (Attachment Seventeen).  The Buckley Boys called Joe’s promises “monarchial and… unrepublican.”  Imagine!

 

Time’s chronic columnist Philip Elliott... perhaps fearing another JoeFlop... not only threw a wet blanket over the upcoming SOU (February 6th, Attachment Eighteen), he more or less grabbed his My Pillow and suffocated the unborn address in its father/mother’s womb (probably to the horror of assorted Huckabees).

Declaring “few state of the union speeches have had lower stakes than this one,” Elliott stated that “...(f)or President Joe Biden on Tuesday night, the stakes for his address are as low as the expectations,” and that words... even nice words, would have no effect upon policy, perpetrations or his promises to America.

Put simply, he added “there isn’t a whole lot of reason to think much of anything Biden proposes on Tuesday can become law in this environment, especially as Republicans open a pile of investigations into Biden in the hopes of denting his hopes for a second term.”

Biden isn’t one to “blow the doors off any room with polished delivery or lofty rhetoric”. Elliott dissects the Presidential paychology; Joe being “a grind-it-out guy,” and the SOU will be another installment in his “masterclass in governing by adulting.

He is expected to address China’s latest “spying-gone-wrong balloon”, as well as his order for a U.S. missile to shoot it down, to tell lawmakers that they must raise the nation’s borrowing limit and that he won’t negotiate on that previously routine move. Advisers say Biden will also once again propose an assault-weapons ban and policing reforms, and those same advisers expect that once again those ideas will go nowhere, even in the wake of more mass shootings and police atrocities in recent weeks.

Not to mention the polls.  Not lookin’ good.

But if the State of the Union is all about 2024, not 2023, Elliott contends that as long as Biden is publicly signaling he will seek a second term, Democrats are locked in a holding pattern of sorts—unwilling to challenge their incumbent, all the while ignoring problems with the broader brand. “But the possibility of a second Biden term also puts most Republican cooperation on ice, all but guaranteeing Tuesday’s State of the Union to be something of a snooze.”

So Tuesday arrived and, as the clock tick-tokked down to the witching (and bitching and, for some, the enriching) hour, last minute preparations were made (security, in light of the Nine Eleven and One Six was massive), teleprompter transcripts were revised, mass and partisan media making their final desperate projections.

Fox, at 5:20 PM (slightly over two and a half hours to go) broke the news of the guest list... principally the former Nine Eleven firefighter, a Democrat invited, by Rep. Santos (R-NY).

Some of the guests were celebrities: Paul Pelsoi, U2’s Bono, Monterey Park hero Brandon Tsay, Tyre Nichols’ parents, an assortment of environmental, anti-cancer, veterans and immigrant activists and representative Americans... a teacher, ironworker, an eggman (but no walrus) - a pollster, a pawn (pick a Democratic Congressperson), but not a King (Charles stayed home, although CNBC reported that Ukrainian ambassador Oksana Markarova would, and did attend).

Some were specifically invited to embarrass or unnerve the star of the show... some Afghanistan veterans who still craved “answers on the deadly withdrawal,” a women’s swimming champion and activist opposing transgender athletes and “the Left’s subversive war on women,” and, according to CNBC, Rep. Mary Miller (R-Il), boycotting the speech as “lies”, who was giving her ticket to former U.S. Air Force Col. Mark Hurley, “who retired from the military because of Biden’s unjust COVID vaccine mandate.”

 

 

Senator Schumer (D-NY) condemned the Republicans’ “political theater”.  KMac said he had “no plans” to “repeat Pelosi 'theatrics' and rip up Biden’s SOTU speech,” as the former speaker did in 2020.

 

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) fired back at “failed far-left Democrats”, Biden’s “COVID-19 power grab”, the Chinese Communist Party's malign influence and the weaponization of the federal government."

CNBC, half an hour later (Attachment Twenty) debriefed “White House aides” who ratted out their boss by revealing that the economy, the war, the plague and China would “dominate the speech”.

Some revelations!

Specifically, Joe would be promising to impose a “billionaires’ tax” of a minimum 15% with more on stock buybacks, using the swag to pay for price cuts for insulin while SecTreas Janet Yellin was taking “steps” to avoid the debt ceiling default which... down the street... Fed Chair was warning that the American banking system would fail if Congress failed.

The network also predicted strong words on Covid, on social media companies spying on youth, increasing penalties for fentanyl sale and use.

The Associated Press, as Biden was rehearsing his choices line, lies... according to some... and promises, corroborated other predictions about his predictable topics and “warily” sized up his fitness for a likely reelection bid.  (Attachment Twenty One).

With KMac replacing Nancy as Speaker, the AP surmised that it was “unclear what kind of reception restive Republicans in the chamber will give the Democratic president.”

Would they throw shoes?  Vegetables.  Hold up screenshots from Hunter’s laptop porn?

Big Mac proposed something President Joe had refused to do on the debt ceiling... a deal, vowing to McCarthy on Monday vowed to be “respectful” during the address if Biden refrained from using the phrase “extreme MAGA Republicans,” which the president deployed on the campaign trail in 2022.

Djonald UnPresent made no mention of this disloyal ploy in his own post-SOU address.

Turns out there was no deal, no “respect” and... for Don Jones... a little of that quality some Republicans were pimping in their appeal to American Youth: EXCITEMENT!

 

And then it became...

 

      SHOWTIME!

 

Referring back to the transcript of President Joe’s remarks (Attachment One, previously mentioned), here are some of his statements and some of the responses gleaned from various friends, foes and FOX-y talking heads.

Some of the more numerous comments and criticisms come from  Politifact (Attachments Twenty Two and Twenty Two A), CNN (Attachments Twenty Three and Twenty Four), Vox (Attachment Twenty Five), the New York Times (Attachment Twenty Six) and Reuters (Attachment Twenty Seven); as well from sources already noted, noticed and attached.

Direct quotes from Biden’s SOU are depicted in RED.  Comments and fact checks from the above and a few others are in BLACK, as with usual text.   On a few occasions, a pertinent shout of support from a Democrat or liberal media stooge (that’s you, GUK, you, Rolling Stone, you, Slate and Huffpost etc.) is depicted in, of course, BLUE.  And we at the Index could not help adding a reaction or two... these are in GREEN.  (Not that we endorse the party of Putin-loving pariahs of the same name...)

 

The ISSUES

 

INTRODUCTION

Mr. Speaker. Madam Vice President. Our First Lady and Second Gentleman.

Members of Congress and the Cabinet. Leaders of our military.

Mr. Chief Justice, Associate Justices, and retired Justices of the Supreme Court.

And you, my fellow Americans.

I start tonight by congratulating the members of the 118th Congress and the new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working together.

I also want to congratulate the new leader of the House Democrats and the first Black House Minority Leader in history, Hakeem Jeffries.

Congratulations to the longest serving Senate Leader in history, Mitch McConnell.

And congratulations to Chuck Schumer for another term as Senate Majority Leader, this time with an even bigger majority.

And I want to give special recognition to someone who I think will be considered the greatest Speaker in the history of this country, Nancy Pelosi.

The story of America is a story of progress and resilience. Of always moving forward. Of never giving up.

A story that is unique among all nations.

We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it.

That is what we are doing again.

Mr. Speaker. Madam Vice President. Our First Lady and Second Gentleman.

Members of Congress and the Cabinet. Leaders of our military.

Mr. Chief Justice, Associate Justices, and retired Justices of the Supreme Court.

And you, my fellow Americans.

I start tonight by congratulating the members of the 118th Congress and the new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working together.

I also want to congratulate the new leader of the House Democrats and the first Black House Minority Leader in history, Hakeem Jeffries.

Congratulations to the longest serving Senate Leader in history, Mitch McConnell.

And congratulations to Chuck Schumer for another term as Senate Majority Leader, this time with an even bigger majority.

And I want to give special recognition to someone who I think will be considered the greatest Speaker in the history of this country, Nancy Pelosi.

No arguments here.  Yet.

 

THE ECONOMY

Two years ago, our economy was reeling.

As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.

“In raw numbers, Biden did oversee greater job growth than any post-World War II president’s first or second term in office. However, this achievement comes with asterisks. 

“Population growth skews the calculation, with Biden benefiting from a larger population. Measured by percentage increase from the time the president took office, which reduces the impact of population size, Biden rates in the middle of the pack.

“And although Biden has outpaced every post-World War II president in job gains per year, he benefited by taking office on the upswing of a deep recession. He also has not faced a recession yet, something most of his predecessors experienced during their longer terms.

Biden is correct about 12 million jobs created, but his comparison with previous presidents is Half True. 

Unemployment rate at 3.4%, a 50-year low. Near record low unemployment for Black and Hispanic workers.

We’ve already created 800,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs, the fastest growth in 40 years.

Biden has been upbeat on his economic policies after recent reports showed near-record low unemployment and strong job growth, but his speech exhibited his broader ambitions to reshape the economy into one that grows “from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down.” (CNN)

The labor market also remains very hot, with last week’s jobs report putting the unemployment rate at its lowest level since 1969. A historically low unemployment rate is normally good news. But in an economy with high inflation, a tight labor market can lead to even higher prices. The Federal Reserve could respond by trying to slow the economy further, which could cause a recession. (New York Times)

(H)is “record low unemployment rate” is not because of job creation, but because many Americans are still cashing government checks and no longer interested in looking for work. (The Hill)

Now, thanks to all we’ve done, we’re exporting American products and creating American jobs.

 

       TRADE

Not mentioned as relates to tariffs, quotas, other areas dealing with foreign imports and/exports except for the above-referenced promises to promote American jobs.  The sole reference was to the potential role of the Federal Trade Commission as a vehicle in labor/management issues.

30 million workers had to sign non-compete agreements when they took a job. So a cashier at a burger place can’t cross the street to take the same job at another burger place to make a couple bucks more.

Not anymore.

We’re banning those agreements so companies have to compete for workers and pay them what they’re worth.

I’m so sick and tired of companies breaking the law by preventing workers from organizing.

Pass the PRO Act because workers have a right to form a union. And let’s guarantee all workers a living wage.

 

       INFLATION

Inflation has been a global problem because of the pandemic that disrupted supply chains and Putin’s war that disrupted energy and food supplies.

But we’re better positioned than any country on Earth.

We have more to do, but here at home, inflation is coming down.

Here at home, gas prices are down $1.50 a gallon since their peak.

Food inflation is coming down.

Inflation has fallen every month for the last six months while take home pay has gone up.

“The rate at which prices have been rising — inflation — has now cooled for six straight months.

But inflation is still high. America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, targets an annual rate of roughly 2 percent, and its preferred inflation measure is still closer to 5 percent.  (The New York Times)

 

"Inflation has fallen every month for the last six months while take home pay has gone up."

The first part is accurate: Year-over-year inflation peaked around 9% in June and has since fallen to a little higher than 6%.

Whether "take-home pay has gone up" is more complicated. 

High inflation has hurt workers by cutting into their wages. For the first 18 months of Biden’s presidency, inflation-adjusted wages fell, from $373 a week to $359. Over the past two quarters, which equals six months, wage gains finally started to outpace inflation, rising to $364 per week.

Also, the numbers are averages... (PolitiFact – and see Equality, below)

 

EQUALITY (Social, Economic, Class, Race and Handouts... to rich and powerful or poor and powerless)

For decades, the middle class was hollowed out.

Too many good-paying manufacturing jobs moved overseas. Factories at home closed down.

Once-thriving cities and towns became shadows of what they used to be.

Tuesday’s speech was salted with riffs and lines that appear nearly every time he speaks: inherited wisdoms from his father, anecdotes about inequality and his views of the middle class.

“So many of you feel like you’ve just been forgotten,” he said, directly appealing to a demographic that used to vote reliably for Democrats but has more recently turned to the GOP.

“Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible. Maybe that’s you, watching at home,” he said. “You wonder whether a path even exists anymore for you and your children to get ahead without moving away.” (CNN)

 

“Also, the numbers (on wages v. inflation above) are averages. Many workers receive yearly salaries or wages that don’t adjust more than once a year, and they wouldn’t necessarily have received wage increases during the high-inflation period to which Biden was referring. (PolitiFact)

 

          HEALTHCARE

“Will you have the money to pay your medical bills? Will you have to sell the house?

“I get it. With the Inflation Reduction Act that I signed into law, we’re taking on powerful interests to bring your health care costs down so you can sleep better at night...

“You know, we pay more for prescription drugs than any major country on Earth.

“Let’s cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American who needs it.

“This law also caps out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors on Medicare at a maximum $2,000 per year... (i)f drug prices rise faster than inflation, drug companies will have to pay Medicare back the difference... (a)nd we’re finally giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.”

 

“That's a touch too broad. Although the Inflation Reduction Act will allow Medicare for the first time to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers, the provision will not take effect until 2026. The initial group of negotiable drugs will be limited to 10 that year. More drugs will be added to the negotiation list each year. 

“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is barred from negotiating on prescription drugs in the Medicare program until they've been on the market for several years.  (PolitiFact)

 

THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT (small, large and monkey)

Additionally, over the last two years, a record 10 million Americans applied to start a new small business.

Every time somebody starts a small business, it’s an act of hope.

And the Vice President will continue her work to ensure more small businesses can access capital and the historic laws we enacted.

 

“Of course, the president tipped his hat to “soaking the rich” and greater regulation of industry, while, ironically, calling for more investment in small business and oil drilling in America — he still fails to understand that his policies are “soaking the poor” through inflation, discouraging American energy production, and killing private investment sources for small, job-creating businesses.” (The Hill)

 

Semiconductors, the small computer chips the size of your fingertip that power everything from cellphones to automobiles, and so much more. These chips were invented right here in America.

America used to make nearly 40% of the world’s chips.

But in the last few decades, we lost our edge and we’re down to producing only 10%. We all saw what happened during the pandemic when chip factories overseas shut down.

 

“Biden and his aides believe steps to counter China are one of the rare areas where he could find bipartisan support. He saw some success on that front with the passage of a law boosting US semiconductor production last year. (CNN)

 

INFRASTRUCTURE

(T)o maintain the strongest economy in the world, we also need the best infrastructure in the world.

We used to be #1 in the world in infrastructure, then we fell to #13th.

Now we’re coming back because we came together to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the largest investment in infrastructure since President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System.

 

“This is partially accurate, depending on how it’s counted.

“The law includes $110 billion in funding to repair roads and bridges and support major projects, like a bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio and a tunnel between New York and New Jersey. There are two ways to assess the impact: by the scale of individual projects, or the total spending on roads and bridges. 

“The infrastructure bill has allowed long-delayed projects to proceed, but comparing total spending over the years presents a challenge. 

“Biden is correct if you take the last big infrastructure push in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided $27.5 billion for roads and bridges  — a quarter of what’s in the 2021 infrastructure bill. 

“But the 2009 money came on top of funds that started flowing in 2005. When Adie Tomer, a researcher at the Brookings Institution think tank, ran the numbers, he found that as a percentage of GDP, total spending on roads and bridges reached 0.3% in 2010. The estimate for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as a percentage of GDP is projected to reach a high of 0.24% in 2027. Viewed that way, although the money in the bill is a relatively large amount, the actual spending from multiple bills was higher in 2010.

“The Eisenhower Interstate Highway System was funded at $25 billion in 1956. That would equal about $275 billion today, but Biden didn’t say the 2021 bill surpassed the Eisenhower-era legislation. He said it was the most significant since then.”  (PolitiFact)

 

“Congress passed legislation addressing climate change, infrastructure and gun violence, and some of it was bipartisan...

“Biden touted the low unemployment rate and said that bipartisan bills to improve infrastructure and grow high-tech manufacturing would create even more jobs...

“Biden’s message — that he’s delivering the infrastructure spending and economic nationalism Donald Trump promised — is a potent case for re-election, Ross Douthat writes in Times Opinion.  (The New York Times)

 

“Of course, Biden applauded his infrastructure bill. But in an administration that uses semantics to claim that “up” actually means “down” and has Buttigieg claiming that “infrastructure” is social justice, rather than highways and bridges, Biden finally got to the point when he slyly acknowledged that infrastructure is actually, still, political “pork” — and that he would distribute it broadly, even to Republicans who voted against his programs. That was a refreshing, but astonishing, moment of honesty.” (Reuters)

 

And when we do these projects, we’re going to Buy American.

Buy American has been the law of the land since 1933. But for too long, past administrations have found ways to get around it.

Not anymore.

Tonight, I’m also announcing new standards to require all construction materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in America.

American-made lumber, glass, drywall, fiber optic cables.

And on my watch, American roads, American bridges, and American highways will be made with American products.

 

Even more strange, he talked about “Buy American,” building plants in the U.S. and demanding American content in manufacturing to recapture American strength and offset lost jobs, and the lost pride and self-worth of employment. This was strange because the “Buy America,” “create jobs at home,” “rebuild America” is pure Trump — the very “Make America Great Again” that Biden blisteringly criticized in last year’s State of the Union address. So, once again, Joe Biden is plagiarizing — this time, Donald Trump. (Reuters)

 

 

TAXES

“(W)e pay for these investments in our future by finally making the wealthiest and the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share.

I’m a capitalist. But just pay your fair share.

And I think a lot of you at home agree with me that our present tax system is simply unfair.

The idea that in 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal income taxes?

That’s simply not fair.

 

And, according to Politifact, it’s Mostly True.

“A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded that at least 55 large companies paid zero federal income taxes in 2020. Critics say that the financial disclosures used to compile the report are imperfect estimates of what the companies actually paid in taxes, since the accounting rules are different for the two types of filings. 

“Separate data from the Joint Committee on Taxation, which is based on actual tax returns, has supported the study’s general point that many big companies have small tax bills.”

(See also: Rick Scott and Debt)

 

 

But now, because of the law I signed, billion-dollar companies have to pay a minimum of 15%.

Just 15%.

That’s less than a nurse pays. Let me be clear.

Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in taxes...

Reward work, not just wealth. Pass my proposal for a billionaire minimum tax... (b)ecause no billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a school teacher or a firefighter...

“(Q)uadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks to encourage long term investments instead...

“The idea was popularized by progressives like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 campaign. Biden has vowed to not raise taxes on Americans earning under $400,000 annually.

“Now because of the law I signed, billion-dollar companies have to pay a minimum of 15%, God love them,” Biden said to jeers by Democrats. “15%! That’s less than a nurse pays!

“Biden previously proposed a 20% tax on billionaires in March of last year as part of his federal budget. In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Biden called on Congress to “finish the job.” The proposal did not gain much traction then and is unlikely to go anywhere in the Republican-controlled House. (Associated Press)

 

DEBT, and the Debt Ceiling

In the last two years, my administration cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion – the largest deficit reduction in American history.

“This needs context.

“Biden has a point that his administration has presided over smaller deficits than those under Trump’s administration, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates. But Biden’s remark leaves out important context. 

“The Congressional Budget Office’s most recent estimate projects a 2022 deficit of about $944 billion. That’s much less than the $2.7 trillion the previous year. 

“However, the debt had risen in 2021 because of a temporary phase of unusual federal spending because of the coronavirus pandemic. In absolute dollars, the current deficit is much more in line with what it was in pre-pandemic 2019.”  (PolitiFact)

 

Under the previous administration, America’s deficit went up four years in a row.

Because of those record deficits, no president added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor.

Nearly 25% of the entire national debt, a debt that took 200 years to accumulate, was added by that administration alone.

“This is Half True.

“Biden’s number checks out, but the figure leaves out important details and context. 

“Assigning debt to a particular president can be misleading. Much of the debt traces back to decades-old, bipartisan legislation that set the parameters for Social Security and Medicare.

“Also, the largest single spikes in the federal debt came in 2020 from the initial rounds of coronavirus pandemic relief legislation. Former President Donald Trump signed those laws, but they passed with broad bipartisan support.

“Meanwhile, other ways of analyzing the data undermine his point. 

“If you look at the raw amount of debt added during a presidency, Barack Obama, who governed with Biden as vice president, ranks first and Trump ranks second.

“Obama’s figure is so much larger than Trump’s partly because he served eight years, while Trump served only four. If you divide the debt accumulated during each president’s tenure by the number of years they served, Biden, with only two years in office, has seen the largest rise in debt, with Trump second and Obama third.”

 

How did Congress respond to all that debt?

They lifted the debt ceiling three times without preconditions or crisis.

Note to all you Joneses out there: This was the only time... repeat, the only time that Joe uttered these words, despite the massive editorial concensus that it would be a main, if not the main theme of the SOU!!!  - DJI

They paid America’s bills to prevent economic disaster for our country.

Tonight, I’m asking this Congress to follow suit.

 

       Social Security, Medicare and Rick Scott

Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset every five years.

That means if Congress doesn’t vote to keep them, those programs will go away.

Other Republicans say if we don’t cut Social Security and Medicare, they’ll let America default on its debt for the first time in our history.

I won’t let that happen.

          Heckling breaks out.  – DJI  Upon that issue came the        following responses...

          From the New York Times...

“Republicans heckled Biden and called him a liar when he said members of their party wanted to end Social Security and Medicare. He argued back, leading to a back-and-forth rarely seen in these speeches.”

          From Vox...

Biden’s suggestion that Republicans wanted to get rid of Social Security referencing a proposal from Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) to let all government programs sunset after five years unless explicitly reauthorized, drew loud and angry responses. Although Biden caveated this by saying that only some Republicans want to take away Social Security and Medicare, nearly all of them yelled at him or booed at the implication that they would risk touching the biggest third rail in American politics. Both Speaker Kevin McCarthy and former President Donald Trump have insisted that Republicans would not do any such thing. During Biden’s speech, Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) shouted, “Name one, name one,” from her seat.”  (Vox also cited discouraging words from RINOs like, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) “it cuts me to the core” and Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), whom Vox called “a longtime McCarthy ally” - See Attachment Twenty Five)

          From The Hill

“The speech itself made a floundering attempt at bipartisanship at the start — only to throw it all away with the false accusation that Republicans plan to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. After a strong reaction from Republicans, he was forced to publicly back away from the accusation — perhaps the first time in history that a president retracted a false charge in the middle of his own speech.”

From PolitiFact

DJI – PF did not rank this portion of the SOU – instead they published the highlighted article from June, 2022.  (Attachment Twenty Two A)  They did note that G.O.P. “leaders” did not support the adventure (probably after considering the effects upon conservative-leaning senior voters).

Biden’s calls for bipartisan cooperation, including on raising the debt ceiling, seemed to rankle some Republicans. His warnings about what some congressional GOP members want to do with Medicare and Social Security led U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to shout, "Liar!" 

PolitiFact fact-checked Biden’s claim about desired GOP changes to the social programs and several others about the health of the economy, the infrastructure law and an assault weapons ban.

"Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s the majority." 

House and Senate Republican leaders say they don’t support this, but at least one senator has broadly floated the idea. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., released a plan in 2022 that stated "all federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again." (Scott’s plan is a policy document that he is promoting again for his 2024 reelection.)”

 

Social Security and Medicare are a lifeline for millions of seniors.

Americans have been paying into them with every single paycheck since they started working.

So tonight, let’s all agree to stand up for seniors. Stand up and show them we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare.

          Almost everyone did. 

Those benefits belong to the American people. They earned them.

 

If anyone tries to cut Social Security, I will stop them. And if anyone tries to cut Medicare, I will stop them.

I will not allow them to be taken away.

Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

(President Joe also proscribed “junk fees”, union and voter suppression, “non-compete” clause repeal and regulations on airline, cable, cellphone, banking and ticket brokering monopolies... a shout-out to the “Swifties” while promoting housing affordability, home caregiving, education and childcare)  See Attachment One

His focus on highly specific issues – like eliminating “junk fees” for consumers or reining in tech companies – are areas the White House believes will resonate with Americans who aren’t necessarily attuned to the ins-and-outs of Washington.  (CNN)

 

       THOSE FOREIGNERS

Joe’s sole generic reference to the rest of the world came in his plaudits to himself on “foreign shipping.

Last year I cracked down on foreign shipping companies that were making you pay higher prices for everyday goods coming into our country.

I signed a bipartisan bill that cut shipping costs by 90%, helping American farmers, businesses, and consumers.

That didn’t prevent The Hill from excoriating his foreign policy decisions... all of them,,, and bringing up, as an example, Hunter Biden.

Biden’s goal was to appear to be fully in charge — strong and visionary, confident and competent — to convey that the economy is in great shape, that he has a strong and successful foreign policy strategy, and that he is ready and determined to lead the country for four more years. The context is that he is at great risk and one major stumble could end his political career. His position is precarious and subject to losing a lot of ground if America enters a recession caused by inflation and Fed action; if America suffers foreign policy embarrassment or defeat with China, Russia, Europe, Iran, North Korea, Mexico-Latin America; or if more serious scandal erupts from investigations into his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings or the classified documents found in Biden’s home and office... 

“He devoted a fraction of his time to foreign policy and, rather than laying out any approach to dealing with the growing potential for nuclear conflict with Russia or the rising military aggression from China, he simply resorted to chest-pounding for cheap applause. That risks leaving our enemies with the impression of a weak leader providing a series of green lights for aggression over the next year.

(The Hill)

 

              The Russians...

I spoke from this chamber one year ago, just days after Vladimir Putin unleashed his brutal war against Ukraine.

A murderous assault, evoking images of the death and destruction Europe suffered in World War II.

Putin’s invasion has been a test for the ages. A test for America. A test for the world.

Would we stand for the most basic of principles?

Would we stand for sovereignty?

Would we stand for the right of people to live free from tyranny?

Would we stand for the defense of democracy?

For such a defense matters to us because it keeps the peace and prevents open season for would-be aggressors to threaten our security and prosperity. One year later, we know the answer.

Yes, we would.

And yes, we did.

Despite President Joe’s nod to the Ukrainian ambassador present, the only media response was a brief inclusion in the New York Times concurrence with Biden’s “good news” and numbering American aid as one of several “high points.”

“Ukraine is holding off Russia’s invasion...” was the sum of the Times’ (or anyone’s) response.

 

                The Chinese...

 

By contrast, the President mouthed the word “China” no less than six times (as opposed to three in 2022’a Joe-talk as noted by Fox in Attachment Sixteen.  For example...

 

“Before I came to office, the story was about how the People’s Republic of China was increasing its power and America was falling in the world.

“Not anymore.

“I’ve made clear with President Xi that we seek competition, not conflict.

 

                        The Balloon

And, perhaps because only the one dirigible had been spotted at the time of the speech and was still drifting Southeast, and picking up hostility from Republicans (and a few Democrats), the incursion was only inferenced by President Joe, but not by the carpers.

“The furious Republican backlash to Biden’s handling of a suspected Chinese spy balloon proved illustrative for many at the White House.

Video Ad Feedback cited by CNN

Biden: 'If China threatens our sovereignty, we will act'

“China was included in the text of Biden’s speech well before the balloon slipped into American airspace. But the incursion, which has generated a diplomatic backlash from China and drawn second-guessing from Republicans, lent new urgency to Biden’s message about competing with Beijing. 

“Make no mistake: As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did,” Biden said in his speech.

“Biden and his aides believe steps to counter China are one of the rare areas where he could find bipartisan support. He saw some success on that front with the passage of a law boosting US semiconductor production last year.

“Biden is sensitive to accusations he is weak on China, according to people around him, while still intent on stabilizing the world’s most important bilateral relationship.”  (CNN)

Mention was also made of the Chinese as holding down a spot on America’s enemies’ list  (along with Russia, Iran and a few others) by the New York Times and the Hill.

               

                Immigration...

(L)et’s also come together on immigration and make it a bipartisan issue like it was before.

We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers and seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months.

Since we launched our new border plan last month, unlawful migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has come down 97%.

But America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts.

 

If you won’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border. And a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.

 

“When others pummeled him on the U.S.-Mexican dotted line—”secure the border”—Biden taunted them with an offer to work on comprehensive immigration reform...”  (Time, Attachment Two)

“Biden called for immigration reform during last year’s State of the Union, telling lawmakers, “Let’s get it done once and for all.” It didn’t happen, so look for him to mention immigration again in this year’s address.

Just last month, Biden traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he heard pleas for help in addressing the migrant crisis. The number of migrants crossing the border – some lawfully seeking asylum, others entering illegally – has risen dramatically during his first two years in office. Republicans blame the surge on Biden’s border policies. Last week, the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee opened the first in a series of hearings it is calling “Biden’s border crisis.”

Biden could use his speech to remind Americans of steps his administration has taken to the secure the border and to once again urge Congress to pass immigration reform.”  (USA Today, Attachment SixP

 

“Advance bipartisan talks on border security and immigration. Millions cross our border illegally each year, but visas can’t get processed for engineers and nurses that businesses are desperate to hire and communities need. The system is clearly broken. Last year, with the strong support and input of the Chamber, there were meaningful bipartisan talks on proposals to secure the border, expand E-Verify, protect Dreamers, and increase the number of employment-based visas. It’s time to get the deal done.”  (Chamber of Commerce, Attachment Fourteen)

 

DEMOCRACY

RE: The Nine Eleven

(T)wo years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War.

Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.

 

Would we stand for the defense of democracy?

For such a defense matters to us because it keeps the peace and prevents open season for would-be aggressors to threaten our security and prosperity. One year later, we know the answer.

Yes, we would.

 

There’s one reason why we’re able to do all of these things: our democracy itself.

It’s the most fundamental thing of all.

With democracy, everything is possible. Without it, nothing is.

For the last few years our democracy has been threatened, attacked, and put at risk.

Put to the test here, in this very room, on January 6th.

 

Democracy must not be a partisan issue. It must be an American issue.

 

THE WAR

And, RE Ukraine: Would we stand for the defense of democracy?

For such a defense matters to us because it keeps the peace and prevents open season for would-be aggressors to threaten our security and prosperity. One year later, we know the answer.

Yes, we would.

 

PLAGUE

 

Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much.

Today, COVID no longer controls our lives.

Covid deaths are down about 80 percent compared with a year ago. (New York Times)

Biden’s COVID policies put millions out of work and his extended payments to workers displaced by COVID continue to encourage many not to work at all and have led to one of the lowest labor force participation rates in history.  (Reuters)

 

CLIMATE CHANGE

 

(T)he Inflation Reduction Act is also the most significant investment ever to tackle the climate crisis.

Lowering utility bills, creating American jobs, and leading the world to a clean energy future.

 

I’ve visited the devastating aftermaths of record floods and droughts, storms and wildfires, from Arizona to New Mexico to all the way up to the Canadian border. More timber has been burned that I’ve observed from helicopters than the entire state of Missouri."

 

In addition to emergency recovery from Puerto Rico to Florida to Idaho, we are rebuilding for the long term.

New electric grids able to weather the next major storm.

Roads and water systems to withstand the next big flood.

Clean energy to cut pollution and create jobs in communities too often left behind.

We’re building 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations installed across the country by tens of thousands of IBEW workers.

And helping families save more than $1,000 a year with tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances.

 

Let’s face reality.

The climate crisis doesn’t care if your state is red or blue. It is an existential threat.

We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to confront it. I’m proud of how America is at last stepping up to the challenge.

But there’s so much more to do.

 

His claim about the fires isn’t supported by federal data and the White House provided PolitiFact with no data to back up the assertion.

In 2022, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, 7,577,183 acres burned across the country because of wildfires. That's equivalent to 11,839 square miles. 

Missouri has a total land and water area of 69,707 square miles. To get a Missouri-sized collection of wildfire acreage, you would need to include most of the past six years worth of wildfires, from 2017 to 2022. 

But Biden didn’t specify that he was referring to the past six years, which would have included four years in which he wasn’t in office and wouldn’t have been inspecting any wildfires by helicopter.

There have been about 22,973 square miles of wildfire damage during Biden’s presidency, a size still smaller than Missouri.  (PolitiFact)

 

Congress passed legislation addressing climate change, infrastructure and gun violence, and some of it was bipartisan.  (NY Times)

 

CRIME and GUNS

 

Congress passed legislation addressing climate change, infrastructure and gun violence, and some of it was bipartisan.  (Joe)

Murders quickly spiked over 2020 and 2021, spawning fears of a new national crime wave. Then good news came in 2022: Murders declined by 5 percent in the country’s largest cities.

But as experts often say, one year does not make a trend. Murder rates are still about 30 percent higher than they were in 2019. Other kinds of crime, including robberies and thefts, increased last year.

 

The crime data speak to the uncertainty the U.S. faces on all of these topics: The trends are good, but not good enough to fully reverse the problems of recent years.

(NY Times)

(See also PolitiFact on Rick Scott, Attachment Twenty Two A)

I’m also doubling down on prosecuting criminals who stole relief money meant to keep workers and small businesses afloat during the pandemic.

Before I came to office many inspector generals who protect taxpayer dollars were sidelined. Fraud was rampant.

Last year, I told you the watchdogs are back. Since then, we’ve recovered billions of taxpayer dollars.

Now, let’s triple our anti-fraud strike forces going after these criminals, double the statute of limitations on these crimes, and crack down on identity fraud by criminal syndicates stealing billions of dollars from the American people.

For every dollar we put into fighting fraud, taxpayers get back at least ten times as much.

 

None of those present stood up to applaud fraud.  But the issue did arise in other instances... particularly regarding George Santos, Alec Murdagh and, of course, Hunter.

 

CULTURE WARS

Spoke Joe not on culture, as a concept, nor wokeness, but he did address two of its particulars...

Congress must restore the right the Supreme Court took away last year and codify Roe v. Wade to protect every woman’s constitutional right to choose.

The Vice President and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy. But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans.

Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it...

Let’s also pass the bipartisan Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity.

The only critique of Biden’s cultural comments within the sources listed presumably came from the left: “What did he say on abortion that was new, powerful, energizing or reassuring? Nothing,” the writer Jessica Valenti tweeted. “It came across as an afterthought.”

Sarah Huckabee-Sanders’ response scoffed that Team Biden was “more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality Americans face every day.”

 

PARTISANSHIP

You know, we’re often told that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together.

But over these past two years, we proved the cynics and the naysayers wrong.

Yes, we disagreed plenty. And yes, there were times when Democrats had to go it alone.

But time and again, Democrats and Republicans came together.

Joe Biden’s second formal State of the Union address to Congress was a pugnacious and, at times, partisan speech that met with a heated response from Republicans. (Vox)

 

This doesn’t mean there still isn’t the potential for bipartisan moments in the coming Congress. After all, the first person in the chamber to jump to applaud Biden’s line about cracking down on Big Tech was Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is not exactly the model of centrism in modern American politics. (Also from Vox)

 

The speech itself made a floundering attempt at bipartisanship at the start — only to throw it all away with the false accusation that Republicans plan to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. (The Hill)

 

“Biden spent much of his speech celebrating bipartisan accomplishments from the last year, including funding for scientific research, electoral overhaul and same-sex marriage protections. “We’re often told that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together,” Biden said. “But over the past two years, we’ve proved the cynics and naysayers wrong.”

“But that bipartisanship was before Republicans took control of the House, and they have been clear that they intend to stifle Biden’s presidency. (New York Times)

“Congress passed legislation addressing climate change, infrastructure and gun violence, and some of it was bipartisan.  (Also New York Times)

 

SH-S. in her Response, accused the Biden administration of appearing “more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality Americans face every day” and leaned heavily on culture war issues that she claimed her party “didn’t start and never wanted to fight,” and contentiously made the presumption that the President’s stagnant standing in the polls was a matter of perception, not policy.

“Instead, she appeared to call for a changing of the guard.” CNN deduced, “an appeal for generational change that could apply as much to Democrats and Biden as it could to Republicans and Trump.”

In other words, the implication was not just that President Joe (and, by extension, the rest of those sick, decrepit donkeys) weren’t just wrong... they were old.

“It’s time for a new generation to lead. This is our moment. This is our opportunity,” she said.  And, just as CNN noted repetitiously, she posited: “The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left... (t)he choice is between normal or crazy.” 

 

 

The FUTURE

 

 

ON to WISCONSIN!

 

 

 

January 30th – February 5th, 2023

 

 

Monday, February 6, 2023

Dow:  33,891.02

 

 

Massive 7.8 earthquake strikes along the Turko-Syrian border killing thousands... 2,300 confirmed in the morning, 4,200 by evening.  Dramatic building collapses caught on film and video, as are dramatic rescues; tremors are felt as far away as Jerusalem and Cairo.  It’s called the worst in the region for a century.

   The search intensifies for remains of the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina.  The blimp has become a political led zep for President Joe, with the ChiComs screeching that it was just an innocent weather vehicle while Republicans say he should have destroyed it while it was over Montana, or Alaska, or somewhere.  The military argument that that might have resulted in casualties on the ground is, itself, a casualty of partisanship.

   The Grammies celebrate Viola Davis, whose performance for narrating the audiobook of her memoir Finding Me gains her an EGOT (Emmies, Grammies, Oscars, Tonys).  Other big winners include Harry Styles, for the kids, and Bonnie Raitt (for the boomers).  And Beyonce tabbed to headline the halftime show on Super Sunday with a host of guests as Superbowl Week begins and fans in Kansas Cith and Philadelphia are aroused.

  

 

 

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Dow:  34,156.69

 

 

 

 

 

Partisan economists’ divide as unemployment is lowest in half a century with wages up, but real wages (after inflation) still down.  AMC Theaters start raising movie ticket prices for the “good” seats... middle rows, middle aisles... while Starbucks charges a couple $4,500 for two cups of java.  Credit rates are up, but so are consumer ratings as President Joe takes the podium for his State of the Union (above).

   One lucky lotto winner in Washington State won’t have to worry about even those costs after cashing in a 750M Powerball ticket while lucky (or crafty) BP reports 28B in profits, only half of Exxon’s (last week) but still not too shabby.

   Unlucky murder suspect Bad Al (Murdagh) is told that jurors in his murder trail can be informed of all of the financial crimes that he’s also alleged to have committed; then the court is  cleared due to bomb threat hoax.  Bad Al (Baldwin) demands that the investigators of his “Rust” shooting be, themselves, investigated.

   Earthquake death toll rises to over 5,000 (the regional record was 17,000 in 1999).  Aftershocks cause more buildings to collapse, imperiling rescue workers who keep digging occasional survivors out of the rubble.

 

 

 

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Dow:  33,949.01

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post-SOU spin doctors spin their stories and their wheels.  The cameras catch Presient Joe smiling broadly while the Big Macs scowl at the numbers and at the conduct of some Republicans in the Capitol.  morning talkshow interviews and editorials feature George Stephanopolous comparing the night to a raucous session of the British parliament.  Biden is off to Wisconsin to eat cheese and dismiss his classified documents as “stray papers.”  Veep Kamala heads to Atlanta to talk green energy at Georgia Tech while praising infrastructure projects beginning and asserting that the President is “bold, not old.”

   Videos of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ut) telling a clueless George Santos “you shouldn’t be here,” go viral, then Santos responds that Mitt is a “sick puppy” and says the confrontation “wasn’t very Mormon of him.”     Doctors say that humans who take Vitamin D supplements will be protected against diabetes while animal doctors say that puppies can become sick and should not eat Purina Dog Chow that contains toxic levels of... yup... Vitamin D.

   Numbers roll in: from the earthquake, 9,000 confirmed dead in the morning, 11,000 by afternoon; Disney fires 7,000, Dell 6,000 and Zoom axes 15% of its workforce; Michael Jackson’s catalog goes on sale for half a billion while Lebron James scores 38 to break the all time scoring record set by Kareem Abdul Jabbar of 38,388 points (sent the year Lebron was born). 

   And President Zelenskyy asserts that a thousand Russians are being killed every day, but he still holds out the tin cup for missiles and fighter jets from the French and Germans after America refuses.

 

 

 

Thursday, February 9, 2023

Dow:  33,699.88

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s National Pizza Day.

   Severe storms bring flooding and tornadoes to Mississippi and Louisiana, record high temperatures to the Northeast, but a deep freeze is expected for Super Sunday (but not in Phoenix).  Heating energy costs are spiking... natural gas is up 29%, oil 27% and electricity 11%.  Also inflated are prices on Superbowl snacks – aluminum costs raise prices of beer and soda but chicken wings are cheaper as Bird Flu recedes.

   In Europe, President Z. touts “wings for freedom” – not chickens but the fighter jets he is still seeking to buy (or mooch).  He finds sympathy from King Charles who says he was a former pilot... but, so far... no planes.   (However, he is given a helmet.)

   Doctors and regulators are busy... Fabuloso cleaners are deemed bacterial, FDA says that canned tuna is toxic to pregnant women whose chidren will grow up stupid, and stupid children are mistaking marijuana gummies for candy and getting overdoses. 

   The earthquake toll rises to 17,000... then 21,000 with 75,000 injuried and the city of Antakaya (the Biblical Antioch) is called “gone.”  Miracle rescues continue, though, a newborn baby is released from the rubble even though his mother is killed.  There have been over 600 aftershocks reported.\

 

 

 

Friday, February 10, 2023

Dow:  33,869.27

 

 

 

In the wake of the Chinese balloon (“Master, Master, the blimp!”), an American F22 shoots down an unknown “high altitude object” over Alaska.  It’s a smaller thing, metal, called cylindrical... presumably also Chinese (but if it’s E.T. we may have made a big mistake).  Anyway, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ak), hating on Biden all week, declares we did the right thing.  And to hell with any polar bears struck on the ground.

   The FBI raids former V.P. Mike’s Indiana home and finds another (one!) classified document.  Wow!  The media call it “escalation” but Pence, grins, bears it and says he gave his consent.

   The natural disaster in Turkey and human-caused disaster in the Ukraine rumble on... an occasional EQ survivor is found while Putin fires “waves of missiles” on infrastructure target, hoping to make civilians freeze to death.  Sick puppy!  (Speaking of which, Mitt-scolded bozo Santos is accused of robbing Amish dog breeders to steal healthy puppies and campaign donation fraud.  Who would give money to him... drag queens? rogue Amish? the Liars’ Club?)

   And the Bad Al trials also drag on... Baldwin, sued by family of murdered cinematographer announces he will sue prosecutors, media, anybody for “defamation”.  Murdaugh jury hears tales of his insurance fraud following the family housekeeper’s suspicious death and his former BFF explains the “former” as resulting from Bad Al defrauding him of $192,000.

 

 

Saturday, February 11, 2023

Dow:  (Closed)

 

Yet another “object” is discovered and shot down... this one by Canadians over the frozen Yukon while the search for yesterdays kill in equally frozen Alaska and the giant instrument bay from the giant blimp shot down off South Carolina continue.  Despite the kills yesterday and today, Republicans continue to blame President Joe (but not his military advisors, any more) but without any plans of their own, more or less like the debt ceiling.  Panicking bipartisan politicians say “We don’t want a Cold War with China.”  (How about starting a hot war by, oh, giving fighter jets and nukes to Taiwan, Japan and SoKo?)

   The British, realizing this, withdraw their offer of fighter jets to Ukraine, saying they might do so “after the war”.  They said that!  In response, Ukraine applies to join the UK-less EU.  President Joe says that he’ll go to Poland and observe the fighting from a safe distance and review the progress of the Ukes as the war reaches its first anniversary.

   A gas pipe leak in California creates a toxic mess and a supply chain strangling of gas at the pumps, leading to panic buying in Las Vegas.

 

 

 

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Dow:  (Closed) 

 

 

It’s Super Sunday.  Celebrities gather to party and lay down their bets and Don Jones is told, relentlessly, that the commercials will be the best thing about the show.

   Yet another “object” is detected and shot down... this one over Lake Huron.  Investigators still can’t find the first two, nor the equipment bay of the first, but divers say they think they will retrieve it.  Soon.

   China is quiet, but U.S. military intelligence agrees that Russian troops are having “massive success” in fighting Ukrainians.  Russian troops now number 350,000 – many of them insane or violent convicts joining the Wagner Brigade on a deal for freedom.  But now, some have concluded their tour of duty and, newly freed, are returning to Russia to rob, rape and kill civilians... more trouble for Sad Vlad.

   Elsewhere overseas, the Turkish earthquake toll reaches 33,000 and is on the way to 50K.  There are still miracle rescues, like that of a 10 year old girl after 147 hours buried under rubble, but the people’s anger is turning to developers of the shoddy, shaky apartment buildings that collapsed.  Turkish police have already arrested 130 of them, many as they tried to flee the country.

   Kansas City steals the Superbowl with a 38-35 victory over Philadelphia... the deciding play being a blown call by referees in the final minute, enabling a field goal with no time left.  A great contest, ruined by another bad decision – as if the referees thought all those people, plus Rihanna, were there to watch them.

 

 

The post-SOU Dow was quiescent, but the Don crashed due to two factors... a dramatic decline in trade (or, rather, Americans buying far more stuff from foreign countries like China than we produced for export.  Those who choose to explain this away can, perhaps, express the argument that the Chinese manufacturing crisis is coming to an end as the plague does, but the numbers certainly didn’t look good for President Joe.

   The other factor was a possible glitch in the Debt Clock unemployment figures, which showed a sharp increase in the number of Americans out of the labor force (and presumably sitting on their butts, drinking beer and watching the previews of the Super Bowl).  Again, this might be a mistake, or it might be a correction of an earlier discrepancy between the Debt Clock and BLS figures which showed a drop in real (i.e. recorded and compensated) joblessness falling to the lowest level in half a century.  So we *starred* the numbers (in blue this time) and see if next week’s Index validates the Debt Clock results or causes a correction in the correction.

 

 

 

THE DON JONES INDEX

 

CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

 

See a further explanation of categories here…

 

ECONOMIC INDICES (60%)

CATEGORY

VALUE

BASE

RESULTS

SCORE

OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS

 

INCOME

(24%)

6/17/13 & 1/1/22

LAST

CHANGE

NEXT

SOURCE

 

Wages (hrly. per cap)

9%

1350 points

1/9/23

+0.68%

2/23

1,416.49

1,416.49

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages   28.26

 

Median Inc. (yearly)

4%

600

2/6/23

+0.03%

2/20/23

600.36

600.54

http://www.usdebtclock.org/   35,712

 

Unempl. (BLS – in mi)

4%

600

1/2/23

-2.94%

2/23

670.92

670.92

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000/    3.4

 

Official (DC – in mi)

2%

300

2/6/23

 -1.56%

2/20/23

271.18

275.41

http://www.usdebtclock.org/      5,576

 

Unofficl. (DC – in mi)

2%

300

2/6/23

 +12.9%

2/20/23

304.08

265.50

http://www.usdebtclock.org/    10,510  2,037*

 

Workforce Particip.

   Number

   Percent

2%

300

2/6/23

 

+0.75%                  +0.15%

2/20/23

300.17

300.63

In 160,758 Out 100,245 Total: 261,003 

 

http://www.usdebtclock.org/  61.212 489 498

 

WP %  (ycharts)*

1%

150

1/9/23

+0.16%

2/23

150.95

150.95

https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate  62.40

 

* New anomalies…  perhaps a debt clock reshuffling of older data or a correction in definitions of “unemployed” or “in the workforce”

 

 

OUTGO

15%

 

 

 

 

Total Inflation

7%

1050

1/16/23

-0.1%

2/23

1003.59

1003.59

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm      -0.1 nc

 

Food

2%

300

1/16/23

+0.3%

2/23

281.31

281.31

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.3

 

Gasoline

2%

300

1/16/23

-9.4%

2/23

251.71

251.71

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm      -9.4

 

Medical Costs

2%

300

1/16/23

+0.1%

2/23

290.81

290.81

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.1

 

Shelter

2%

300

1/16/23

+0.8%

2/23

285.33

285.33

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.8

 

 

WEALTH

6%

 

 

 

 

Dow Jones Index

2%

300

2/6/23

 -0.17%

2/20/23

285.89

285.41

https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/   33,926.01  33,869.27

 

Home (Sales)

(Valuation)

1%

1%

150

150

1/16/23

-1.71%              -1.03%             

2/23

128.60

276.40

126.40

273.56

https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics

Sales (M):  4.02 Valuations (K):  366.9

 

Debt (Personal)

2%

300

2/6/23

+0.11%

2/20/23

280.99

280.60

http://www.usdebtclock.org/    72,755

 

 

 

 

NATIONAL

(10%)

 

 

 

 

Revenue (trilns.)

2%

300

2/6/23

+0.001%

2/20/23

384.02

384.05

debtclock.org/       4,609.4

 

Expenditures (tr.)

2%

300

2/6/23

+0.4%

2/20/23

341.88

341.74

debtclock.org/       6,013

 

National Debt tr.)

3%

450

2/6/23

+0.05%

2/20/23

427.97

427.76

http://www.usdebtclock.org/    31,551

(The debt ceiling was 31.4)

 

Aggregate Debt (tr.)

3%

450

2/6/23

+0.05%

2/20/23

424.74

424.51

http://www.usdebtclock.org/    94,153

 

 

 

 

GLOBAL

(5%)

 

 

 

 

Foreign Debt (tr.)

2%

300

2/6/23

-0.69%

2/20/23

343.75

346.11

http://www.usdebtclock.org/   7,141

 

Exports (in billions)

1%

150

2/6/23

-0.674%

3/23

160.37

159.29

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html  250.2

 

Imports (bl.)

1%

150

2/6/23

+1.32%

3/23

172.09

169.81

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html  317.6

 

Trade Deficit (bl.)

1%

150

2/6/23

+8.75%

3/23

334.02

304.78

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html  67.4

 

 

SOCIAL INDICES  (40%)

 

ACTS of MAN

12%

 

 

 

World Affairs

3%

450

2/6/23

   -0.1%

2/20/23

454.91

454.46

NoKo holds massive missile parade.  “Don’t forget us, we’re still here!”  Defeated President Bolxonare vows return to Brazil... civil war looming?

 

Terrorism

2%

300

2/6/23

  -0.2%

2/20/23

293.31

292.72

Terrorist killed after running down seven Jerusalem pedestrians,  killing two, Israelis retaliate with air strikes in Gaza.  Russians boast of “massive success” in Ukraine with over 300,000 boots on the ground, but military experts say the mostly conscripted or convict mercenary forces are taking heavy casualties.

 

Politics

3%

450

2/6/23

  +0.2%

2/20/23

469.17

470.11

SOU transpires with many promises and bad manners (which President Joe turns to his advantage).  Polls show ambivalence towards Biden holding pat, but voters are rejecting Republican debt ceiling “hostage taking” by 65 – 26%.

 

Economics

3%

450

2/6/23

   -0.2%

2/20/23

439.65

438.77

Yahoo fires 20% of its workhouse as website developers, blog operators and other techies face an uncertain future due to the trade war with China.  Egg farmers say their shortage is due to more eggs being hatched to provide birds to replace the dead.

 

Crime

1%

150

2/6/23

 +0.3%

2/20/23

269.81

270.62

FBI dragnet nabs 16 year old who murders 15 year old girl.  NJ “suicide Superintendant” resigns after 14 year old girl kills herself after multiple bullying attacks  Five shot at California “agricultural nursery”.  NY cop killer had over two dozen prior arrests. Five “American” (?) tourists stabbed in Puerto Rico four workers killed at Mexican resort that, as Biden sayd (above) “isn’t a resort.”  Ohio cops arrest journalist for filming Gov. DeWine press conference.

 

ACTS of GOD

(6%)

 

 

 

 

 

Environment/Weather

3%

450

2/6/23

    -0.3%

2/20/23

428.97

427.68

Turkish earthquake toll passes 33,000 as reponse turning from rescue to recovery but the occasional miracles continue... a child pulled free after 99 hours asks for ice cream.  Her record quickly eclipsed by another survivor... 147 hours.  Wildfires sprout after heatwave wracks Chile.  Americans send a giant water tanker to firefighters. 

 

Disasters

3%

450

2/6/23

-0.3%

2/20/23

444.99

443.66

Neo-Nazi attack on power grid foiled in Baltimore.  California gasoline pipeline break results in panic at the pumps in Las Vegas.  Disastrous week for the airlines as United jet catches fire due to passenger’s exploding laptop, Delta plane catches fire in mid-air, four injured as American jet crashes on the runway

 

LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX

(15%)

 

 

 

 

 

Science, Tech, Educ.

4%

600

2/6/23

+0.1%

2/20/23

630.39

631.03

Microsoft plots to add AI apps to its failing Bing to compete with Google/Chrome search engine.  Google loses $100M but  failure of its Chatbox app is blamed for the loss.

 

Equality (econ/social)

4%

600

2/6/23

+0.3%

2/20/23

612.41

614.25

Superbowl firsts include opposing black quarterbacks, brothers playing for rival teams (Mom conflicted) and first all-woman Navy flyover pilots.

 

Health

4%

600

2/6/23

-0.2%

2/20/23

476.79

475.84

Norovirus plague taking hold as tripledemic wanes.  Numerous unnamed foods contaminated with Listeria.  TV docs say some weight loss pills work (but cost  $15K/yr).  FDA testing claims by other docs that they can cure postpartum depression.  Other doctors say Baby Trend strollers are being recalled because they are killing kids.

 

Freedom and Justice

3%

450

2/6/23

+0.1%

2/20/23

460.39

460.85

Turkish police arrest 130 contractors whose shoddy apartment buildings collapsed.  Trump Special Counsel Jack Smith takes on double-duty task of subpoenaing Mike Pence.  Democratic Senators call for airline passenger bill of rights, re: cancellations and fees. Public Radio cites Clara Mattei’s “Capital Order” book says “austerity” intimidates workers, promotes fascism.

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS and TRANSIENT INDEX

 

 

(7%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cultural incidents

3%

450

2/6/23

  +0.3%

2/20/23

478.82

480.26

Chiefs, Eagles battle on Super Sunday: KC steals the game 38 – 35 on last second field goal after blown pass interference call.  Bills’ Damar Hamin gets award, floats possible return to action.  Celebrities gather as Don Jones looked forward to commercials and Rihanna halftime show.  New Mexico State suspends entire basketball team for the season for “hazing” including gay rape. RIP composer Burt! Bachrach, “Chariots of Fire” director Hugh Hudson.

 

Misc. incidents

4%

450

2/6/23

  +0.2%

2/20/23

471.67

472.61

Woman presumed dead revives – jumps out of coffin.  Nine year old graduates high school, says he wants to be a rocket scientist.  New naming glitch on Suburu model “soltera” which means, in soe Spanish speaking countries, “old maid.”  (Remember the Chevy Novas, aka “No Go?”)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Don Jones Index for the week of February 6th through February 12th, 2023 was DOWN 68.81 points

 

The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator.  The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action against parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.

Comments, complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com.

 

 

ATTACHMENT ONE – From VOA.com

TRANSCRIPT: PRESIDENT BIDEN'S 2023 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

The White House released this transcript of President Biden's 2023 State of the Union Address, as prepared for delivery.

 

Mr. Speaker. Madam Vice President. Our First Lady and Second Gentleman.

Members of Congress and the Cabinet. Leaders of our military.

Mr. Chief Justice, Associate Justices, and retired Justices of the Supreme Court.

And you, my fellow Americans.

I start tonight by congratulating the members of the 118th Congress and the new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working together.

I also want to congratulate the new leader of the House Democrats and the first Black House Minority Leader in history, Hakeem Jeffries.

Congratulations to the longest serving Senate Leader in history, Mitch McConnell.

And congratulations to Chuck Schumer for another term as Senate Majority Leader, this time with an even bigger majority.

And I want to give special recognition to someone who I think will be considered the greatest Speaker in the history of this country, Nancy Pelosi.

The story of America is a story of progress and resilience. Of always moving forward. Of never giving up.

A story that is unique among all nations.

We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it.

That is what we are doing again.

Two years ago, our economy was reeling.

As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.

Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much.

Today, COVID no longer controls our lives.

And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War.

Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.

As we gather here tonight, we are writing the next chapter in the great American story, a story of progress and resilience. When world leaders ask me to define America, I define our country in one word: Possibilities.

You know, we’re often told that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together.

But over these past two years, we proved the cynics and the naysayers wrong.

Yes, we disagreed plenty. And yes, there were times when Democrats had to go it alone.

But time and again, Democrats and Republicans came together.

Came together to defend a stronger and safer Europe.

Came together to pass a once-in-a-generation infrastructure law, building bridges to connect our nation and people.

Came together to pass one of the most significant laws ever, helping veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.

In fact, I signed over 300 bipartisan laws since becoming President. From reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, to the Electoral Count Reform Act, to the Respect for Marriage Act that protects the right to marry the person you love.

To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress.

The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere.

And that’s always been my vision for our country.

To restore the soul of the nation.

To rebuild the backbone of America, the middle class.

To unite the country.

We’ve been sent here to finish the job.

For decades, the middle class was hollowed out.

Too many good-paying manufacturing jobs moved overseas. Factories at home closed down.

Once-thriving cities and towns became shadows of what they used to be.

And along the way, something else was lost.

Pride. That sense of self-worth.

I ran for President to fundamentally change things, to make sure the economy works for everyone so we can all feel pride in what we do.

To build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down. Because when the middle class does well, the poor have a ladder up and the wealthy still do very well. We all do well.

As my Dad used to say, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, “Honey –it’s going to be OK,” and mean it.

So, let’s look at the results. Unemployment rate at 3.4%, a 50-year low. Near record low unemployment for Black and Hispanic workers.

We’ve already created 800,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs, the fastest growth in 40 years.

Where is it written that America can’t lead the world in manufacturing again?

For too many decades, we imported products and exported jobs.

Now, thanks to all we’ve done, we’re exporting American products and creating American jobs.

Inflation has been a global problem because of the pandemic that disrupted supply chains and Putin’s war that disrupted energy and food supplies.

But we’re better positioned than any country on Earth.

We have more to do, but here at home, inflation is coming down.

Here at home, gas prices are down $1.50 a gallon since their peak.

Food inflation is coming down.

Inflation has fallen every month for the last six months while take home pay has gone up.

Additionally, over the last two years, a record 10 million Americans applied to start a new small business.

Every time somebody starts a small business, it’s an act of hope.

And the Vice President will continue her work to ensure more small businesses can access capital and the historic laws we enacted.

Standing here last year, I shared with you a story of American genius and possibility.

Semiconductors, the small computer chips the size of your fingertip that power everything from cellphones to automobiles, and so much more. These chips were invented right here in America.

America used to make nearly 40% of the world’s chips.

But in the last few decades, we lost our edge and we’re down to producing only 10%. We all saw what happened during the pandemic when chip factories overseas shut down.

Today’s automobiles need up to 3,000 chips each, but American automakers couldn’t make enough cars because there weren’t enough chips.

Car prices went up. So did everything from refrigerators to cellphones.

We can never let that happen again.

That’s why we came together to pass the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act.

We’re making sure the supply chain for America begins in America.

We’ve already created 800,000 manufacturing jobs even without this law.

With this new law, we will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs across the country.

That’s going to come from companies that have announced more than $300 billion in investments in American manufacturing in the last two years.

Outside of Columbus, Ohio, Intel is building semiconductor factories on a thousand acres – a literal field of dreams.

That’ll create 10,000 jobs. 7,000 construction jobs. 3,000 jobs once the factories are finished.

Jobs paying $130,000 a year, and many don’t require a college degree.

Jobs where people don’t have to leave home in search of opportunity.

And it’s just getting started.

Think about the new homes, new small businesses, and so much more that will come to life.

Talk to mayors and Governors, Democrats and Republicans, and they’ll tell you what this means to their communities.

We’re seeing these fields of dreams transform the heartland.

But to maintain the strongest economy in the world, we also need the best infrastructure in the world.

We used to be #1 in the world in infrastructure, then we fell to #13th.

Now we’re coming back because we came together to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the largest investment in infrastructure since President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System.

Already, we’ve funded over 20,000 projects, including at major airports from Boston to Atlanta to Portland.

These projects will put hundreds of thousands of people to work rebuilding our highways, bridges, railroads, tunnels, ports and airports, clean water, and high-speed internet across America.

Urban. Suburban. Rural. Tribal.

And we’re just getting started. I sincerely thank my Republican friends who voted for the law.

And to my Republican friends who voted against it but still ask to fund projects in their districts, don’t worry.

I promised to be the president for all Americans.

We’ll fund your projects. And I’ll see you at the ground-breaking.

This law will help further unite all of America.

Major projects like the Brent Spence bridge between Kentucky and Ohio over the Ohio River. Built 60 years ago. Badly in need of repairs.

One of the nation’s most congested freight routes carrying $2 billion worth of freight every day. Folks have been talking about fixing it for decades, but we’re finally going to get it done.

I went there last month with Democrats and Republicans from both states to deliver $1.6 billion for this project.

While I was there, I met an ironworker named Sara, who is here tonight.

For 30 years, she’s been a proud member of Ironworkers Local 44, known as the “cowboys of the sky” who built the Cincinnati skyline.

Sara said she can’t wait to be ten stories above the Ohio River building that new bridge. That’s pride.

That’s what we’re also building – Pride.

We’re also replacing poisonous lead pipes that go into 10 million homes and 400,000 schools and childcare centers, so every child in America can drink clean water.

We’re making sure that every community has access to affordable, high-speed internet.

No parent should have to drive to a McDonald’s parking lot so their kid can do their homework online.

And when we do these projects, we’re going to Buy American.

Buy American has been the law of the land since 1933. But for too long, past administrations have found ways to get around it.

Not anymore.

Tonight, I’m also announcing new standards to require all construction materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in America.

American-made lumber, glass, drywall, fiber optic cables.

And on my watch, American roads, American bridges, and American highways will be made with American products.

My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten. Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible.

Maybe that’s you, watching at home.

You remember the jobs that went away. And you wonder whether a path even exists anymore for you and your children to get ahead without moving away.

I get it.

That’s why we’re building an economy where no one is left behind.

Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back, because of the choices we made in the last two years. This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives.

For example, too many of you lay in bed at night staring at the ceiling, wondering what will happen if your spouse gets cancer, your child gets sick, or if something happens to you.

Will you have the money to pay your medical bills? Will you have to sell the house?

I get it. With the Inflation Reduction Act that I signed into law, we’re taking on powerful interests to bring your health care costs down so you can sleep better at night.

You know, we pay more for prescription drugs than any major country on Earth.

For example, one in ten Americans has diabetes.

Every day, millions need insulin to control their diabetes so they can stay alive. Insulin has been around for 100 years. It costs drug companies just $10 a vial to make.

But, Big Pharma has been unfairly charging people hundreds of dollars – and making record profits.

Not anymore.

We capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors on Medicare.

But there are millions of other Americans who are not on Medicare, including 200,000 young people with Type I diabetes who need insulin to save their lives.

Let’s finish the job this time.

Let’s cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American who needs it.

This law also caps out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors on Medicare at a maximum $2,000 per year when there are in fact many drugs, like expensive cancer drugs, that can cost up to $10,000, $12,000, and $14,000 a year.

If drug prices rise faster than inflation, drug companies will have to pay Medicare back the difference.

And we’re finally giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices. Bringing down prescription drug costs doesn’t just save seniors money.

It will cut the federal deficit, saving tax payers hundreds of billions of dollars on the prescription drugs the government buys for Medicare.

Why wouldn’t we want to do that?

Now, some members here are threatening to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act.

Make no mistake, if you try to do anything to raise the cost of prescription drugs, I will veto it.

I’m pleased to say that more Americans have health insurance now than ever in history.

A record 16 million people are enrolled under the Affordable Care Act.

Thanks to the law I signed last year, millions are saving $800 a year on their premiums.

But the way that law was written, that benefit expires after 2025.

Let’s finish the job, make those savings permanent, and expand coverage to those left off Medicaid.

Look, the Inflation Reduction Act is also the most significant investment ever to tackle the climate crisis.

Lowering utility bills, creating American jobs, and leading the world to a clean energy future.

I’ve visited the devastating aftermaths of record floods and droughts, storms and wildfires.

In addition to emergency recovery from Puerto Rico to Florida to Idaho, we are rebuilding for the long term.

New electric grids able to weather the next major storm.

Roads and water systems to withstand the next big flood.

Clean energy to cut pollution and create jobs in communities too often left behind.

We’re building 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations installed across the country by tens of thousands of IBEW workers.

And helping families save more than $1,000 a year with tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances.

Historic conservation efforts to be responsible stewards of our lands.

Let’s face reality.

The climate crisis doesn’t care if your state is red or blue. It is an existential threat.

We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to confront it. I’m proud of how America is at last stepping up to the challenge.

But there’s so much more to do.

We will finish the job.

And we pay for these investments in our future by finally making the wealthiest and the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share.

I’m a capitalist. But just pay your fair share.

And I think a lot of you at home agree with me that our present tax system is simply unfair.

The idea that in 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal income taxes?

That’s simply not fair.

But now, because of the law I signed, billion-dollar companies have to pay a minimum of 15%.

Just 15%.

That’s less than a nurse pays. Let me be clear.

Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in taxes.

Nobody. Not one penny.

But there’s more to do.

Let’s finish the job. Reward work, not just wealth. Pass my proposal for a billionaire minimum tax.

Because no billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a school teacher or a firefighter.

You may have noticed that Big Oil just reported record profits.

Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis.

It’s outrageous.

They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production and keep gas prices down.

Instead, they used those record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders.

Corporations ought to do the right thing.

That’s why I propose that we quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks to encourage long term investments instead.

They will still make a considerable profit.

Let’s finish the job and close the loopholes that allow the very wealthy to avoid paying their taxes.

Instead of cutting the number of audits of wealthy tax payers, I signed a law that will reduce the deficit by $114 billion by cracking down on wealthy tax cheats.

That’s being fiscally responsible.

In the last two years, my administration cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion – the largest deficit reduction in American history.

Under the previous administration, America’s deficit went up four years in a row.

Because of those record deficits, no president added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor.

Nearly 25% of the entire national debt, a debt that took 200 years to accumulate, was added by that administration alone.

How did Congress respond to all that debt?

They lifted the debt ceiling three times without preconditions or crisis.

They paid America’s bills to prevent economic disaster for our country.

Tonight, I’m asking this Congress to follow suit.

Let us commit here tonight that the full faith and credit of the United States of America will never, ever be questioned.

Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage unless I agree to their economic plans. All of you at home should know what their plans are.

Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset every five years.

That means if Congress doesn’t vote to keep them, those programs will go away.

Other Republicans say if we don’t cut Social Security and Medicare, they’ll let America default on its debt for the first time in our history.

I won’t let that happen.

Social Security and Medicare are a lifeline for millions of seniors.

Americans have been paying into them with every single paycheck since they started working.

So tonight, let’s all agree to stand up for seniors. Stand up and show them we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare.

Those benefits belong to the American people. They earned them.

If anyone tries to cut Social Security, I will stop them. And if anyone tries to cut Medicare, I will stop them.

I will not allow them to be taken away.

Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

Next month when I offer my fiscal plan, I ask my Republican friends to offer their plan.

We can sit down together and discuss both plans together.

My plan will lower the deficit by $2 trillion.

I won’t cut a single Social Security or Medicare benefit.

In fact, I will extend the Medicare Trust Fund by at least two decades.

I will not raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year. And I will pay for the ideas I’ve talked about tonight by making the wealthy and big corporations begin to pay their fair share.

Look, here’s the deal. Big corporations aren’t just taking advantage of the tax code. They’re taking advantage of you, the American consumer.

Here’s my message to all of you out there: I have your back. We’re already preventing insurance companies from sending surprise medical bills, stopping 1 million surprise bills a month.

We’re protecting seniors’ lives and life savings by cracking down on nursing homes that commit fraud, endanger patient safety, or prescribe drugs they don’t need.

Millions of Americans can now save thousands of dollars because they can finally get hearing aids over-the-counter without a prescription.

Capitalism without competition is not capitalism. It is exploitation.

Last year I cracked down on foreign shipping companies that were making you pay higher prices for everyday goods coming into our country.

I signed a bipartisan bill that cut shipping costs by 90%, helping American farmers, businesses, and consumers.

Let’s finish the job.

Pass bipartisan legislation to strengthen antitrust enforcement and prevent big online platforms from giving their own products an unfair advantage.

My administration is also taking on “junk” fees, those hidden surcharges too many businesses use to make you pay more.

For example, we’re making airlines show you the full ticket price upfront and refund your money if your flight is cancelled or delayed.

We’ve reduced exorbitant bank overdraft fees, saving consumers more than $1 billion a year.

We’re cutting credit card late fees by 75%, from $30 to $8.

Junk fees may not matter to the very wealthy, but they matter to most folks in homes like the one I grew up in. They add up to hundreds of dollars a month.

They make it harder for you to pay the bills or afford that family trip.

I know how unfair it feels when a company overcharges you and gets away with it.

Not anymore.

We’ve written a bill to stop all that. It’s called the Junk Fee Prevention Act.

We’ll ban surprise “resort fees” that hotels tack on to your bill. These fees can cost you up to $90 a night at hotels that aren’t even resorts.

We’ll make cable internet and cellphone companies stop charging you up to $200 or more when you decide to switch to another provider.

We’ll cap service fees on tickets to concerts and sporting events and make companies disclose all fees upfront.

And we’ll prohibit airlines from charging up to $50 roundtrip for families just to sit together.

Baggage fees are bad enough – they can’t just treat your child like a piece of luggage.

Americans are tired of being played for suckers.

Pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act so companies stop ripping us off.

For too long, workers have been getting stiffed.

Not anymore.

We’re beginning to restore the dignity of work.

For example, 30 million workers had to sign non-compete agreements when they took a job. So a cashier at a burger place can’t cross the street to take the same job at another burger place to make a couple bucks more.

Not anymore.

We’re banning those agreements so companies have to compete for workers and pay them what they’re worth.

I’m so sick and tired of companies breaking the law by preventing workers from organizing.

Pass the PRO Act because workers have a right to form a union. And let’s guarantee all workers a living wage.

Let’s also make sure working parents can afford to raise a family with sick days, paid family and medical leave, and affordable child care that will enable millions more people to go to work.

Let’s also restore the full Child Tax Credit, which gave tens of millions of parents some breathing room and cut child poverty in half, to the lowest level in history.

And by the way, when we do all of these things, we increase productivity. We increase economic growth.

Let’s also finish the job and get more families access to affordable and quality housing.

Let’s get seniors who want to stay in their homes the care they need to do so. And give a little more breathing room to millions of family caregivers looking after their loved ones.

Pass my plan so we get seniors and people with disabilities the home care services they need and support the workers who are doing God’s work.

These plans are fully paid for and we can afford to do them.

Restoring the dignity of work also means making education an affordable ticket to the middle class.

When we made 12 years of public education universal in the last century, it made us the best-educated, best-prepared nation in the world.

But the world has caught up.

Jill, who teaches full-time, has an expression: “Any nation that out-educates us will out-compete us.”

Folks, you all know 12 years is not enough to win the economic competition for the 21st Century.

If you want America to have the best-educated workforce, let’s finish the job by providing access to pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds.

Studies show that children who go to pre-school are nearly 50% more likely to finish high school and go on to earn a 2- or 4-year degree, no matter their background.

Let’s give public school teachers a raise.

And we’re making progress by reducing student debt and increasing Pell Grants for working- and middle-class families.

Let’s finish the job, connect students to career opportunities starting in high school and provide two years of community college, some of the best career training in America, in addition to being a pathway to a four-year degree.

Let’s offer every American the path to a good career whether they go to college or not.

And folks, in the midst of the COVID crisis when schools were closed, let’s also recognize how far we’ve come in the fight against the pandemic itself.

While the virus is not gone, thanks to the resilience of the American people, we have broken COVID’s grip on us.

COVID deaths are down nearly 90%.

We’ve saved millions of lives and opened our country back up.

And soon we’ll end the public health emergency.

But we will remember the toll and pain that will never go away for so many. More than 1 million Americans have lost their lives to COVID.

Families grieving. Children orphaned. Empty chairs at the dining room table.

We remember them, and we remain vigilant.

We still need to monitor dozens of variants and support new vaccines and treatments.

So Congress needs to fund these efforts and keep America safe.

And as we emerge from this crisis stronger, I’m also doubling down on prosecuting criminals who stole relief money meant to keep workers and small businesses afloat during the pandemic.

Before I came to office many inspector generals who protect taxpayer dollars were sidelined. Fraud was rampant.

Last year, I told you the watchdogs are back. Since then, we’ve recovered billions of taxpayer dollars.

Now, let’s triple our anti-fraud strike forces going after these criminals, double the statute of limitations on these crimes, and crack down on identity fraud by criminal syndicates stealing billions of dollars from the American people.

For every dollar we put into fighting fraud, taxpayers get back at least ten times as much.

COVID left other scars, like the spike in violent crime in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.

We have an obligation to make sure all our people are safe.

Public safety depends on public trust. But too often that trust is violated.

Joining us tonight are the parents of Tyre Nichols, who had to bury him just last week. There are no words to describe the heartbreak and grief of losing a child.

But imagine what it’s like to lose a child at the hands of the law.

Imagine having to worry whether your son or daughter will come home from walking down the street or playing in the park or just driving their car.

I’ve never had to have the talk with my children – Beau, Hunter, and Ashley – that so many Black and Brown families have had with their children.

If a police officer pulls you over, turn on your interior lights. Don’t reach for your license. Keep your hands on the steering wheel.

Imagine having to worry like that every day in America.

Here’s what Tyre’s mom shared with me when I asked her how she finds the courage to carry on and speak out.

With faith in God, she said her son “was a beautiful soul and something good will come from this.”

Imagine how much courage and character that takes.

It’s up to us. It’s up to all of us.

We all want the same thing.

Neighborhoods free of violence.

Law enforcement who earn the community’s trust.

Our children to come home safely.

Equal protection under the law; that’s the covenant we have with each other in America.

And we know police officers put their lives on the line every day, and we ask them to do too much.

To be counselors, social workers, psychologists; responding to drug overdoses, mental health crises, and more.

We ask too much of them.

I know most cops are good, decent people. They risk their lives every time they put on that shield.

But what happened to Tyre in Memphis happens too often.

We have to do better.

Give law enforcement the training they need, hold them to higher standards, and help them succeed in keeping everyone safe.

We also need more first responders and other professionals to address growing mental health and substance abuse challenges.

More resources to reduce violent crime and gun crime; more community intervention programs; more investments in housing, education, and job training.

All this can help prevent violence in the first place.

And when police officers or departments violate the public’s trust, we must hold them accountable.

With the support of families of victims, civil rights groups, and law enforcement, I signed an executive order for all federal officers banning chokeholds, restricting no-knock warrants, and other key elements of the George Floyd Act.

Let’s commit ourselves to make the words of Tyre’s mother come true, something good must come from this.

All of us in this chamber, we need to rise to this moment.

We can’t turn away.

Let’s do what we know in our hearts we need to do.

Let’s come together and finish the job on police reform.

Do something.

That was the same plea of parents who lost their children in Uvalde: Do something on gun violence.

Thank God we did, passing the most sweeping gun safety law in three decades.

That includes things that the majority of responsible gun owners support, like enhanced background checks for 18 to 21-year-olds and red flag laws keeping guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others.

But we know our work is not done.

Joining us tonight is Brandon Tsay, a 26-year-old hero.

Brandon put off his college dreams to stay by his mom’s side as she was dying from cancer. He now works at a dance studio started by his grandparents.

Two weeks ago, during Lunar New Year celebrations, he heard the studio’s front door close and saw a man pointing a gun at him.

He thought he was going to die, but then he thought about the people inside.

In that instant, he found the courage to act and wrestled the semi-automatic pistol away from a gunman who had already killed 11 people at another dance studio.

He saved lives. It’s time we do the same as well.

Ban assault weapons once and for all.

We did it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994.

In the 10 years the ban was law, mass shootings went down. After Republicans let it expire, mass shootings tripled.

Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons again.

And let’s also come together on immigration and make it a bipartisan issue like it was before.

We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers and seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months.

Since we launched our new border plan last month, unlawful migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has come down 97%.

But America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts.

If you won’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border. And a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.

Here in the people’s House, it’s our duty to protect all the people’s rights and freedoms.

Congress must restore the right the Supreme Court took away last year and codify Roe v. Wade to protect every woman’s constitutional right to choose.

The Vice President and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy. But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans.

Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it.

Let’s also pass the bipartisan Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity.

Our strength is not just the example of our power, but the power of our example. Let’s remember the world is watching.

I spoke from this chamber one year ago, just days after Vladimir Putin unleashed his brutal war against Ukraine.

A murderous assault, evoking images of the death and destruction Europe suffered in World War II.

Putin’s invasion has been a test for the ages. A test for America. A test for the world.

Would we stand for the most basic of principles?

Would we stand for sovereignty?

Would we stand for the right of people to live free from tyranny?

Would we stand for the defense of democracy?

For such a defense matters to us because it keeps the peace and prevents open season for would-be aggressors to threaten our security and prosperity. One year later, we know the answer.

Yes, we would.

And yes, we did.

Together, we did what America always does at our best.

We led.

We united NATO and built a global coalition.

We stood against Putin’s aggression.

We stood with the Ukrainian people.

Tonight, we are once again joined by Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States. She represents not just her nation, but the courage of her people.

Ambassador, America is united in our support for your country. We will stand with you as long as it takes.

Our nation is working for more freedom, more dignity, and more peace,
not just in Europe, but everywhere.

Before I came to office, the story was about how the People’s Republic of China was increasing its power and America was falling in the world.

Not anymore.

I’ve made clear with President Xi that we seek competition, not conflict.

I will make no apologies that we are investing to make America strong. Investing in American innovation, in industries that will define the future, and that China’s government is intent on dominating.

Investing in our alliances and working with our allies to protect our advanced technologies so they’re not used against us.

Modernizing our military to safeguard stability and deter aggression.

Today, we’re in the strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world.

I am committed to work with China where it can advance American interests and benefit the world.

But make no mistake: as we made clear last week, if China’s threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.

And let’s be clear: winning the competition with China should unite all of us. We face serious challenges across the world.

But in the past two years, democracies have become stronger, not weaker.

Autocracies have grown weaker, not stronger.

America is rallying the world again to meet those challenges, from climate and global health, to food insecurity, to terrorism and territorial aggression.

Allies are stepping up, spending more and doing more.

And bridges are forming between partners in the Pacific and those in the Atlantic. And those who bet against America are learning just how wrong they are.

It’s never a good bet to bet against America.

When I came to office, most everyone assumed bipartisanship was impossible. But I never believed it.

That’s why a year ago, I offered a Unity Agenda for the nation.

We’ve made real progress.

Together, we passed a law making it easier for doctors to prescribe effective treatments for opioid addiction.

Passed a gun safety law making historic investments in mental health.

Launched ARPA-H to drive breakthroughs in the fight against cancer,
Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and so much more.

We passed the Heath Robinson PACT Act, named for the late Iraq war veteran whose story about exposure to toxic burn pits I shared here last year.

But there is so much more to do. And we can do it together.

Joining us tonight is a father named Doug from Newton, New Hampshire.

He wrote Jill and me a letter about his daughter Courtney. Contagious laugh. Her sister’s best friend.

He shared a story all too familiar to millions of Americans.

Courtney discovered pills in high school. It spiraled into addiction and eventually her death from a fentanyl overdose.

She was 20 years old.

Describing the last eight years without her, Doug said, “There is no worse pain.”

Yet their family has turned pain into purpose, working to end stigma and change laws.

He told us he wants to “start the journey towards America’s recovery.”

Doug, we’re with you.

Fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year.

Let’s launch a major surge to stop fentanyl production, sale, and trafficking, with more drug detection machines to inspect cargo and stop pills and powder at the border.

Working with couriers like Fed Ex to inspect more packages for drugs. Strong penalties to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.

Second, let’s do more on mental health, especially for our children. When millions of young people are struggling with bullying, violence, trauma, we owe them greater access to mental health care at school.

We must finally hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit.

And it’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on kids and teenagers online, ban targeted advertising to children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data these companies collect on all of us.

Third, let’s do more to keep our nation’s one truly sacred obligation: to equip those we send into harm’s way and care for them and their families when they come home.

Job training and job placement for veterans and their spouses as they return to civilian life.

Helping veterans afford their rent because no one should be homeless in this country, especially not those who served it.

And we cannot go on losing 17 veterans a day to the silent scourge of suicide.

The VA is doing everything it can, including expanding mental health screenings and a proven program that recruits veterans to help other veterans understand what they’re going through and get the help they need.

And fourth, last year Jill and I re-ignited the Cancer Moonshot that President Obama asked me to lead in our Administration.

Our goal is to cut the cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years. Turn more cancers from death sentences into treatable diseases. And provide more support for patients and families.

It’s personal for so many of us.

Joining us are Maurice and Kandice, an Irishman and a daughter of immigrants from Panama.

They met and fell in love in New York City and got married in the same chapel as Jill and I did.

Kindred spirits.

He wrote us a letter about their little daughter Ava.

She was just a year old when she was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer.

26 blood transfusions. 11 rounds of radiation. 8 rounds of chemo. 1 kidney removed.

A 5% survival rate.

He wrote how in the darkest moments he thought, “if she goes, I can’t stay.”

Jill and I understand, like so many of you.

They read how Jill described our family’s cancer journey and how we tried to steal moments of joy where you can.

For them, that glimmer of joy was a half-smile from their baby girl. It meant everything.

They never gave up hope.

Ava never gave up hope. She turns four next month.

They just found out that Ava beat the odds and is on her way to being cancer free, and she’s watching from the White House tonight.

For the lives we can save and for the lives we have lost, let this be a truly American moment that rallies the country and the world together and proves that we can do big things.

Twenty years ago, under the leadership of President Bush and countless advocates and champions, we undertook a bipartisan effort through PEPFAR to transform the global fight against HIV/AIDS. It’s been a huge success.

I believe we can do the same with cancer.

Let’s end cancer as we know it and cure some cancers once and for all.

There’s one reason why we’re able to do all of these things: our democracy itself.

It’s the most fundamental thing of all.

With democracy, everything is possible. Without it, nothing is.

For the last few years our democracy has been threatened, attacked, and put at risk.

Put to the test here, in this very room, on January 6th.

And then, just a few months ago, unhinged by the Big Lie, an assailant unleashed political violence in the home of the then-Speaker of this House of Representatives. Using the very same language that insurrectionists who stalked these halls chanted on January 6th.

Here tonight in this chamber is the man who bears the scars of that brutal attack, but is as tough and strong and as resilient as they get.

My friend, Paul Pelosi.

But such a heinous act never should have happened.

We must all speak out. There is no place for political violence in America. In America, we must protect the right to vote, not suppress that fundamental right. We honor the results of our elections, not subvert the will of the people. We must uphold the rule of the law and restore trust in our institutions of democracy.

And we must give hate and extremism in any form no safe harbor.

Democracy must not be a partisan issue. It must be an American issue.

Every generation of Americans has faced a moment where they have been called on to protect our democracy, to defend it, to stand up for it.

And this is our moment.

My fellow Americans, we meet tonight at an inflection point. One of those moments that only a few generations ever face, where the decisions we make now will decide the course of this nation and of the world for decades to come.

We are not bystanders to history. We are not powerless before the forces that confront us. It is within our power, of We the People. We are facing the test of our time and the time for choosing is at hand.

We must be the nation we have always been at our best. Optimistic. Hopeful. Forward-looking.

A nation that embraces, light over darkness, hope over fear, unity over division. Stability over chaos.

We must see each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans. We are a good people, the only nation in the world built on an idea.

That all of us, every one of us, is created equal in the image of God. A nation that stands as a beacon to the world. A nation in a new age of possibilities.

So I have come here to fulfil my constitutional duty to report on the state of the union. And here is my report.

Because the soul of this nation is strong, because the backbone of this nation is strong, because the people of this nation are strong, the State of the Union is strong.

As I stand here tonight, I have never been more optimistic about the future of America. We just have to remember who we are.

We are the United States of America and there is nothing, nothing
beyond our capacity if we do it together.

May God bless you all. May God protect our troops.

 

ATTACHMENT TWO – From Time

HOW HECKLERS TURNED THE STATE OF THE UNION INTO A BIDEN 2024 AD

By Phillip Elliott

When a fur-coiffed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene yelled “liar” Tuesday night, among the loudest in an abrupt chorus of boos, the oldest President to ever deliver a State of the Union address didn’t miss a beat. He smiled and went far afield from his script as GOP lawmakers tried to reject his claims that Republicans were ready to gut social entitlement programs.

“Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? We’ve got unanimity?” he asked. “Apparently it’s not going to be a problem,” he deadpanned at another moment.

The striking exchange, and Biden’s ease in handling it in front of an audience of millions, illustrated why the Democratic establishment isn’t yet ready to toss their 80-year-old standard-bearer overboard.

Despite a halting, vamped opening to Tuesday’s State of the Union speech—a Super Bowl joke? Why?— Biden proved himself plenty capable of holding his own when his Republican hecklers started to stalk him. In fact, he actually demonstrated how he might be able to troll them into their own self-own status in real time. Give Biden acrimony, he’ll toss back accomplishments. Throw him hostility, he’ll offer hope.

“As my football coach used to say, ‘Lots of luck in your senior year,’” he deadpanned at one point, mocking lawmakers who seemed to think high school was the same as the big leagues of Congress.

Biden baited Greene’s fellow Republicans into pledges of fealty to Social Security. When others pummeled him on the U.S.-Mexican dotted line—”secure the border”—Biden taunted them with an offer to work on comprehensive immigration reform. And when Republicans tried to lay blame at the ongoing drug addiction and overdose crisis at Biden’s feet, he simply asked Republicans if they’d work with him to combat it.

For as much as Democrats are gritting their teeth and girding for the worst when it comes to Biden’s likely 2024 campaign, Tuesday night’s State of the Union gave them reason to hold onto optimism. It wasn’t a robust reason, but it was sufficient. Biden showed he can keep his ground in the face of Republican attack; in fact, he seemed to delight in the heckling that came from the floor of the House. For every “liar”—and worse —that rose from the floor, Biden seemed ready with the rejoinder of his first-term economic record. For every peel of stage laughter coming from his physical left and his political right, Biden stood ready to offer some undeniably impressive facts. And for every protest to his trolling suggestion that Republicans were ready to ditch Social Security, Biden had a taunt right in the margins of his heavy black binder.

Biden’s third joint address to Congress set the tone not just for the next year but also his still-unannounced re-election campaign. Biden laid the trap of bipartisan collaboration as well as anyone in recent memory but also set the timer on some partisan timebombs.

Biden is convinced that he is the only Democrat in the land who can block Donald Trump’s return to the White House and is increasingly itchy to make his 2024 re-election bid real. He has effectively frozen the field of would-be challengers, resetting the nominating calendar in such a way that renders challengers as also-rans. He has never been a strong fundraiser or nurturer of outside moneybags, but the deep-pocketed allies are nonetheless ready to bankroll his efforts to stay in the gig that he has chased since his 20s.

So it’s worth considering Tuesday night’s State of the Union as the prologue to Biden’s next chapter, perhaps the final eighth volume in his Robert Caro-esque chronicle. (For the record, not that I’d write it: the first volume would be the first Senate race; Volume II: his Senate term ahead of the 1988 race; III: his return to the Senate; IV: the 2008 primary: V: his time as Vice President; VI: his time as a free radical from 2016-20; and VII: the last two years, leading us to the present.) Biden holds dear to him the spirit of Irish poets, in that the specter of legacy is always just barely off-stage and always above it. Biden wants wins, and his speech—and the interruptions to it—suggest a measure of confrontation is going to define it.

That said, Republicans weren’t entirely sure that the interludes of heckling and hectoring were useful to their side. In fact, plenty of Republicans groaned in the chamber and groused privately that the likes of Greene managed to make the speech into an interactive experience not terribly dissimilar to the British Parliament’s tradition of P.M. Questions. In public, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy shushed his caucus a number of times as they chucked invectives at Biden. More quietly—but still in view of the public—Utah Sen. Mitt Romney tried to silence a GOP House member who has proven plenty shameful to the brand. Romney—who in 2008 and 2012 thought he would do well to be giving a State of the Union himself as President—told Rep. George Santos that he was an embarrassment. Biden seemed to share that assessment, opting to see Santos and deny him a handshake on the aisle.

Again, Biden mightn’t be the most optimal nominee-in-waiting Democrats have ever had on deck, but he’s hardly the most problematic. And that, right there, is why Tuesday night’s State of the Union leaves a whole of the Democratic Party’s top donor roster less dour than they began their week. It’s also why the ragtag Republican contenders hoping to see a slow, doddering commander in chief ready to be put out to pasture were standing at the starting line with empty hands.

ATTACHMENT THREE – From – Guardian UK

By Moira Donegan

 

It was President Biden’s first address to Congress since Republicans won control of the House, and, unofficially, the start of his 2024 re-election campaign. Biden faced a newly adversarial audience at his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, a group of empowered Republicans clustered on the right side of the House chamber, each one eager to perform outrage for the cameras.

The speech, a strictly choreographed bit of political theater, was as much a competition of affective performance between the president and his Republican rivals as it was a set of policy proposals. Mostly, Biden won. The Republicans heckled and booed. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon conspiracist from Georgia, bellowed at Biden in a big, fluffy fur coat, like Cruella De Vil; Kevin McCarthy, newly elected speaker after a long and humiliating Republican leadership contest, sulked pointedly in a chair behind the president. But Biden countered their flustered outrage with a cool, almost irreverent indifference.

Only once did he seem to lose control of the room, at a moment in his remarks on the debt ceiling where he accused the Republicans, accurately, of holding the national economy hostage in order to secure unpopular cuts to social security and Medicare. The Republicans booed and jeered mightily at this accusation; they would do no such thing, they implied. Flustered, Biden needed a moment to collect himself. But then he turned their denial into a bargaining chip. So were they saying that they would take social security and Medicare off the table in the coming debt ceiling negotiations? There was jeering, cheers – the Republicans seemed divided and confused. It was that rarest of events in a State of the Union speech: an exchange that could, conceivably, actually affect policy.

But for the most part, Biden’s speech was a tour of his economic achievements, a sort of pep-rally review of everything he had accomplished in his first two years in office, while his party controlled Congress. He touted better-than-expected jobs numbers and historically low unemployment; he touted his legislation that fosters competition with China in the manufacturing of semiconductor chips, and he announced a new rule requiring all federal construction projects to use American-made materials.

The theme was job creation, but to Biden’s credit, he distinguished that not just any jobs will do

He bragged about a deal to cap insulin prices for Medicare patients, and called on Congress to make the cap universal. He bragged about his Inflation Reduction Act, and its climate investments in clean energy and natural disaster preparedness. The president tried to thread a delicate needle, arguing both that he had been tremendously successful and effective, and also that there was still more to be done. The refrain of the speech, repeated every few paragraphs like a prayer, distilled his case for re-election in the anodyne, pithy language of a bumper sticker: “Let’s get the job done.”

Repeatedly, Biden spoke not just of the surprisingly robust economy, but of the kind of lives Americans aspire to achieve within it. The theme was job creation, but to Biden’s credit, he distinguished that not just any jobs will do; working people, he claimed, needed jobs with dignity.

Biden is not an eloquent speaker, and he lacks the penchant for soaring rhetoric and moral aspiration that defined the speeches of his one-time boss, Barack Obama. But on this point he made himself clear in unusually moving terms.

He spoke of his father, who told him that work was not just about money, but about self-respect. He highlighted a union construction worker who was in the audience as his guest, a woman who had worked for decades in a job that gave her a living wage and personal esteem. Work has become undignified for many Americans, pushed as the working class has been into service sector jobs that surveil workers, demand obsequiousness from them, damage their bodies, and don’t pay enough to live on. These people’s malaise and resentment, their sense that the future has been stolen from them, has shaped American political life for years now, and it was rare to see a politician of such great mainstream success dignifying these people with a sense of empathy and equality, appealing not to their most base angers but to their highest aspirations. “Jobs are coming back,” Biden said. “Pride is coming back.” This president is not a great speech-giver, but to some of us, this sounded like poetry.

The economy is Biden’s preferred ground, and the area in which he can most reasonably claim success. But Biden spoke at great length about his past accomplishments from his first two years in office in part because he is unlikely to achieve much else for the rest of his first term. The Republican-controlled House has already initiated a flurry of investigations against the president; their conspiracy-mongering and jockeying for attention is likely to consume much of the next two years.

And even the president’s past accomplishments can look meagre when you consider what he promised. Noticeably absent from Biden’s speech were any mentions of the universal childcare and pre-K plans that had been a cornerstone of his domestic agenda at the outset of his term – plans that were scuttled by opponents, and de-prioritized by the administration, in favor of more macho, politically palatable public infrastructure goods, like roads and bridges.

And there were elephants in the room. Several US supreme court justices were in attendance, including Jackson, Kagan, Roberts and, bizarrely, retired-but-still-alive Justices Anthony Kennedy and Steven Breyer. Their robed appearance lent a morbid futility to all Biden’s talk of his domestic agenda, as if the justices were a bunch of grim reapers: they served as a reminder that, no matter what Biden tries to do, the unelected, unaccountable court at One First Street will strike down anything they do not like.

Indeed, that court’s most memorable and impactful action, the elimination of the abortion right in last month’s Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, barely merited a mention in Biden’s speech. In the now almost eight months since the ruling, countless women have been endangered and insulted, their organs made not their own. Many have been placed in danger of death or disfigurement because of the Republican party’s fantasies about their bodies; all of them have suffered the harm of being made into second-class citizens, their lives and their health commandeered from them, as if they were not adults.

It was the outrage over this decision that delivered the Democratic party their unexpected and unearned good performance in the midterms. Biden devoted three sentences to it; his tirade against “junk fees” got 19. Biden was clearly launching his re-election campaign with the State of the Union. If he wishes to win it, he might want to pay more attention to female voters.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

 

ATTACHMENT FOUR – From GUK


WHY MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE DRESSED LIKE THAT AT THE STATE OF THE UNION

The congresswoman was trying to highlight Biden’s lack of comment on China’s spy balloon, an aide says

Wed 8 Feb 2023 16.45 EST

 

Cruella de Vil, Kid Rock, Dr Zhivago – the internet was ablaze discussing who Marjorie Taylor Greene most looked like in the white knee-length coat and furry collar that she wore to the State of the Union. It turns out the question shouldn’t have been who but what.

Greene apparently wanted to match the Chinese spy balloon that flew over the country last week. So she picked a white coat because, I guess, the balloon was also white.

Nick Dyer, the congresswoman’s communications director, told the Guardian in an email that the $495 Overland coat – made with alpaca wool and fur trim – was meant to “highlight” the president’s lack of comment on the balloon during his State of the Union speech. “Biden refused to mention it, just like he refused to stop the intelligence-gathering operation that traversed the United States and surveilled some of our most important military facilities in the country,” Dyer said.

Greene purchased the piece in Wyoming, Dyer said, while campaigning against Liz Cheney and fundraising for Harriet Hageman, who is now a US representative for the state.

Political Twitter had its own feelings about what the coat represented. “I dunno why but Marjorie Taylor Greene in that white coat screaming at Biden gave me a powerful ‘Russian Karen vibe’,” tweeted Politico Europe journalist Nika Melkozerova.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene’s coat is made from the dogs George Santos said he was rescuing,” joked the former department of defense aide Adam Blickstein.

Greene wasn’t the only divisive figure to make some choices when it came to styling. The Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, known for her striking dress sense, wore a canary-yellow dress with voluminous sleeves that drew comparisons to Big Bird and out-there red carpet outfits.

Not long ago, if anyone was going to communicate a political message through their clothing at nights like these, it would be the first lady. In simpler times, these outfits were meant to symbolize unity, strength, or a vague sense of patriotism. There are staff who spend weeks wrangling outfits from designers. But – quick – do you remember what Jill Biden wore last night?

I needed Google to remind me: a magenta dress. Purple, as color theory tells us, is a mix of the colors red and blue, and it has become something of a shorthand for outfits that encourage bipartisanship. That’s why so many people, from Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama to Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton, wore it to Biden’s 2021 inauguration.

But no one’s tweeting about Jill Biden’s dress today. (Her on-the-lips kiss with second gentleman Doug Emhoff? That’s another matter and why #Swingers trended on the app this morning.) But Greene’s night-stealing outfit succeeded as a yet another ploy for attention, not unlike the white balloon she carried around Capitol Hill before the speech began.

By the next morning, Greene’s outfit was being dissected on The View, with the co-host Farah Green pulling up a photo of Greene next to one of her puppy. If reports are true that the congresswoman is vying for a spot as Trump’s 2024 running mate, she’s certainly leaning into his playbook – get on television by any means possible, even if it means dressing up as a balloon.

 

This article was amended on 9 February 2023. The headline of an earlier version misspelled Marjorie.

 

 

ATTACHMENT FIVE – From Politico

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sent a letter to Biden on Jan. 13, inviting the president to address Congress and the nation – a constitutionally mandated tradition that dates back to George Washington.

“The American people sent us to Washington to deliver a new direction for the country, to find common ground, and to debate their priorities,” the California Republican said in a letter to Biden. “Your remarks will inform our efforts to address the priorities of the American people,” McCarthy added.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre quickly announced that Biden accepted and was “grateful” for the invitation.

“He looks forward to speaking with Republicans, Democrats, and the country about how we can work together to continue building an economy that works from the bottom up and the middle out, keep boosting our competitiveness in the world, keep the American people safe, and bring the country together,” Jean-Pierre said in statement shortly after McCarthy sent his invitation.

How can I watch the SOTU this year?

Bookmark this page. We’ll be live streaming Biden’s speech and providing real-time analysis from our reporters. Check back here Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST.

What topics will Biden cover?

During a press briefing Thursday, Jean-Pierre confirmed that the president would address the economy and infrastructure. In recent speeches, Biden has frequently touted the bipartisan infrastructure act passed in 2021, as well as the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act that became law last year – legislation he’ll likely invoke in his address. Biden may also use his platform to address the debt ceiling debate unfolding in Congress, as House GOP members threaten to refuse to raise the limit. Jean-Pierre said the president will also talk about “how he is optimistic about the future of this country.”

Biden seems unlikely to mention the ongoing saga over classified documents found in his home and office, and he’s not expected to announce whether or not he will run again in 2024.

Who’s invited?

Since the speech is delivered during a joint session of Congress, all members of the House and Senate are invited – though not required – to attend. Last year, several GOP lawmakers boycotted the event because of the coronavirus testing requirement. And in 2020, a number of Democrats did not attend former President Donald Trump’s speech as he faced an impeachment vote in the Senate.

The president and first lady Jill Biden can invite family members and other guests, who sit with the first lady in her box in the balcony. The White House has yet to announce who will attend, but guests will likely help the president highlight some of the points in his speech. Last year’s guests included the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, and Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens.

Members of Congress can also invite guests this year, after coronavirus protocols prevented them from doing so last year. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, invited RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the mother and stepfather of Tyree Nichols, the Black man who was beaten to death by Memphis police officers earlier this month. And CNN has reported that Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas) will bring Roya Rahmani, former Afghanistan ambassador to the U.S., as his guest to draw attention to Biden’s controversial withdrawal of troops from the country.

Who is delivering the Republican response?

Newly elected Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will deliver the Republican response to Biden’s speech, taking on a task often assigned to an up-and-comer in the party that does not control the White House.

Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, served as press secretary under former president Donald Trump for nearly two years, and has been floated as potential Trump running mate in 2024. She is the youngest governor in the U.S., and the first woman to serve as governor in Arkansas.

In a joint statement announcing Sanders’ response, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy touted Sanders as a powerful advocate for conservative values.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who gained national attention for her opposition to the Biden administration’s Covid guidelines, spoke for the GOP last year.

Are there any other responses?

Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois will be the voice for progressives in the legislature, giving remarks Tuesday that will respond to Joe Biden’s speech and rebut Sanders’ response.

Speaking on behalf of the Working Families Party, the first-term representative will use her response to address social security, medicare, abortion and immigration, and will urge Biden to take executive action on progressive priorities like lowering drug costs.

It’s not the first time liberals will deliver a response to a Biden speech. Progressive Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) delivered responses to Biden’s speech in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

What’s the deal with Biden and Congress right now?

Tension has been growing between Biden and Congress lately, particularly in the House, where Republicans now hold a slim, five-seat majority. The president’s already icy relationship with Speaker Kevin McCarthy has only become more strained in recent weeks. The California Republican has instructed his party to begin several investigations into Biden administration officials, as well as the president’s son, Hunter Biden. And McCarthy and Biden are currently engaged in a high-stakes, public sparring match over the debt ceiling – though the two men said a recent meeting on the topic went well despite producing little in the way of tangible progress.

Though passing legislation in a divided Congress is an onerous proposition for any sitting president, it will likely prove particularly difficult for the Biden administration as Republicans look to block the president’s agenda ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Where do Biden’s plans for 2024 fit in?

Though Biden has yet to officially enter the race, aides to the president have repeatedly said that he plans to run again in 2024. The president is moving like someone gearing up for a campaign, making post-midterm trips to several key states including Arizona, Michigan and Georgia. On Friday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will make a rare joint appearance in Pennsylvania, touting their administration's accomplishments just days ahead of Biden’s big speech. CNN is reporting that the president will launch his campaign shortly after the State of the Union.

 

ATTACHMENT SIX – From USA Today

THE STATE OF THE UNION IS TUESDAY: HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM JOE BIDEN'S SPEECH

By Maureen Groppe and Michael Collins

WASHINGTON – A divided Congress. An expected upcoming reelection announcement. Those are the twin forces that will shape President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday.

Delivering the second State of the Union of his presidency, Biden will amplify his message that Democrats and Republicans can work together.

But facing dim prospects for more major legislative wins, a looming showdown over the federal budget and a GOP House investigating his administration and family, Biden will tout his successes and lay out what more he wants to do if given the chance.

“To me, it sort of sets the stage for I think what’s going to be just a consequential battle this year between Joe Biden and House Republicans,” Robert Gibbs, who was President Barack Obama’s press secretary, said on the “Hacks on Tap” podcast. 

The latest news to know

·         Full House: Biden will face a full House chamber – COVID-19 restrictions that have limited attendance are gone. Unlike last year, lawmakers are allowed to bring a guest. 

·         Divided government: The newly divided government will be obvious to viewers. Instead of two fellow Democrats sitting behind Biden, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will be looking over Biden’s shoulder along with Vice President Kamala Harris.

·         Biden's approval: More voters disapproved of the job Biden is doing as president than approved in the most recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, which was taken in early December.

·         Setting the stage for this year and beyond: The speech will begin to lay out the case Biden will make both in his two-year battle with House Republicans and for his likely reelection bid in 2024.

·         Before and after: In the week before the speech, Biden traveled to Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York to tout transportation and other projects funded by his major infrastructure package. Biden and his Cabinet members are expected to travel to at least 20 states in the days after the address to talk up the administration’s economic agenda. The president will be in Wisconsin on Wednesday and Florida on Thursday.

 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Biden devoted the first 11 minutes of last year’s hourlong address to supporting Ukraine, a rallying cry delivered just days after Russia’s invasion. The war probably will figure prominently this year as well. Biden will be speaking in the run-up to the one-year anniversary. And while Russia did not have the swift success many anticipated a year ago, the longer the fighting continues, the harder it will be for Biden to maintain support for Ukraine at home and abroad.

Many GOP House members are calling for greater scrutiny – or even a curtailment -- of U.S. involvement. That reflects eroding support among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents nationwide.  The share of Republicans who say the U.S. gives too much aid to Ukraine has steadily increased since March, according to the Pew Research Center. Also, unlike at the start of the war, there’s now a wide partisan gap over whether Russia’s invasion of Ukraine poses a major threat to U.S. interests.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine:  As Biden seeks to avoid wider war, delivery of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine escalates conflict

Chinese spy balloon

The speech is a chance for Biden to respond to those who have criticized how he handled the suspected Chinese spy balloon that drifted over the United States last week – and to send a public message to China.

Republicans have accused Biden of showing weakness by not shooting down the balloon sooner. 

Tensions have been rising with China, which the U.S. considers its biggest strategic and economic competitor. The nations have clashed over Taiwan, technology, human rights, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other disputes.

The Biden administration has been trying to stabilize the relationship, building what it’s called “guardrails” as it normalizes interaction. But one effort to do that – sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China – was postponed because of the balloon incident.

Joe Biden's downed China spy balloon deepens political fight ahead of State of the Union

Federal spending and debt ceiling

Expect to hear a lot about the federal budget. The dispute between Biden and congressional Republicans over the federal deficit and whether budget cuts must be agreed to before the debt limit is raised will dominate the debate in Washington over the next few months.

Biden is expected to amplify his argument that Republicans are holding the economy hostage by not automatically agreeing to paying the bills the U.S. already owes. House Republicans don’t want to raise the debt limit without cutting future spending. Biden, who will lay out his budget plan March 9, has been challenging Republicans to specify what they want to cut. He has also been comparing his record on deficit reduction with Republicans’.

U.S. hits debt ceiling: Amid fears of debt default, Treasury begins 'extraordinary' measures

Call for bipartisanship in Washington

Facing a GOP-controlled House that can block his legislative agenda and is launching investigations into his family and administration, Biden is nonetheless likely to make a case for getting along. Always eager to burnish his bipartisan bona fides, Biden is expected to highlight issues he has worked on with Republicans over the past two years, including a major infrastructure package in 2021.

After the midterm elections, Biden said he was “ready to compromise with Republicans where it makes sense.” But he flatly ruled out fundamental changes to Social Security and Medicare, or compromising in other areas such as abortion rights, prescription drug costs and climate change.  

A new Congress with new priorities:What to know about Speaker McCarthy and the fate of Biden's agenda

Immigration reform

Biden called for immigration reform during last year’s State of the Union, telling lawmakers, “Let’s get it done once and for all.” It didn’t happen, so look for him to mention immigration again in this year’s address.

Just last month, Biden traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he heard pleas for help in addressing the migrant crisis. The number of migrants crossing the border – some lawfully seeking asylum, others entering illegally – has risen dramatically during his first two years in office. Republicans blame the surge on Biden’s border policies. Last week, the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee opened the first in a series of hearings it is calling “Biden’s border crisis.”

Biden could use his speech to remind Americans of steps his administration has taken to the secure the border and to once again urge Congress to pass immigration reform.

As Biden hunts for answers to migrant crisis, his policies are increasingly tied up in court

Inflation and the economy (#3 HERE, #1 IN POLLS)

Biden celebrated when the government reported last month that inflation eased substantially for the third month in a row. “My economic plan is actually working,” he said. You can bet he'll emphasize that point again in Tuesday's address.

It’s not hard to see why. Fifty-four percent of Americans listed inflation and the economy as their No. 1 and No. 2 concerns in a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll in December. Americans have been struggling for nearly two years through a historic spike in inflation that has driven up the price of food, housing and energy. Though inflation seems to be cooling, fears that the country could slip into recession this year persist. Despite those concerns, the Labor Department reported Friday that employers added a booming 517,000 jobs in January, suggesting to some economists that inflation could continue to decline even while employers keep adding jobs.

Even with a mild winter, more Americans struggle to pay their energy bills

Crime and police brutality

Biden devoted a substantial chunk of last year’s State of the Union to crime, gun control and policing, saying Americans should not have to choose “between safety and equal justice.” In the year since, a wave of mass shootings and high-profile cases involving allegations of police brutality has kept those issues in the public consciousness.

Biden can point to bipartisan gun control legislation that he signed into law last summer as an example of the steps taken in the past year to keep guns away from dangerous people. The law, approved in the aftermath of a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was the largest gun control package passed in 30 years.

Advocates are now pushing Congress to revisit federal police accountability legislation after the brutal beating death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee. Five Memphis police officers have been charged with second-degree murder and other crimes in connection to Nichols' death. Advocates also are urging Biden to again address police brutality in Tuesday’s speech. RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the mother and stepfather of Nichols, are expected to attend the address.

Mareen Groppe and Michael Collins cover the White House. Follow Groppe on Twitter @mgroppe and Collins @mcollinsNEWS.

 

 

ATTACHMENT SEVEN – From The Hill

IN STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, BIDEN WILL HIGHLIGHT HIS DISHONEST TAKE ON THE ECONOMY

BY LIZ PEEK, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 02/04/23 2:00 PM ET

President Biden seemed extremely happy to take credit for the booming January jobs report, “We have created more jobs in two years than any presidential term within two years. That’s the strongest two years of job growth in history, by a long shot,” Biden boasted.

Unfortunately, Biden could not leave well enough alone. Asked by a reporter whether he took responsibility for manufacturing the highest inflation in 40 years, he snapped “Do I take any blame for inflation? No. Because it was already there when I got here, man.”

He went on: “Remember what the economy was like when I got here? Jobs were hemorrhaging, inflation was rising, we weren’t manufacturing a damn thing here … that’s why I don’t.”

Oh my; Biden wonders why people think he is dishonest.

Biden either has severe short-term memory problems or he is purposefully lying about how the economy has trended over the past few years.

Here is the truth: The economy was in great shape in 2019 but then got hit hard by COVID-19 in early 2020, while Donald Trump was president. Trump’s administration listened to the health experts and closed down the country to “stop the spread” of the virus. In April 2020, the nation lost 20.5 million jobs, and the economy plunged into recession.

But thanks to what the Committee for the Responsible Federal Budget describes as “appropriate” spending, Congress passed $3.4 trillion in relief bills meant to keep employees on the payrolls and American families afloat.

It worked, and quite soon – more quickly than most companies expected – demand rebounded, and in the third quarter of 2020 GDP grew at an astonishing 38 percent clip. Growth continued through the end of the year, and when Joe Biden assumed the presidency, jobs were coming back and the economy was expanding at a solid 6 percent rate. In short, contrary to what the president claims, the economy was recovering nicely.

But the biggest lie from the president is that inflation was “already here.” Not so.

Inflation was running at a low 1.4 percent when Biden took office. By the end of 2021, it had increased five-fold to 7 percent, on its way to 9 percent several months later.

These facts have not prevented Biden over the past year from boasting that “his economic policies are working.” We will hear more of that in his State of the Union Address on Feb. 7. The surprising employment report for January, showing that 517,000 jobs were added despite a slowdown in many sectors of the economy, has given the president much to crow about, and crow he will.

Biden’s rose-colored rendition of the economy will also focus on his absurd claims of having reduced our federal deficits and boosted incomes.

Here’s what Biden will not highlight:

1) That excess government handouts have caused millions to sit on the sidelines, driving wages and inflation higher and causing the Federal Reserve to push our country towards recession;

2) That Americans in the lower and middle-income brackets have seen their real incomes clobbered under this president, despite his insistence that he is growing the economy “from the bottom up and the middle out”;

3) That Biden’s ongoing spending is driving our federal debt, and the interest on that debt, to unsustainable and dangerous levels.

It is true that more jobs have been added since Joe Biden took office than has occurred under any other president. But it is also true that Biden’s policies have worked against that return to normal.

Consider: In January 2020, just as COVID-19 began to spread through the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says there were 259 million people in our civilian “noninstitutional” population. Today, there are 266 million, an increase of 7 million people. But the number of employed persons has increased only 1.4 million over those three years. Where are the remaining 5.6 million people? Why are they not working?

This loss of workers is the Achilles heel of Biden’s presidency. Low unemployment is no great victory if millions are choosing not to work, living off expanded government benefits that increasingly require no work and no job training. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell describes the labor market as “out of balance”; he is right.

It is unconscionable that Biden is still creating speedbumps to increased employment by, for example, not requiring people to pay their student loans.

In his upcoming address, Biden will repeat his recent boast that “take-home pay for workers is going up.” Politifact refuted that claim, pointing out that wage gains have been wiped away by inflation. The result, according to the Dallas Fed, was the biggest hit to middle class incomes in 25 years.

Canada regularly poaches US immigrant tech talent: Mexico could be nextHow policymakers can tackle power shutoffs, utility greed and the climate emergency

The president will say, as he has done on several occasions, that he has lowered our budget deficit. This is laughable in that he has reduced spending and the deficit only from the horrifying emergency levels to which it rose as our country battled the pandemic. As the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reports, “Congress and the White House should have stopped engaging in new borrowing” in 2021 but instead, Biden expanded our budget deficits by $4.8 trillion through administrative actions and legislation.

The president will tout the decline in inflation since the peak of 9 percent hit last year. He will be right, but the reduction comes with growing anticipation of a recession. In a recent Gallup poll, Americans put the economy as a chief concern, topped only by worries about the government. Some 72 percent said they thought the economy was getting worse, and confidence in the economy was lower than at the height of the pandemic. That’s the real state of the union.

 

ATTACHMENT EIGHT – From the Guardian U.K.

BIDEN FACES ‘TIGHTROPE’ IN BALANCING REALISM AND OPTIMISM IN STATE OF THE UNION

President’s second address on Tuesday comes at a critical moment, as House Republicans are eager to damage his 2024 election prospects

By Lauren Gambino   Sun 5 Feb 2023 07.00 EST

 

Joe Biden’s second annual State of the Union address on Tuesday comes at a critical juncture for the president, as he contemplates a second term. ​

He faces a newly empowered House Republican majority eager to damage ​his political prospects with investigations into him, his administration and his family while a special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents brings a degree of legal uncertainty.​

In recent weeks, the country has also been convulsed yet again by mass shootings and police brutality while states continue to grapple with the consequences of the supreme court decision ending the constitutional right to abortion. And on Saturday the US military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon​ ​​after it floated across the country, roiling diplomatic relations between the nations at a time of already heightened tensions. ​

Yet there are welcome bright spots for a president emboldened by his party’s history-defying performance in the November midterm elections. Since then, Democrats have largely rallied around Biden as their standard-bearer in 2024, amid the possibility of a rematch against Donald Trump.

The economic outlook has brightened. The coronavirus public health emergencies are set to expire in May, three years after they were declared, with the majority of US adults now vaccinated. At home, Biden has an arsenal of legacy-defining achievements to tout. And on the world stage, the global coalition he rallied in support of Ukraine remains strong.

Chris Whipple, author of The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said the president’s challenge on Tuesday will be to strike the right balance between optimism and realism – highlighting the progress he’s made since his last address to a joint session of Congress, particularly on Covid and the economy, while acknowledging that there is more work left to do.

“It’s a tightrope,” he said. “He has to take credit for what he’s achieved without sounding too celebratory.”

Halfway through his first term, the president’s own position is precarious. Nearly two-thirds of Americans, on average, believe the country is on the wrong track. His approval ratings remain mired in the low 40s with many Americans unconvinced of the 80-year-old’s desire to stand for re-election.

Striking a defiant tone ahead of Tuesday’s primetime address, Biden previewed his diagnosis of the state of the union. Like many of his recent predecessors, he declared it “strong.”

“I’m happy to report that the state of the union and the state of our economy is strong,” Biden said on Friday, celebrating an unexpectedly strong jobs report.

“Today’s data makes crystal clear what I’ve always known in my gut,” he added. “These critics and cynics are wrong. While we may face setbacks along the way, and there will be some, there is more work to do, it’s clear our plan is working.”

Economy

On the economy, Biden is likely to point to signs of improvement.

Unemployment is the lowest it’s been in nearly half a century. Inflation, after reaching a 40-year peak, is finally relenting, though still painful for many American households. On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve announced the smallest hike in interest rates in almost a year, signaling a more cautious approach as it tries to rein in inflation without triggering a recession. But worrying indicators remain.

“Looking backward, the economy is in a very good place, with the good things still good and the bad things getting better,” said Jason Furman, who served as the chair of the White House council of economic advisers under Barack Obama. “Looking forward, there’s still a tremendous amount of uncertainty as to whether that can last.”

He has to take credit for what he’s achieved without sounding too celebratory

A major focus for the Biden administration over the next two years will be to implement the sweeping legislative policies he enacted during the first years of his presidency – a trillion-dollar infrastructure law; a sweeping health and climate package and major new investments in domestic, hi-tech manufacturing.

Of pressing concern is the looming deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling. Economists are warning of a financial crisis if Congress fails to lift the country’s borrowing cap as House Republicans are threatening to do unless the president accepts steep cuts to federal spending. Already the treasury department has said it is resorting to “extraordinary measures” to ensure that the US can continue paying its bills.

It is unclear if Biden will explicitly address the brinkmanship on Tuesday, with the new House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, seated behind him on the dais for the first time. But the stakes remains high for the president – and the country’s economy.

Ukraine

Nearly a year ago, Biden’s state of the union address – and his presidency – were upended by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Assuming the mantle of world leader, the US president used his speech to rally the nation and its allies behind Ukraine. Since then the US has sent billions of dollars in humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine. Last month, Biden approved sending battle tanks to Ukraine, a significant escalation in the US effort to counter Russian aggression.

But with the war nearing its first anniversary, and public support for Ukraine softening slightly, analysts hope Biden uses Tuesday’s address to explain why the US is committed to Ukraine’s success – and what that support will look like going forward.

“The future of the international system as we understand it runs through Ukraine,” said Heather Conley, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. From China to Iran to North Korea, she said anti-democratic forces are studying how the global response to the brutal war in Ukraine.

“If Ukraine and therefore the United States and the west are not successful, that sends a powerful message to [those] leaders,” Conley said. “So I hope the president uses this moment to make a convincing case to the American people why we have to stick to this course of action.”

Police reform

A president’s state of the union address is often a highlight reel of accomplishments, mixed with a wishlist of policy proposals and direct appeals to the American people. The president will invite guests who represent policy successes or help to make the moral case for action.

Ahead of the speech, activists have urged the president to use his executive authority to expand abortion protections and declare a climate emergency. And the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who was brutally beaten by Memphis police officers and died days later, has reignited calls for police reform.

Nichols mother and stepfather are expected to be in the chamber for Biden’s speech on Tuesday, likely ensuring the issue will not go unaddressed.

Vice-president Kamala Harris, who will also be seated behind Biden on Tuesday, delivered a call to action at Nichols funeral last week. Yet the prospect for passing federal policing reforms remains dim.

 

Rashad Robinson, president of the racial justice organization, Color of Change, urged Biden to come with a plan – not a list of policies that will never pass a Republican-controlled House.

“Beyond rhetoric and tone or even specific policies, I’m interested in the president talking about strategy,” Robinson said, adding: “You don’t get a whole lot of moments like a State of the Union. We need to use this opportunity to give people marching orders.”

Other guests on Tuesday include Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old man hailed as a hero after he disarmed a gunman who opened fire at two dance halls in Southern California during Lunar New Year celebrations earlier this month.

After a spate of mass shootings last year, Biden signed into law the first gun reform legislation in decades. But the legislation fell far short of what the president and activists had called for.

Moments after the president finishes his remarks, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the newly elected governor of Arkansas and Trump’s former press secretary, will deliver the Republican rebuttal.

“The American people deserve better than Democrats’ runaway inflation, surging crime, open borders, and failing schools,” the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a statement. He added that Sanders, who at 40 is currently the youngest governor in the country, would deliver a “sharp contrast with this exhausted and failing administration”.

Embracing the opportunity, Sanders said: “We are ready to begin a new chapter in the story of America – to be written by a new generation of leaders ready to defend our freedom against the radical left and expand access to quality education, jobs, and opportunity for all.”

With Republicans intent on making Biden a one-term president, should he run again, the president has signaled that he will spend the next two years focusing the public on what he has already accomplished – and making the case for the policy priorities he has yet to achieve.

The president “looks forward to speaking with Republicans, Democrats, and the country about how we can work together to continue building an economy that works from the bottom up and the middle out, continue boosting our competitiveness in the world, keep the American people safe, and bring the country together”, the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in a statement.

Following the state of the union she said Biden, Harris and other cabinet officials ​would “blitz” the country to promote his agenda.

 

ATTACHMENT NINE – From NPR

WHAT BIDEN NEEDS TO DO IN THIS YEAR'S STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH

By ASMA KHALID February 5, 2023 5:01 AM ET

 

President Biden is heading to the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday evening to deliver his State of the Union address for 2023. But his message — and his performance — will be closely watched for what they say about 2024, and what's expected to be his second presidential race.

Biden has not yet officially announced whether he has decided to make good on what he has said is his intention to run for a second term in office. But he's expected to do so in the near future. The State of the Union speech, and its large broadcast audience, is an opportunity to show what he plans to run on — and that he has what it takes for a grueling re-elect race as the oldest presidential candidate in history.

"This speech is undoubtedly being seen in the White House as part of the re-elect effort," said Peter Wehner, who wrote speeches for former President George W. Bush. "And what that means is this is a kind of speech that begins to lay out the broad contours of a reelection campaign."

Biden is expected to draw a contrast with Republicans

Presidents of both parties have used this annual speech to spell out their agenda, and express — sometimes indirectly — how that agenda differs from the opposition.

"State of the Unions at their very best are often eloquent laundry lists, but they're also political speeches," said Michael Waldman, lead speechwriter on four of former President Bill Clinton's State of the Union addresses.

"And it's a very political season and people are already running for president ... and so you're going to hear, I'm sure, a contrast between Democrats and Republicans play out on the screen in this speech," Waldman said.

 

After meeting with Biden, McCarthy says he won't agree to clean debt ceiling increase

 

It will be Biden's first speech to a Congress where Republicans now control the House of Representatives, and gives him the chance to articulate an agenda that draws battle lines with the Republican party — particularly on the debt ceiling showdown.

But former presidential speechwriters say there's a careful balance to strike.

"You're speaking to an audience that includes the opposition party as well as your own, and you don't want to, as a president, come across as petty or divisive," said Wehner.

Clinton used a similar opportunity to deal with questions about his electability

In his 1995 State of the Union, Clinton was facing a newly-elected Republican Congress after the Republican Revolution in the 1994 midterms, in which the GOP took control of the House for the first time in 40 years.

Pundits had interpreted the midterm elections as a clear rebuke of Clinton, and people questioned whether he had any political future.

But Clinton found opportunity in that moment of political peril, his former speechwriters said. He tried to use charm to show he could reach across the aisle.

"Bill Clinton, he always had the hand out," said Carolyn Curiel, one of his speechwriters. "There is nobody he didn't want to befriend, even those who had done him harm in politics and otherwise. And if he took the stage with any feelings that were bad, he let them go. Because you need as many people in the room as possible to think, 'He's not a bad guy. Maybe I can work with him.'"

But that speech wasn't just about convincing the politicians in the room that Clinton had a political future: it was also about answering lingering questions from the public after that midterm shellacking.

"He reminded people of what they liked about his policies and about him," said Waldman. "What people wanted to see from him was that he was still standing ... part of what Clinton had to do in that speech was show that he still had his good humor."

Biden, turning 80, faces an age-old question: How old is too old to be president?

Democrats didn't face a huge political rebuke last November — they did better than expected in the midterms.

Biden faces a different lingering question — his age, said multiple former speechwriters, both Republican and Democrat.

"He would be 86 at the end of the second term. It's an issue that's going to be it's going to be on people's minds," said Waldman. "And he will want to use this a forum to show he's vigorous, he's commanding."

Biden will try to show life, and politics, can get back to normal

There are certain traditions in every State of the Union — the platitudes, the pleas to end partisanship, the overtures to work across the aisle — and the ritual of graciously greeting the newly elected House speaker.

"Biden believes in the rituals of democracy," said Waldman. The formalities of the State of the Union are a part of that.

"It's important in Biden's longer-term project of both being normal and in sort of restoring the soul of the country, as he puts it, by reconnecting people to their kind of civic rituals," he said.

Biden, like his predecessors, will likely speak about trying to find unity, but there are limitations in working across party lines in what has become a hyperpartisan climate, said Cody Keenan, a speechwriter for former President Barack Obama.

The new Republican majority in the House has made clear it intends to pursue multiples investigations into the Biden administration. The discovery of classified documents in Biden's personal files add to the tensions.

Still, Keenan said Biden's speech has an important function: it can dare Republicans to oppose potentially popular policy ideas, while also articulating a future agenda for Democrats.

"It's his biggest audience of the year to lay down a marker so that people really know what's at stake," Keenan said.

 

 

ATTACHMENT TEN – From NBC

The State of the Union will showcase the state of the Biden-McCarthy relationship

By SCOTT DETROW February 6, 2023 5:00 AM ET

 

When President Biden delivers his State of the Union 2023 address Tuesday evening, he'll have a new person peering over his left shoulder: Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

In a new era of divided government, the two men will be forced to forge deals on a wide range of issues over the coming two years. Most immediately, they'll need to figure out how to deescalate a standoff over the debt ceiling that could crater the economy, if it isn't resolved before the U.S. defaults on its debt.

Biden and McCarthy are both backslapping political lifers — two men who put high priority on the value of personal relationships. So the terse, blunt answers they've recently given about each other speak volumes.

"I think he's the Republican leader, and I haven't had much of an occasion to talk to him," Biden said, before quickly shifting topics, when asked about McCarthy in the immediate wake of November's election.

After meeting with Biden, McCarthy says he won't agree to clean debt ceiling increase

The U.S. could hit its debt ceiling within days. Here's what you need to know.

Ahead of their first Oval Office sit-down last week, McCarthy responded to a similar question with a lengthy verbal shrug.

"We met many times — prior to him being president," he went on to tell reporters. "Not as often, him being president. But I look forward to making this work."

There are several reasons the two didn't talk much the past two years.

Unlike in the Senate, the minority party in the House doesn't hold much leverage. And, especially in the wake of the Jan. 6 attacks, Democratic relationships with House Republicans froze to arctic levels.

Biden has a good working relationship with the top Senate Republican

It's a sharp contrast to Biden's dealings with the other top Republican in Congress — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

When McCarthy was fighting for his job last month in round after round of speaker votes, Biden and McConnell were holding a political event together marking the bipartisan infrastructure law.

McConnell says McCarthy should take the lead on negotiating the debt ceiling standoff

"I asked permission if I could say something nice about him," Biden joked as he praised McConnell from the stage. "I said I'd campaign for or against him, whichever helped most. Mitch: it wasn't easy to get this done."

In Biden's final days as vice president, McConnell memorably praised Biden, and moved to rename a piece of legislation after Biden's late son Beau, as Biden presided over the chamber and wiped tears from his eyes.

Here's how Biden and McConnell worked on a debt ceiling deal

Though the two men don't agree on much, Biden and McConnell worked together to cut three major bipartisan deals during the Obama era — including a 2011 agreement when the U.S. was on the brink of defaulting on its debt.

Neither man tried to convert the other during those high-stakes talks.

"Biden would repeatedly say, I won't tell you your politics, you won't tell me mine. If you tell me you can't do something, I take you at your word. If you tell me I can't do something, you take me at my word," said Rohit Kumar, a top McConnell staffer at the time, who now co-leads Pricewaterhouse Cooper's national tax office.

Kumar viewed the 2011 debt standoff as near-identical to how the 2023 negotiations are beginning: House, not Senate, Republicans, leading the charge to force spending cuts, and having more leverage to do so.

Back in 2011, the talks had stalled, and default was looming, by the time Biden and McConnell sat down together.

Kumar recalled the blunt, direct mindset the two men took as they looked for a deal: "OK. These are the parameters from which we have to operate. We have no choice but to work within these parameters, and we're going to get this done," he said.

There are two main differences in the dynamics for McCarthy

Biden's working relationship with the Senate leader is grounded in two things McConnell has that McCarthy doesn't have: decades of time in the legislative trenches alongside Biden; and perhaps more importantly, a firm grip over the politics of his caucus.

McConnell is the longest-serving Senate leader from either party. McCarthy, on the other hand, needed 15 rounds of voting to win the speakership this year. With the narrow margins his party holds, he's constantly at the mercy of whatever small group of House Republicans who threaten to vote no.

That's a position the White House has been happy to highlight and politically exploit.

Since Republicans have taken control of the House, the Biden administration has tried to frame the GOP as split between two wings: one that is at times willing to help govern and pass bills on a bipartisan basis; the other, an extreme faction still under the sway of former President Donald Trump.

What Biden needs to do in this year's State of the Union speech

"We understand what the speaker is going through," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday. "He has a caucus that has put forth some pretty extreme ideas. Some extreme options in front of the American people. Cutting Medicare, cutting Social Security. That is what he's dealing with."

At a New York fundraiser last week, Biden spoke about McCarthy's position with an incredulous tone. "Look at what he had to do" to win the speakership, Biden said. "He had to make commitments that are just absolutely off the wall for a speaker of the House to make, in terms of being able to become the leader."

Biden and McCarthy are both 'hail-fellow-well-met,' says Rep. Cole

Despite their differences, Biden and McCarthy will have to work together. House Republican Tom Cole thinks it's possible.

"I've always thought they could have a good relationship," he said. "I think they are both career public servants. I think they are both extremely political. I think they are both pragmatic. I think they are both 'hail-fellow-well-met.' And I think they can both make a deal."

As the nation has changed, so has the State of the Union speech

The first potential deal on their agenda has global stakes: averting the almost-certain instant recession that would come from the federal government defaulting on its debt.

Biden says a congressional debt ceiling vote shouldn't come with any preconditions. McCarthy is refusing to raise it without an agreement to cut spending elsewhere.

Last week, the president and speaker met in the Oval Office for an hour.

"He gave me his perspective. I gave him our perspective," McCarthy said afterwards. "I believe in hearing both perspectives, like anything else, be it business, be it in family, be it in relationships — that you can find common ground."

One thing that's different from those types of relationships: the fate of the entire economy typically doesn't ride on their ability to get on the same page.

NPR's Barbara Sprunt contributed to this report.

 

ATTACHMENT ELEVEN – From  NBC


Biden's State of the Union address will make his case for re-election in 2024

Biden will use the speech to reach more people and assure them that he’s enacted plans to make their daily commutes shorter and their prescription drug bills lower

 

Feb. 5, 2023, 6:45 AM EST

By Peter Nicholas

WASHINGTON — At the start of his speech Tuesday night, President Joe Biden is apt to proclaim that the state of the union is strong.

And by the time he’s done, he’ll have laid out a case that he deserves an ample share of the credit.

The 2024 presidential race looms large over Biden's State of the Union address, even though he has yet to officially announce whether he’s running for re-election. With a captive audience that traditionally assembles once a year, he isn’t about to pass up the chance to explain why voters should give him a second term.

Biden will use the speech to reach a wider audience that may have only a passing interest in politics and policy, and assure its members that he’s enacted plans that will make their daily commutes shorter and their prescription drug bills lower, a person close to the White House said.

That will take some doing: An NBC News survey last month found that only 31% believe Biden to be a competent and effective president, while 71% say the country is on the wrong track.

Tuesday is a chance to sway the skeptics, his advisers hope. State of the Union audiences have shrunk over the years amid increasing political polarization and a fracturing of the news media. Yet the viewership remains vast: Last year, 38 million people tuned in to Biden’s speech, and 16 networks carried it live. That's more than three times the television audience for the final game of the Astros-Phillies World Series last fall.

 

ATTACHMENT TWELVE – From  AZ Central

2023 State of the Union address: Will Boebert and Greene behave? Here's how to watch

By Bill Goodykoontz

How to watch the State of the Union address Tuesday?

With an economy-sized supply of Dramamine, if last year’s was any indication. It was sickening. Not as politics — your perspective on President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress will vary depending on which side of the aisle you’re on. In terms of speechifying, it was pretty regular ― the usual touting of achievements and big plans for the future. After four years of Donald Trump, it was comfortingly boring.

As human behavior, it was anything but. Rightly or wrongly, there is a certain amount of decorum to these sorts of things. Disagreement is strong among representatives and senators, but for the most part it’s politely expressed. Democrats will give some of Biden’s talking points a standing ovation while Republicans will sit on their hands.  Once in a great while, everyone will stand and cheer. You know, the usual. It’s not typically the bickering display that goes on in the House of Commons or a local school board meeting or anything.

Boebert, Greene put on a clown show for the ages at the 2022 State of the Union

Except for some reason — well, the reason is the occupant of the White House from 2017-2021 — decorum seems to have been not just lost but taken out back and buried in a hole. And that was on display in a major way during Biden’s 2022 address.

Most specifically by Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who put on a clown show for the ages.

They turned their backs when Biden’s Cabinet members walked in. They tried to get a “build the wall” chant going as Biden spoke. (Happily, it fizzled out quickly.)

When Biden spoke, rather movingly, about damage to soldiers from burn pits in Afghanistan, talking about “a cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin — I know,” he was clearly talking about his late son, Beau. He mentioned him by name, but not before Boebert yelled, “You put them in there, 13 of them!”

How do we know it was Boebert who yelled this? It was a crowded room, after all.

Because she bragged about it in a tweet.

Class act.

It was, if nothing else, interesting television, in the sense that it was something you don’t see often, like an exploding whale or something. It was also deplorable human behavior and a miserable excuse for governing.

Most people have more sense.

Or maybe they don’t. A certain segment of Twitter loves this stuff — a segment best avoided, but an increasingly prominent one now that Elon Musk has welcomed back the rabble-rousers and made the place about as fun as a biker bar with 2-for-1 drinks after midnight. It can get ugly, fast.

If you watched the House of Representatives in action in January as Rep. Kevin McCarthy systematically sold away pieces of his soul to become speaker of the House, you got a pretty good indication of where we’re going with all this — straight into the dumpster.

McCarthy sitting beside Harris and behind Biden will be quite a visual

As House speaker, McCarthy will be seated right behind Biden and beside Vice President Kamala Harris. That visual alone should be worth the price of admission.

This doesn’t mean every public gathering of elected officials needs to be a stodgy affair with tuxes, tails and monocles. Heated debate is healthy and, you know, fun to watch.

Certainly, Tuesday’s State of the Union will be worth watching, just to see how people act ― Republicans who now control the House in particular.

I’m nobody’s Miss Manners, but these events shouldn’t be free-for-alls. There’s a simple test: Adults shouldn’t behave at a joint session of Congress in ways that I would punish my kids for.

Yeah. Good luck with that. 

President Joe Biden's 2023 State of the Union address will air 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7. All major networks are expected to carry it.

 

ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN – From PolitiFact (Poynter Inst.)

Joe Biden's 2023 State of the Union: How to watch, what he'll talk about, who's responding

By Ellen Hine February 6, 2023

President Joe Biden will speak to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night for his second State of the Union address, updating the public on his actions as head of the executive branch. But why is he doing it? What will he say? And how can you watch? 

Here’s what you need to know: 

When is Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address? 

Biden will deliver his second State of the Union address at 9 p.m. EST Tuesday, Feb. 7.

What is the State of the Union?

The State of the Union is an annual speech the president of the United States gives to Congress every year as part of his duties outlined in the U.S. Constitution: "He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."

How can you watch the State of the Union?

You can watch the address through the White House’s YouTube channel. ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NBC, NewsNation, PBS, Telemundo and Univisión will all broadcast the speech on TV. 

PolitiFact’s team of reporters and editors will be watching the address to fact-check the president’s remarks live, just as we do every year. You can follow along with us live on Twitter or get a roundup of our coverage the next day. 

What will Biden discuss in his address? 

While we don’t yet have excerpts of what he will say, Biden could touch on several high-interest topics during his speech, such as police reform after the death of Tyre Nichols, the looming fight over raising the debt ceiling and the case for additional aid to defend Ukraine. 

Who is giving the 2023 State of the Union response?

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will deliver the Republican response to the State of the Union. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., will also give the address in Spanish. 

Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., will give a progressive response to both Biden’s address and the Republican address. In 2022, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., delivered a response to Biden’s first State of the Union address on behalf of the Working Families Party. 

How many campaign promises has Biden kept halfway through his term?

PolitiFact has been tracking Biden’s 99 campaign promises since his first day in office. When we checked in at the halfway point of his term, we found he has kept many promises around health care, but has been less successful on pledges about criminal justice and has a mixed record on immigration.

 

ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN – From  U.S. Chamber of Commerce

FIVE THINGS BUSINESS WILL be WATCHING FOR...

By Suzanne P. Clark, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce  Published  February 06, 2023

 

Between high inflation, the threat of recession, and a bitter fight over the debt limit, this will be the most closely watched State of the Union address for business in recent memory. President Biden has an important opportunity to set the tone for what can and should be a year of considerable bipartisan progress.

It will be a tall task. The nation’s business leaders—like all Americans—are fed up with hyper-partisanship and polarization. The never-ending gridlock may be business as usual in Washington, but it’s having real-world consequences on job creators, families, and communities.

There are serious challenges that demand urgent action. Here are five things we want to hear from the President on Tuesday night:

A commitment to deficit reduction and a willingness to negotiate on the debt ceiling. We have a debt and deficit problem that ultimately limits the ability of our economy to grow. It is not uncommon for Congress and the administration to include policies to reduce spending as part of a bill raising the debt limit. The President should make clear that he is committed to deficit reduction and that he is willing to sit down and negotiate. At the same time, Congressional leaders must acknowledge that default is not an option.

Advance bipartisan talks on border security and immigration. Millions cross our border illegally each year, but visas can’t get processed for engineers and nurses that businesses are desperate to hire and communities need. The system is clearly broken. Last year, with the strong support and input of the Chamber, there were meaningful bipartisan talks on proposals to secure the border, expand E-Verify, protect Dreamers, and increase the number of employment-based visas. It’s time to get the deal done.

Prioritize permitting reform. One essential, transformational thing Washington can do right now to drive economic growth is pass meaningful permitting reform. For the average transportation project, it takes nearly seven years to obtain federal approval. More complex projects can take a decade if not longer. Congress enacted generational infrastructure investments, but we can’t get shovels in the ground. It’s unacceptable. There is bipartisan agreement on permitting reform—now we need bipartisan action.

A balanced approach to China. Our commercial relationship with the world’s second-largest economy is worth nearly $1 trillion annually and supports hundreds of thousands of American jobs. China also presents real threats to our national security and our values. Failure to strike the right balance could undermine our security, our economy, and our competitiveness. The Biden administration must get back to the negotiating table and continue pursuing a trade deal that addresses policies that are harmful to American businesses. 

End the trade blockade. Today we have trade deals with 20 countries, but it’s been 10 years since we added a single new partner to that list. While we’ve sat on the sidelines, other countries have inked 100 new trade deals without us. Expanding trade and investing with other countries supports jobs, creates opportunities, deepens strategic partnerships, and advances free enterprise. It’s time for President Biden to get back to the table and resume negotiations with the United Kingdom, give the U.S. a stronger foothold in Africa, and aim higher on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

We’re hopeful the President will use his primetime address to advance these issues, but business isn’t waiting. The U.S. Chamber recently called for an "Agenda for American Strength"—an aspirational and forward-looking plan to build a 21st century infrastructure, address inflation by solving the worker shortage crisis, advance American energy production, assert our leadership across the globe, and reinforce the rule of law.

According to a recent Gallup poll, more Americans say government—the chronic divisiveness and dysfunction—is our nation’s top problem. Our “Agenda for American Strength” is practical and actionable this year in this Congress, but we need leaders in both parties to come to the table and do their jobs on behalf of the country and business. President Biden should seize the opportunity Tuesday night to drive action on this important work.

 

ATTACHMENT FIFTEEN – From axios

China crashes Biden's State of the Union speech

By Hans Nichols,

China will be an uninvited guest at President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, as he takes credit for a resilient economy, celebrates record-low unemployment, and previews a broader domestic agenda.

Why it matters: The stakes are high for Biden as he emphasizes a series of accomplishments and tries to control the narrative about his administration as it faces investigations by House Republicans. Now, a balloon from China has complicated that.

·         Biden and his speechwriters are prepared to be nimble — and likely rewrite — the China sections of the speech, as officials weigh Beijing's response to the U.S. military's downing of the surveillance balloon after it drifted across North America.

·         The president's challenge is signal to Beijing that violating America’s airspace won’t be tolerated, while also convincing Americans — and skeptical Republicans — that he did enough to protect U.S. airspace. Biden said that on Wednesday he ordered the balloon to be shot down, and that national security officials thought it was safest to wait until it was over water.

·         Biden also wants to preserve his administration’s ability to cooperate with China on everything from the global economy to climate change.

Flashback: Last year, Biden delivered his annual address to Congress six days after Russia invaded Ukraine, forcing his team to reorganize — and reimagine — the speech.

·         The last-minute scramble also gave Biden the chance to deliver one of his more memorable lines, when he warned Russian oligarchs that he would "find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets."

Driving the news: Biden’s decision to shoot down the Chinese balloon off the coast of South Carolina comes at a crucial moment in his presidency.

·         He is preparing to run for re-election by sharpening his differences with House Republicans, while also using the address to demonstrate his willingness to find ground with congressional Republicans on a “unity agenda.”

·         Republicans already have plans to investigate Biden's response to the surveillance balloon, adding to the long line of probes they've launched.

The big picture: In ways subtle and overt, Biden has codified President Trump’s confrontational approach to China. Along the way, he has turned Trump's instincts into the new bipartisan Washington consensus that China needs to be checked and challenged.

·         Biden has considered modifying Trump’s tariffs on some $350 billion of Chinese goods, but he hasn't seriously considered wiping them off the books.

·         Last summer, he got Congress to pass a bipartisan $280 billion bill to help bolster the U.S. domestic semiconductor industry, and make the U.S. less reliant on China for chips.

·         In October, the administration took the tech conflict up a notch when it imposed export restrictions aimed at slowing China’s ability to make advanced semiconductors. Officials are fine-tuning a new executive order to restrict U.S. investment in China.

Between the lines: Biden’s hawkish posture on China has prevented Republicans from scoring any real political points on the China issue.

·         But the delay in shooting down the balloon has given Republicans an opportunity to second-guess the commander-in-chief’s decision-making.

The intrigue: Before the first reports of the balloon drifting across America, Biden's team was pressing ahead with improving relations with China and generally lowering the temperature.

·         Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had a largely positive meeting with her Chinese counterpart in Zurich, and was planning to visit China after Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who canceled his trip because of the balloon.

·         Last November, with both sides realizing that relations were deteriorating, Biden and China’s president, Xi Jinping, met face-to-face at the G20 summit in Bali and pledged to cooperate more.

What we're watching: Months of planning go into a State of the Union address, with calls across the administration for big-picture goals and any pet projects that might get a presidential mention.

·         Biden is known for rewrites and revisions of major speeches, right until it’s loaded into the Teleprompter. Tuesday night won't be any different.

 

ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN – From  Fox News

Biden only mentioned China 3 times in 2022 State of the Union address

At least two Chinese spy balloons have entered U.S. airspace in past 4 months, Fox News has learned

By Jessica Chasmar 

All eyes are on China and President Biden’s handling of the spy balloon from the Communist state that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina ahead of his State of the Union speech Tuesday.

Republicans are voicing concerns that the administration has ignored or downplayed the growing threat of the Chinese Communist Party after a Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to drift across the continental U.S. for several days before being taken down by the U.S. military.

The president only mentioned China three times during his last address on March 1, arguing that his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law "put us on a path to win the economic competition of the 21st century that we face with the rest of the world, particularly China."

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"But, folks, to compete for the jobs of the future, we also need to level the playing field with China and other competitors," he said at the time. "That’s why it’s so important to pass the bipartisan Innovation Act sitting in Congress that will make record investments in emerging technologies and American manufacturing. We used to invest almost 2% of our GDP in research and development.  We don’t now. Can’t — China is."

RUBIO SAYS BIDEN WAITING TO AMERICAN PUBLIC ABOUT CHINESE BALLOON A ‘DERELICTION OF DUTY’

News commentators have speculated that the president won’t mention the balloon incident, which many have criticized as a blunder, at all during his speech Tuesday evening. Whether he takes a tougher stance against China and Chinese President Xi Jinping, however, remains to be seen.

The Biden administration first announced on Thursday that it had been tracking the Chinese ballon after it first entered U.S. airspace in Alaska's Aleutian Islands five days earlier.

Republicans have theorized that the Biden administration declined to tell the American public about the balloon’s existence sooner because they didn’t want it to interfere with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned trip to Beijing. Some critics have suggested the administration wouldn't haven mentioned it at all if the balloon hadn't been spotted by civilians floating over Billings, Montana.

Blinken's trip ended up being canceled anyway, while Republicans hammered Biden for failing to shoot down the balloon earlier.

CRITICS SEE CHINESE SPY BALLOON A S BIDEN'S LATEST POLICY BLUNDER

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The White House said that Biden followed the advice of the Pentagon and top military leaders not to shoot the craft down over the U.S. in case it caused civilian casualties and other collateral damage.

On Sunday, U.S. officials revealed that another Chinese spy balloon crashed into the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii four months ago, and at least one Chinese spy balloon flew over portions of Texas and Florida during the Trump administration, despite the former president's insistence it never happened.

Former President Trump and a number of his top national security and defense officials pushed back against Biden admin claims that Chinese surveillance balloons briefly transited the continental United States during the Trump administration in statements to Fox News Digital.

Former Trump White House national security adviser John Bolton told Fox News Digital that he never heard of anything like this under his tenure.

"I don’t know of any balloon flights by any power over the United States during my tenure, and I’d never heard of any of that occurring before I joined in 2018," Bolton said. "I haven’t heard of anything that occurred after I left either."

Robert O’Brien, who served as White House national security adviser from 2019 to 2021, told Fox News Digital that he had no knowledge of anything like this occurring.

"Unequivocally, I have never been briefed on the issue," O’Brien said, telling Fox News Digital that his team, which included Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security adviser, and Allison Hooker, who served as senior adviser to Asia, also were not briefed on these activities.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed reporting.

 

ATTACHMENT SEVENTEEN – FROM THE NATIONAL REVIEW 

NUKE THE STATE OF THE UNION

By CHARLES C. W. COOKE  February 8, 2023 10:31 AM

About 45 minutes in, I shut off the State of the Union and went and had a drink. I hated it, and I hated everyone involved in it. Long before it started, I hated the event per se, because it’s monarchical and inappropriate and unrepublican. But this one was particularly obnoxious. I hated the president, who lied and smirked throughout. I hated the Republicans, who made stupid farm noises in response to those lies. I hated the pundits who had to pretend that Biden was magnificent and that the address represented the pinnacle of a long and virtuous career. I hated the insta-reactions on Twitter, which could all have been drafted last week — and probably were. The whole thing was a disgrace, unworthy of the attention of a free people.

The Constitution requires that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.” Biden did nothing of the sort. There was nothing informative or educational about his speech, and, what he said he could have said at a campaign rally. He barely mentioned Ukraine. He talked about China in passing. He spent about 47 seconds talking about the lunatic social policies that his administration spends so much of its time advancing. He pretended sleazily that there is no looming entitlements crisis, while focusing on a bunch of minutiae — ticket prices and resort fees, for example — that are not within the federal government’s remit. Like all presidents these days — Democrat and Republican — he cast himself as a talisman, responsible for all the good things that happen in America, liable for none of the bad. It was unserious, unappealing, and, ultimately, intolerable.

Yesterday, a reader asked Phil Klein why National Review bothers covering the State of the Union at all. It’s a good question, and I speak only for myself when I respond to that reader that, going forward, I will not do so — unless it is to pour scorn on the entire enterprise. I’m a single-issue voter now: whatever the rest of your agenda, if you promise to abolish the State of the Union, I’m with you. Throw in a drink, and we’ll be friends for life.

 

ATTACHMENT EIGHTEEN – From Time

Few State of the Union Speeches Have Had Lower Stakes Than This One

 

BY PHILIP ELLIOTT FEBRUARY 6, 2023 2:48 PM EST

For much of the political world, the State of the Union speech and attached spectacle—the applause, the hyperbolic rejoinders, the over-hyped pronouncements about its significance—will be an unrivaled event, the political equivalent of the Super Bowl, the Oscars, or even a royal wedding. But the spin could hardly be further from the reality. For President Joe Biden on Tuesday night, the stakes for his address are as low as the expectations.

Harsh? You betcha’. True? Even more so.

For the first time in his presidency, Biden is going before a divided Congress, where House Republicans seem determined to oppose the White House at every turn and Senate Democrats, unwilling to change that chamber’s rules to allow a simple majority to govern, are always in search of GOP collaborators. Meanwhile, Biden is on the cusp of announcing his re-election campaign—or not, maybe—meaning any of the two dozen or so potential Republicans chasing their party’s nomination will be cheering on obstruction and sabotage from afar. Put simply: there isn’t a whole lot of reason to think much of anything Biden proposes on Tuesday can become law in this environment, especially as Republicans open a pile of investigations into Biden in the hopes of denting his hopes for a second term.

The White House is looking to use the speech—likely Biden’s biggest platform of the year—to offer Americans a distinct contrast between two visions of government: one of steady leadership and one of tyranny-by-fringe minority. House Republicans, in particular, have had a rocky start to the 118th Congress, taking five full days of balloting to select Speaker Kevin McCarthy as their leader and spending the first stretch with power taking steps to appease their base. Biden plans to say such extremism at home is as much of a threat as it is abroad, while offering an outstretched hand for any GOP support he can find.

That twin track is shaping up to be the White House’s message heading into reelection mode. Biden made mainstream-over-extreme messaging a cornerstone of his successful 2020 bid, and outside advisers say he’ll do the same for much of the 17-plus months until Election Day 2024. Given the continued influence of the likes of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on the House agenda, Biden may find that strategy goes over even better this time around and can build on a road-tested message honed during the less-bad-than-expected 2022 cycle.

Still, Biden isn’t one to blow the doors off any room with polished delivery or lofty rhetoric. The President is a grind-it-out guy, and Tuesday’s speech is going to be another installment in his masterclass in governing by adulting. He is expected to address China’s latest spying-gone-wrong balloon, as well as his order for a U.S. missile to shoot it down. Biden is ready to tell lawmakers that they simply must raise the nation’s borrowing limit and that he won’t negotiate on that previously routine move. Advisers say Biden will also once again propose an assault-weapons ban and policing reforms, and those same advisers expect that once again those ideas will go nowhere, even in the wake of more mass shootings and police atrocities in recent weeks.

Expectations around Washington for the speech are fairly low, which befits a tough environment for the White House. U.S. support for the ongoing defense of Ukraine has dipped across all partisan lines, inflation is proving high and stubborn, and fears of a recession are pronounced. The Covid pandemic is still killing more than 400 people per day in the United States—four times as many as die in auto accidents. While unemployment is at a 53-year low, Biden’s potential crowing about that alone could leave him seemingly out-of-touch with a country whose credit card is maxed-out without a plan to increase the borrowing limit, trips to the grocery store are bringing unmatched costs, and interest rates are on the rise.

On top of those headwinds from Republicans, he doesn’t exactly enjoy much of a push from his fellow Democrats, either. Just 37% of Democrats told The Associated Press poll that they wanted Biden to seek another term, down from the 52% who said the same before November’s elections that beat expectations. Among all adults, a paltry 22% say Biden should run again, down from 29% last year. Those doubters’ biggest concern: the 80-year-old Biden’s age.

Regardless, those closest to Biden expect him to fully join the race in the coming weeks. As he calls around with old pals and traditional allies, Biden sounds every bit the candidate and seems to believe he alone can deny Donald Trump a return to power. But White House aides are careful to say no decision has been made, and that Biden is still sounding out friends for their advice. But as long as Biden is publicly signaling he will seek a second term, Democrats are locked in a holding pattern of sorts—unwilling to challenge their incumbent, all the while ignoring problems with the broader brand. But the possibility of a second Biden term also puts most Republican cooperation on ice, all but guaranteeing Tuesday’s State of the Union to be something of a snooze.

 

ATTACHMENT NINETEEN – From  Fox News

State of the Union 2023: Schumer rips GOP agenda ahead of Biden address

Covered by: Chris Pandolfo, Haley Chi-Sing, Timothy H.J. Nerozzi, Brandon Gillespie and Kelly Laco   February 07, 2023 05:20pm ET

 

A former volunteer firefighter who served during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks will attend the State of the Union address as the guest of Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y.

According to a press release from Santos' office, Michael Weinstock was a one of the many firefighters working at Ground Zero when the two World Trade Center towers fell. He survived by seeking shelter in a nearby building.

Weinstock later served as Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn's Special Victim's Bureau and ran as a Democrat in the House District that Santos currently represents.

He has been an advocate for 9/11 first responders facing healthcare needs.

Santos has faced criticism relating to the 9/11 attacks after claiming his mother was in the World Trade Center when they occurred. Records, however, showed she was in Brazil at the time.

Posted by Brandon GillespieShare

Hinson, Kim bring Afghanistan vets to State of the Union, tell Biden 'answers' still needed

House Republicans Reps. Ashley Hinson and Young Kim brought two Afghanistan veterans to the State of the Union, and tell Fox News Digital the Biden administration still needs to provide answers on the deadly withdrawal, but there is opportunity for bipartisanship.

Posted by Kelly LacoShare

Women's sports advocate, swimming champion Riley Gaines to attend State of the Union

Former Kentucky women's swimming star Riley Gaines will be attending the State of the Union as a personal guest of Rep. Lisa McClain.

Gaines is a 12-time All-American champion and a 5-time SEC champion.

She is a spokeswoman for the Independent Women's Forum and a regular advocate of keeping transgendered athletes out of women's sports.

"I couldn't be more excited to attend the State of the Union address alongside Representative McClain," Gaines said in a news release.

She continued, "Not only is she an amazing leader and congresswoman, she has been an integral part in protecting women's sports on the basis of sex. She truly knows the value of female-only spaces and how sports empowers young girls. She will relentlessly fight the Left’s subversive war on women. Thank you, Representative McClain."

Posted by Timothy H.J. NerozziShare

Biden heading into State of the Union plagued by negative approval ratings

President Biden is heading into the State of the Union on Tuesday plagued by negative approval ratings.

According to the Real Clear Politics polling average, Biden currently boasts a 44% approval rating among Americans, compared to 52% disapproval.

FiveThirtyEight offered similar findings, putting Biden at a 43% approval rating compared to 52% disapproval.

According to both sources, Biden has not had an approval rating in the green since August 2021.

Biden hit his lowest approval rating in July 2022 with a staggering 57% disapproval. This public dissatisfaction came amid record gas prices and wild spikes of inflation.

Posted by Timothy H.J. NerozziShare

Biden expected to emphasize unity during State of the Union despite feud with Republicans

President Biden is expected to call for unity and cooperation between Republicans and Democrats at the State of the Union on Tuesday despite continued friction with the GOP.

White House officials told the press in a call on Tuesday that Biden will be announcing new policies in his "Unity Agenda" that was first unveiled at last year's speech.

The Unity Agenda focuses on key issues the Biden administration believes can be addressed across party lines — the opioid epidemic, mental health, cancer research, and medical services for veterans.

Posted by Timothy H.J. NerozziShare

Schumer says Democrats are 'unified,' rips GOP agenda ahead of Biden's State of the Union address

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed the GOP agenda while also stating Democrats are "unified" ahead of President Biden's 2023 State of the Union address.

"We are unified here in the Senate as Democrats, House Democrats are pretty unified, too. But it’s a stark, stark contrast to compare what’s going on with House Republicans," Schumer said Tuesday.

Schumer referenced Republicans' days-long feud over who should be Speaker of the House back in January, despite taking the chamber, saying "it shows lack of unity." Schumer proceeded to call the situation "very worrisome and troublesome" before stating Republicans "can't govern."

"So Republicans are are stuck. They can’t govern. They can’t agree on anything. Instead, they’re focused on political theater. They don’t do anything. They’re not trying to do anything real. And we hope they won’t continue to do this on something as important as the surveillance balloon," Schumer said.

The Senate Majority Leader also touched upon various bipartisan bills passed, before saying he is "really, really excited about the of the upcoming two years."

GOP contrasts majority agenda with Biden's 'failed far-left policies' ahead of State of the Union

House Republicans held a press conference ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address, contrasting the majority's agenda to Biden's "failed far-left Democrat policies." 

The president "must answer for his failed leadership" said House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York in her opening remarks, highlighting the GOP agenda during the first weeks of the 118th Congress.

"In just the first few weeks, we have re-opened the people's house, defended America's energy security, protected the sanctity of life, deferred to Joe Biden's IRS army, put an end to Joe Biden's COVID-19 power grab and established select committees to address the Chinese Communist Party's malign influence and the weaponization of the federal government," Stefanik continued.

The lower chamber Republicans convened ahead of the president’s Tuesday’s address to Congress, vowing to hold the President accountability with their new House majority. 

They predicted "dizzying spin" from Biden this evening, bashing his record on the economy, the border crisis, and his handling of the Chinese spy balloon that floated across the continental United States this past week.

Posted by Chris PandolfoShare

McCarthy says he won't repeat Pelosi 'theatrics' and rip up Biden’s SOTU speech

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday he has no plans to tear up President Biden’s State of the Union speech, a stunt former Speaker Nancy Pelosi pulled at the end of Trump’s final State of the Union speech in 2020.

McCarthy will sit with Vice President Kamala Harris behind Biden during the State of the Union address tonight, and he tweeted Tuesday that "a lot of people have been asking" if he would repeat Pelosi’s move from three years ago. But McCarthy said it won’t happen.

"I don’t believe in the theatrics of tearing up speeches," McCarthy said in a video accompanying his tweet. "I respect the other side, I can disagree on policy. But I want to make sure this country is stronger, economically sound, energy independent, secure and accountable."

In 2020, Pelosi stunned millions of viewers by standing up at the end of Trump’s remarks and ripping up his remarks. Pelosi and other Democrats were mad that Trump said the U.S. must fight socialism and various left-wing policies.

 

SOME TAKEAWAYS and POSTINGS from the FOX DEN…

Posted by Haley Chi-Sing

Here are the themes of Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders' Republican response to President Biden

Newly-elected Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) will deliver the Republican response to President Biden's State of the Union address shortly after he concludes his remarks Tuesday evening.

The governor's team previewed the themes of Sanders' speech to Fox News Digital.

Sanders, the youngest governor in the nation, will discuss how it's time for a new generation of leadership in America. It will be pointed commentary directed at Biden, who is the oldest-serving president in United States history.

She will say that Biden is unwilling to defend our border, defend our skies, and defend our people. The bottom line of her address is that he is unfit to serve as commander-in-chief.  

Sanders will highlight how the GOP is fighting in state capitals and in Washington D.C. to hold Biden accountable and supports safe communities, jobs, and freedom from the woke mob.

The governor will frame the differences between Republicans and Democrats as freedom vs. government control.

It's not a choice between right or left, she will say. The choice is between normal or crazy — which, interestingly, is more or less how House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., presented the divide between Republicans and Democrats in remarks last month. Of course, in Jeffries' mind, Democrats are on "team normal" while Republicans represent "team extreme."

Posted by Chris PandolfoShare

White House announces guest list for State of the Union

The White House on Tuesday morning released a list guests who will join First Lady Jill Biden in her viewing box for President Biden's upcoming State of the Union Address.

Those invited were selected because they "personify issues or themes to be addressed by the President in his speech, or they embody the Biden-Harris Administration's policies at work for the American people," the White House said.

They include:

Maurice and Kandice Barron of New York City, whose three-year-old daughter, Ava, survived a rare form of pediatric cancer.

Lynette Bonar of Tuba City, Arizona, an enrolled member of Navajo Nation who has worked to treat cancer patients.

Bono, the lead singer of U2.

Deanna Branch of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an environmental activist.

Kristin Christensen and Avarie Kollmar of Seattle Washington, veterans activists.

Ruth Cohen of Rockville, Maryland, a Holocaust survivor.

Mitzi Colin Lopez of West Chester, Pennsylvania, a DREAMer and recipient of President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order in 2015.

Maurice “Dion” Dykes of Knoxville, Tennessee, an apprentice teacher.

Kate Foley of Arlington Heights, Illinois, a 10th grade computer-integrated manufacturing student.

Darlene Gaffney of North Charleston, South Carolina, a cancer survivor.

Doug Griffin, of Newton New Hampshire, an anti-addiction activist.

Saria Gwin-Maye of Cincinnati, Ohio, a union ironworker.

Jacki Liszack of Fort Myers, Florida, the President and CEO of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce and an elected Fire Commissioner for the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District.

Harry Miller of Upper-Arlington, Ohio, a mental health advocate.

Gina and Heidi Nortonsmith of Northampton, Massachusetts, plaintiffs in Goodridge vs. MA Dept. of Public Health, a court case that led Massachusetts to become first in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage.

Paul Pelosi of San Francisco, California, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband.

Paul Sarzoza of Phoenix, Arizona, a small business owner.

Brandon Tsay of San Marino, California, the 26-year-old hero who disarmed the gunman responsible for killing 11 people and injuring 10 others at the Monterey Park Lunar New Year celebrations.

RowVaughn and Rodney Wells of Memphis, Tennessee, the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols,  a 29-year old unarmed Black man who died after he was severely beaten by multiple police officers during an alleged traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee.

Amanda and Josh Zurawski of Austin, Texas, a couple who were unable to receive treatment for an emergency miscarriage because doctors feared they would violate Texas' anti-abortion law.

Posted by Chris Pandolfo

FOX News Channel to go live with President Joe Biden's State of the Union address

Fox News chief political anchor and Special Report's Bret Baier will lead tonight's coverage of President Biden's State of the Union address alongside The Story anchor and executive editor Martha MacCallum on the FOX News Channel (FNC).

Coverage will begin Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET and will be simulcast on FOX Business Network (FBN).

White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich and Congressional correspondent Aishah Hasnie will be reporting live from the White House and the Capitol, respectively. FNC's coverage will feature in-depth and expert analysis from co-anchor of America’s Newsroom and co-host of The Five Dana Perino, senior political analyst Brit Hume, co-host of The Five Harold Ford Jr. and host of FBN's Kudlow, Larry Kudlow.

FOX News Sunday’s Shannon Bream will anchor separate live coverage on FOX Network, beginning at 9 p.m. ET with contributions from FNC’s senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram.

FOX News Audio will also provide extensive multiplatform coverage of Biden's address, beginning at 8 p.m. ET on FOX News Radio (FNR), which will cover the speech live with Jared Halpern and Jessica Rosenthal.

Meanwhile, FOX News Digital will continue to offer nonstop coverage of the 2023 State of the Union address with this live blog. Viewers will be able to livestream the address and the Republican response on FOXNews.com for free.

Stay tuned!

Posted by Chris Pandolfo

State of the Union has Americans demanding answers from President Biden on top concerns

Inflation and the war in Ukraine are top issues Americans told Fox News they would like to hear President Biden address during the State of the Union on Tuesday night.

"I would like you to explain to the American people why eggs are $6 a dozen," said one man in Nashville. "It isn't because of the bird flu, it's because of other issues that your administration has not addressed."

Biden will deliver the State of the Union with an approval rating of 45%, according to a Fox News poll published Wednesday. The commander-in-chief started his third year in office with fewer than half approving of how he's handling inflation, border security, the economy and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"I would like to hear him talk a lot about Ukraine, since I think it is so important to us," said one man in Washington, D.C. 

"I would also like to hear his thoughts about how he can work, at all, with the Republican House," the Washingtonian continued. "'Cause, I think they are a really incredibly challenging group that seems to be anti-everything he is, for not the best of reasons."

 

Posted by the whole damned Den…

State of the Union: Biden to discuss strategy to 'reassert America's leadership' on world stage

President Biden will deliver his second State of the Union address Tuesday night, in which he is expected to explain his strategy to "reassert America's leadership around the world," according to a White House official who spoke to Fox News. The president's address comes as his administration grapples with the fallout from the Chinese surveillance balloon that transited across the continental United States for nearly a week.

Since last year's address, his administration has been faced with a growing migrant surge at the southern border, gasoline prices hit an all-time record, inflation reached a 40-year-high, continuing supply chain issues led to a nationwide shortage of baby formula, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine has escalated with no end in sight.

The president’s 2023 address also comes as he is under special counsel investigation for his improper retention of classified records from his time as vice president under the Obama administration, and it is just weeks after the FBI searched his homes for additional documents with classification markings.

During his address Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET, a White House official said the president plans to "outline the progress made on maintaining international alliances to defend Ukraine, compete with China and assert American leadership in the world."

But when asked whether the president would focus specifically on the threat China poses to U.S. national security and on the Chinese spy balloon, the official said Biden’s remarks "of course" will "always take into account what’s happening in the world and how we meet the moment we’re in."

 

 

ATTACHMENT TWENTY   FROM CNBC x26

State of the union 2023 live updates: Biden to call for higher taxes on billionaires, stock buybacks

By Kevin Breuninger Christina Wilkie Emma Kinery  UPDATED TUE, FEB 7 2023 5:49 PM

U.S. President Joe Biden will face a divided Congress and stubbornly high inflation when he delivers the annual State of the Union address at 9 p.m. Tuesday night.

U.S. job growth, the war in Ukraine, the rise in domestic manufacturing, the ongoing pandemic and America’s strategic competition with China will dominate the speech, according to White House aides who outlined his comments.

Tuesday will be the first time since 2019 that the president and congressional leaders are permitted to bring guests to the event, which is attended by every member of the House and Senate, all nine Supreme Court Justices, most of the president’s Cabinet and the diplomatic corps. 

It will also be the first time that Biden gives the historic speech before a divided Congress after Republicans clenched control of the U.S. House in November’s midterm elections.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California will sit behind Biden’s left shoulder on the dais during his address instead of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Vice President Kamala Harris will sit next to McCarthy.

For Biden, there is a lot riding on his ability to connect with his audience this year. His approval ratings are holding steady at 45%, according to the most recent NBC News polling.

Despite record job growth and new data indicating that inflation is slowing, Americans remain deeply pessimistic about the state of the economy.

They blame Biden for rising interest rates and they worry about a possible recession. The NBC poll found that only 36% of U.S. adults approved of Biden’s handling of the economy.

In addition to economic woes, the debt ceiling deadline later this year looms over Washington. It will require Biden to negotiate with the newly elected Republican majority in the House, who have demanded deep spending cuts before they will agree to pass a debt ceiling hike.

 

34 MIN AGO

The security fence encircling the Capitol has become a political flashpoint

 

Biden will deliver his State of the Union address in a Capitol complex that is encircled by an 8 foot-tall black fence that was erected over the weekend.

Along the fence there are signs that read, “Area closed by order of the United States Capitol Police Board.”

To Washington residents and congressional aides, the fencing is a visceral reminder of the deadly mob attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In the wake of the attack, the Capitol was fenced off for a month.

Two years later, a growing number of Republicans in Congress oppose the use of perimeter fencing for high security events, including the newly minted House speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

“I don’t think [the fencing] is the right look, there’s not a need” for it, McCarthy told CNN Tuesday. “You’ve got all the intel out there that there’s no problem whatsoever,” he said.

Threats against members of Congress have more than doubled since 2017, according to reports produced by the U.S. Capitol Police.

— Christina Wilkie

48 MIN AGO

Biden to call for ‘billionaire tax’ in laying out economic policy for 2nd half of term

 

Biden will use his address to broadly sketch out his administration’s economic policy goals for the second half of his term, including a plan to reduce the deficit with a minimum tax on billionaires.

Biden “will show the country a blueprint for how to sustain the manufacturing and jobs boom his agenda is fueling, keep fighting inflation and cutting costs, protect Medicare and Social Security, and continue bringing down the deficit by having the wealthy and big corporations pay more of their fair share,” spokesman Andrew Bates wrote in a memo to reporters.

The memo also lashed out at Biden’s political rivals, contrasting the president’s goals with those of the new House Republican majority. Bates accuses the congressional Republicans of “selling out working people” in favor of the rich, big corporations and special interests.

He also knocks the GOP for “proposing multiple extreme national abortion bans in just their first month controlling the chamber.”

Biden’s “blueprint” of proposals, according to Bates, will include reducing the deficit through a billionaire tax as well as a tax on corporate stock buybacks. Biden will also advocate for expanding a $35 cap on the price of insulin, which went into effect this year for seniors on Medicare.

The president’s plans are presented as a way “to finish the job he started in the first two years of his term.” Biden, who at 80 is the oldest president to hold the office, has not said if he will run again in 2024.

— Kevin Breuninger

1 HOUR AGO

Powell says Fed can’t save economy if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling

Ahead of Biden’s speech, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a crowd at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. that the central bank can’t save the U.S. economy if Congress fails to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling.

The nation hit its statutory debt limit last month, but Republican lawmakers have held off on raising the limit in order to push for spending cuts. So far, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been able to take steps to avoid default on U.S. bonds, and buy extra time.

Powell said there is only one way to resolve the issue. “This is something that Congress has to do,” he said.

The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt, and officials have said that doing so would have a severe economic and financial impact.

— Christina Cheddar Berk

2 HOURS AGO

Biden needs to explain how theU.S. will exit the Covid emergency without leaving people behind

When President Biden delivers his address this evening, he will have to explain to the public how the U.S. plans to exit a three-year-long Covid emergency without leaving anyone behind.

The White House announced last week that the Covid public health emergency will end in May. The U.S. also plans to stop buying vaccines and antivirals and distributing them to the public for free as soon as this fall, shifting that task to the private sector.

But U.S. plans to manage the virus more like other seasonal respiratory diseases such as the flu, if not executed carefully, could leave behind even more inequality in a battered health-care system and among an exhausted public.

It’s true that the U.S. is in a stronger place in its fight against Covid today than the nation was during Biden’s last State of the Union in March 2022. At that time, the U.S. was emerging from the pandemic’s largest wave of infection due to the highly contagious omicron variant, which had caught the White House by surprise and upended its Covid response.

Although the virus is still spreading widely, deaths and hospitalizations have declined dramatically as vaccines and antiviral treatments have become widely available in the U.S. Weekly deaths have dropped 80% and hospitalizations are down 84% since the 2022 omicron peak.

But the virus is still killing more than 3,000 people a week as the U.S. transitions out of the emergency phase.

— Spencer Kimball

2 HOURS AGO

GOP Rep. Mary Miller to boycott Biden’s address

Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., announced she will boycott President Joe Biden’s state of the union address in protest of what she said were his “lies” while in office.

“I will not be attending Biden’s State of the Union to listen to him lie about the damage he has caused to our country while the left-wing media and members of Congress applaud his lies,” the second-term congresswoman said in a statement released Monday.

Miller is the only GOP lawmaker so far who said she won’t attend the address.

She accused Biden of lying about border security, inflation and the Justice Department “targeting parents for attending school board meetings.” Attorney General Merrick Garland has denied the latter claim and fact-checkers have labeled it as false.

Miller’s statement began with a seemingly unrelated reference to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tearing a paper copy of former President Donald Trump’s speech in 2020. “Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up President Trump’s State of the Union Address, which celebrated a secure border, support for our military, and American energy independence,” Miller’s statement said.

Miller said she would give her guest ticket to former U.S. Air Force Col. Mark Hurley, “who retired from the military because of Biden’s unjust COVID vaccine mandate.”

Hurley said it was an honor to attend the speech and to personally thank Miller and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for their work to end the Covid vaccine requirement for active-duty military, according to a statement.

— Kevin Breuninger

3 HOURS AGO

Scrutinized Republican Rep. George Santos invites former firefighter as guest to State of the Union

The heavily scrutinized Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., has invited a former firefighter to attend the State of the Union as his guest.

Michael Weinstock, the Democrat who once ran for Santos’ congressional seat, is set to attend the historic event as the controversial lawmaker’s guest.

Santos has seen a wave of criticism from Democrats and some Republican lawmakers for embellishing, or, in some cases, outright lying, about key elements of his resume.

One of Santos’ questionable claims is whether his own mother died during the Sept. 11 attacks.

NBC News reported that while Santos was running for Congress he tweeted that 9/11 claimed his mother’s life, while his campaign website previously noted “George’s mother was in her office in the South Tower on Sept. 11, 2001, when the horrific events of that day unfolded. She survived the tragic events on September 11th, but she passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer.”

Yet, according to NBC News, records show Santos’ mother wasn’t in the United States at the time of the attack.

Santos recently chose not to serve on two House committees to which he was assigned until a slew of investigations into his campaign and personal finances have concluded.

— Brian Schwartz

3 HOURS AGO

Yellen says Biden will tout economic recovery

President Joe Biden will highlight the positive job numbers and the nation’s continuing recovery from historic inflation during his address to Congress, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

“I know President Biden will talk about that … the unemployment rate is at a 53-year low of 3.4%,” Yellen told ABC’s George Stephanopolous on Monday. “Last month, we created over 500,000 jobs, more than 12 million since the President took office, and inflation is coming down.”

The projections are a welcome trend amid the worst inflation in 40 years. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 517,000 in January, eclipsing analysts’ estimates of 187,000.

Yellen attributed much of the economic turnaround to interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve; economic policies like the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and CHIPS and Science Act; the Biden administration’s efforts to lower soaring gas prices and a multinational decision to cap the price of Russian oil products.

— Chelsey Cox

4 HOURS AGO

Democrats will extend ‘open hand’ to GOP, but there should be ‘clean’ debt ceiling increase: Neguse

Neguse said Democrats were ready to work with the Republican majority in the House “to lower costs, to build safer communities and to create better-paying jobs for the American people.”

But Neguse, who is part of the House Democratic leadership, criticized Republicans over their stance on the United States’ debt ceiling, which last month hits its statutory limit of $31.4 trillion. The U.S. is at risk of default on its loan obligations if the ceiling is not raised by June, when a series of extraordinary measures implemented by the Treasury Department to avoid such a fate are expected to stop working.

Neguse said that fiscal hawks who want to lower the U.S. debt and deficit by cutting government spending should address those areas “during the budget process.”

“It should not happen in putting the full faith and credit of the United States, a sacrosanct commitment and our status as the world’s reserve currency, potentially in peril. Which is what Republicans are doing right now,” he said.

“And I think that’s a dangerous game,” Neguse said. “We ought to do what we did during the Trump administration, which is a clean debt ceiling. The Republicans did that when they were in control of the House and Senate.”

— Dan Mangan

4 HOURS AGO

Biden’s speech is a preview to his 2024 reelection campaign

Biden’s speech is expected to be seen as his blueprint for the 2024 campaign. The White House has repeatedly stated the president intends to run for another term, but he has yet to officially announce his plans.

The State of the Union gives him the opportunity to take a victory lap of the previous two years.

“You’ll hear the president trying to put in context the progress we’ve made,” outgoing National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told reporters Monday. “And speak to the work yet to come. The president uniquely understands that we have a lot more work to do when it comes to the economy, even as we’ve seen real progress.”

He will likely outline his successes to date from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to management of the coronavirus pandemic to his handling of the economy with recent unemployment numbers showing a nearly 54-year record low.

— Emma Kinery

5 HOURS AGO

White House guest list includes Ukraine ambassador, Paul Pelosi and Bono

U2 frontman Bono, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. and a wide range of other guests will join first lady Jill Biden in the viewing box of the House chamber during President Joe Biden’s state of the union address.

Each of the group’s 27 members was selected “because they personify issues or themes to be addressed by the President in his speech, or they embody the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies at work for the American people,” the White House said.

Among them is Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who last year was attacked with a hammer by a person who broke into the couple’s San Francisco home. The attacker allegedly asked Paul Pelosi “where is Nancy?” during the incident, which the White House noted was similar to the shouts and chants of some pro-Trump rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., will join the first lady for the second year in a row “in recognition of sustained U.S. support for Ukraine nearly a year after Russia launched its unprovoked attack,” the White House said.

Bono, a longtime activist and lead singer of the world-famous rock band U2, was recognized by the White House for his work fighting HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty.

The first lady also invited Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the gunman suspected of carrying out a mass shooting in Monterey Park, Calif., during the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations there. Tsay, whose struggle with the gunman was captured on video, has been hailed as a hero and credited with preventing a potential second shooting.

Other guests include an immigration activist and DACA beneficiary, the father of a daughter who died of a fentanyl overdose at age 20, a woman suffering from breast cancer, and a mental health advocate.

Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff will also sit in the viewing box during Biden’s speech. Holocaust survivor Ruth Cohen, whom Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband met last year, is joining the group as Emhoff’s special guest, the White House said.

— Kevin Breuninger

6 HOURS AGO

Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova will join as a guest of first lady Jill Biden

Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, will attend the State of the Union for a second time as a guest of first lady Jill Biden.

Markarova joined the first lady in her viewing box last year and received a standing ovation after President Joe Biden called for a show of solidarity with Ukraine.

Markarova, who is Ukraine’s former Minister of Finance, has served as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top diplomat in the United States since 2021.

— Amanda Macias

6 HOURS AGO

Biden to take aim a tech companies over privacy concerns

President Joe Biden will take aim at tech companies in his address tonight, calling for bipartisan support to ban targeted online advertising for America’s youth and demanding transparency about how tech companies collect Americans’ personal data, the White House said.

He will also argue it is the responsibility of companies, not consumers, to minimize the amount of information they collect.

The White House said social media companies often do not enforce their terms of service with respect to minors. Biden will discuss how his administration plans to build on the surgeon general’s youth mental health advisory, the Department of Health and Human Services’ new Center of Excellence on Social Media and Mental Wellness, and the Children and Media Research Advancement Act.

— Ashley Capoot

6 HOURS AGO

Biden ‘s speech will build on ‘Unity Agenda’ with focus on cancer research, vets, seniors, fentanyl

 

President Joe Biden will lay out an expansion of his “unity agenda,” unveiling new policies aimed at ending cancer, supporting veterans and seniors, tackling mental health issues and cracking down on the opioid crisis, top White House aides said.

In a call previewing his second state of the union address, they touted the progress that the Biden administration has made on those issues since he announced the four-pronged unity agenda last year. Some of those accomplishments include signing into law a veterans’ benefits bill and the establishment of an agency dedicated to researching diseases including cancer.

The White House said Biden will build on the agenda in this year’s address, in part by calling on Congress to take a series of actions, including:

·         Reauthorizing the National Cancer Act to update U.S. cancer research efforts

·         Working to ban targeted advertising online for children and young people and enact protections for their online privacy and safety

·         Imposing stricter limits on targeted advertising and personal data collection by Big Tech companies

·         Permanently labeling all “fentanyl related substances” as Schedule 1 drugs — subject to the strictest regulations and penalties — in order to close a “loophole” exploited by drug traffickers

·         Pass plans to expand housing access for low-income veterans, to be detailed in Biden’s forthcoming budget proposal

— Kevin Breuninger

8 HOURS AGO

U.S. faces threats from Russia, China

Biden takes the podium tonight as Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine enters its second year with tens of thousands of casualties and no end in sight.

While Russia poses an urgent threat to world peace, China presents an even longer and trickier challenge to the United States.

This was compounded by the high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon that moved over the United States in the last week before it was shot down by the U.S. military.

Biden will address the U.S.-China relationship in the speech, but he will not announce new retaliatory actions against Beijing over the balloon, White House aides told NBC News. 

Following Biden’s address, Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will deliver the GOP response to the speech. This will be followed by a Republican Spanish-language response, delivered by the newly elected Rep. Juan Ciscomani of Arizona. 

— Christina Wilkie

8 HOURS AGO

The state of the union is ‘not great,’ GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says

President Joe Biden is expected to lay out a hopeful and optimistic message in his address Tuesday night. But to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., America’s lingering inflation woes paint a more dire picture of the state of the union.

“It’s not great,” McCarthy, the top Republican in Congress, said Tuesday morning on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“I mean, people are worried. Every breakfast, people used to have eggs and think it was no big deal, just some protein. Now it’s almost a specialty because the price is so high,” McCarthy said.

Americans are “worried about the fuel, they’re worried about their jobs,” he said, “and then when you look at the latest polling, they’re worried about the government.”

McCarthy chalked that trend up to the public perception that politicians are “just bickering back and forth and not solving problems.”

One way to counteract that, he argued, would be for both sides to engage in negotiations on raising the debt ceiling. Biden has taken a hard line against those proposed talks, vowing not to let the threat of a U.S. default be used as a “bargaining chip” for Republicans to try to cut spending.

“We need to do the most basic things. And what is that? Pass a budget,” McCarthy said on CNBC. “Not bickering about a debt ceiling but sitting down like adults and utilizing it to put us on a path to more fiscal responsibility.”

— Kevin Breuninger

9 HOURS AGO

Biden approval rating stands at 41% ahead of his address

Biden delivers his second State of the Union address with a 41% approval rating, higher than his predecessor Donald Trump but below that of the previous four presidents at the same time in office, according to Gallup data.

Trump’s approval rating sunk to 37% in January of his third year in office. At the same point in their terms, former presidents Barack Obama had 49%; George W. Bush 60%; Bill Clinton 47%; and George H.W. Bush 75% at the beginning of the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

The average for a president at this point in office is 54% approval, according to Gallup historic data. Biden’s highest approval rating was 57% shortly after he took office and again in April of his first year.

— Emma Kinery

10 HOURS AGO

McCarthy gives a formal defense of GOP stance on debt ceiling

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave a formal speech Monday night on the debt ceiling, but one that echoed the style of a presidential State of the Union address.

“Good evening. I’m Kevin McCarthy. I have the honor of serving as the Speaker of the House. Tonight, however, I stand before you not only as the Speaker, I speak to you as a father,” McCarthy said at a lectern before a formal backdrop of American flags.

McCarthy defended House Republicans’ longstanding refusal to pass a debt ceiling increase the House unless they secure major federal spending cuts in return.

The Republican leader did not break any new ground in his remarks, but the prose and the pomp of the televised address were unmistakable.

Biden and McCarthy are currently engaged in the early phases of what is expected to be a months long negotiation on the debt ceiling vote.

— Christina Wilkie

 

ATTACHMENT TWENTY ONE – From  

28

FROM AP x28

Biden aims to deliver reassurance in State of Union address

By ZEKE MILLER and SEUNG MIN KIM

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is ready to offer a reassuring assessment of the nation’s condition rather than roll out flashy policy proposals as he delivers his second State of the Union address on Tuesday night, seeking to overcome pessimism in the country and concerns about his own leadership.

His speech before a politically divided Congress comes as the nation struggles to make sense of confounding cross-currents at home and abroad — economic uncertainty, a wearying war in Ukraine, growing tensions with China among them — and warily sizes up Biden’s fitness for a likely reelection bid.

MORE ON THE STATE OF THE UNION

·         – What to Watch: New political vibes this State of the Union

·         – Arkansas Gov. Sanders to offer State of the Union rebuttal

·         – State of the Union? Congress doesn't fully reflect diversity

·         – U2's Bono, family of Tyre Nichols' among Jill Biden's guests

The president will stand at the House rostrum at a time when just a quarter of U.S. adults say things in the country are headed in the right direction, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About three-quarters say things are on the wrong track. And a majority of Democrats don’t want Biden to seek another term.

He will confront those sentiments head on, aides say, while at the same time trying to avoid sounding insensitive to Americans’ concerns.

Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, said Biden would “acknowledge and meet American people where they are,” realizing their “economic anxiety is real.”

“I think the core message is: We have to make more progress, but people should feel optimism,” he added.

Chapman University presidential historian Luke Nichter said the closest parallel to Biden’s present circumstance may be the 1960s, when global uncertainty met domestic disquiet. Biden, he said, has an opportunity to be a “calming presence” for the country.

“Usually we’re looking for an agenda: ‘Here’s what he plans to do.’ I don’t know that that’s really realistic,” Nichter said. “I think Americans’ expectations are pretty low of what Congress is actually going to achieve. And so I think right now, sentiment and tone, and helping Americans feel better about their circumstances, I think are going to go a long way.”

The setting for Biden’s speech will look markedly different from a year ago, when it was Democratic stalwart Nancy Pelosi seated behind him as House speaker. She’s been replaced by Republican Kevin McCarthy, and it’s unclear what kind of reception restive Republicans in the chamber will give the Democratic president.

McCarthy on Monday vowed to be “respectful” during the address and in turn asked Biden to refrain from using the phrase “extreme MAGA Republicans,” which the president deployed on the campaign trail in 2022.

“I won’t tear up the speech, I won’t play games,” McCarthy told reporters, a reference to Pelosi’s dramatic action after President Donald Trump’s final State of the Union address.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who gained a national profile as Trump’s press secretary, was to deliver the Republican response to Biden’s speech.

With COVID-19 restrictions now lifted, the White House and legislators from both parties invited guests designed to drive home political messages with their presence in the House chamber. The parents of Tyre Nichols, who was severely beaten by police officers in Memphis and later died, are among those expected to be seated with first lady Jill Biden. Other Biden guests include the rock star/humanitarian Bono and the 26-year-old who disarmed a gunman in last month’s Monterey Park, California, shooting.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus invited family members of those involved in police incidents, as they sought to press for action on police reform in the wake of Nichols’ death.

Biden is shifting his sights after spending his first two years pushing through major bills such as the bipartisan infrastructure package, legislation to promote high-tech manufacturing and climate measures. With Republicans now in control of the House, Biden is turning his focus to implementing those massive laws and making sure voters credit him for the improvements.

The switch from touting fresh initiatives is largely by necessity. Biden faces a newly empowered GOP that is itching to undo many of his achievements and vowing to pursue a multitude of investigations — including looking into the recent discoveries of classified documents from his time as vice president at his home and former office.

At the same time, Biden will need to find a way to work across the aisle to keep the government funded by raising the federal debt limit by this summer. Biden has insisted that he won’t negotiate on meeting the country’s debt obligations; Republicans have been equally adamant that Biden must make spending concessions.

On the eve of the president’s address, McCarthy challenged Biden to come to the negotiating table with House Republicans to slash spending as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling.

While hopes for large-scale bipartisanship are slim, Biden was to reissue his 2022 appeal for Congress to get behind his “unity agenda” of actions to address the opioid epidemic, mental health, veterans’ health and fighting cancer. He was to announce new executive initiatives and call for lawmakers to act to support new measures to support cancer research, address housing needs and suicide among veterans, boost access to mental health care, and move to further crack down on deadly trafficking in fentanyl.

The White House said the president would call for extending the new $35 per month price cap on insulin for people on Medicare to everyone in the country. He would also push Congress to quadruple the one percent tax on corporate share buybacks that was enacted in Democrats’ climate and health care bill passed last year known as the Inflation Reduction Act.

The speech comes days after Biden ordered the military to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew brazenly across the country, captivating the nation and serving as a reminder of tense relations between the two global powers.

Last year’s address occurred just days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine and as many in the West doubted Kyiv’s ability to withstand the onslaught. Over the past year, the U.S. and other allies have sent tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance to bolster Ukraine’s defenses. Now, Biden must make the case — both at home and abroad — for sustaining that coalition as the war drags on.

“The president will really want to reinforce just what a significant accomplishment has already been achieved and then to reinforce how much more has to be done, how we are committed to doing it, and how we will ask for on a bipartisan basis the U.S. Congress to join us in doing that work,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday.

While COVID-19 has eased at home, Biden will turn his sights to other national ills, including the deadly opioid epidemic, gun violence and police abuses. A White House fact sheet ahead of the speech paired police reform with bringing down violence, suggesting that giving police better training tools may lead to less crime nationwide.

The president spent much of the weekend into Monday reviewing speech drafts with aides at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

Senior White House adviser Anita Dunn will preview broad themes of Biden’s address to Democratic lawmakers throughout the day on Tuesday, starting with a breakfast with House Democrats on Capitol Hill.

McCarthy called on Biden to embrace the Republican effort to put the nation’s finances on a path toward a balanced budget, which would require deep and politically unpopular reductions in federal spending that Biden and Democrats have vehemently resisted.

“We must move towards a balanced budget and insist on genuine accountability for every dollar we spend,” McCarthy said.

He insisted cuts to Medicare and Social Security, the popular health and retirement programs primarily for older Americans, were “off the table” in any budget negotiation. The GOP leader also said “defaulting on our debt is not an option.”

The White House has insisted Republicans cannot be trusted to protect the programs and blasted Republicans for “threatening to actively throw our economy into a tailspin with a default” by putting conditions on the debt limit.· 

What to Watch: New political vibes this State of the Union

Biden to focus on vets, cancer patients, others in speech

How to watch President Biden's State of the Union address

Biden 2024? Most Democrats say no thank you: AP-NORC poll

 

 

ATTACHMENT TWENTY TWO – From  Politifact

Fact-checking Joe Biden's 2023 State of the Union address

UPDATED, Feb. 9, 2023: This article has been updated to include additional fact-checks.

Amid continued political polarization, and with opinion polls showing an uneasy public, President Joe Biden aimed to deliver a sense of fiscal and social relief during his State of the Union address. He used the speech, his first to a divided Congress, to call for improving police training and accountability and leveling the tax burden by raising levies on the wealthy.

By working together, Biden repeatedly said, Congress could "finish the job" his administration started when it pushed through major legislation to create jobs and infrastructure and bolster technology. 

But Biden’s calls for bipartisan cooperation, including on raising the debt ceiling, seemed to rankle some Republicans. His warnings about what some congressional GOP members want to do with Medicare and Social Security led U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to shout, "Liar!" 

PolitiFact fact-checked Biden’s claim about desired GOP changes to the social programs and several others about the health of the economy, the infrastructure law and an assault weapons ban.

"Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s the majority." 

House and Senate Republican leaders say they don’t support this, but at least one senator has broadly floated the idea. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., released a plan in 2022 that stated "all federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again." (Scott’s plan is a policy document that he is promoting again for his 2024 reelection.)

          See FactCheck on Señor Scott as Attachment Twenty Two (A) below.

 

Scott’s proposal does not specifically call for a phase-out of Medicare and Social Security, which were created generations ago through federal legislation. And it doesn’t have widespread support among his party; Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader in the Senate, in 2022 said it would not be part of the party’s agenda.

Some House Republicans have left open the possibility of changing the programs, including raising the eligibility age. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., suggested in August that Congress approve Social Security and Medicare annually rather than as an automatic entitlement.  But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Jan. 29 during a CBS "Face the Nation" interview that cuts to Social Security or Medicare are "off the table."

"Thirty million workers had to sign noncompete agreements for the jobs they take. Thirty million. So a cashier at a burger place cannot walk across town and take the same job at another burger place and make a few bucks more. They just changed it, because we exposed it."

This has some significant errors.

The Federal Trade Commission estimates that up to 30 million workers have been required to sign non-compete agreements that bar them from working for a competing firm for a certain period after leaving their current job. But when Biden brought up fast-food workers, he confused noncompete clauses with a different legal restriction, no-poach clauses.

Until 2017, no-poach clauses were included in the agreements that local fast-food franchise owners signed with the parent company. The clauses barred them from luring workers away from fellow franchisees. The workers never saw those contracts, much less ever signed one. 

The agreements did limit workers’ opportunities to receive higher wages. Still, nothing barred a McDonald’s worker, for example, from taking a better paying job with Burger King. Fast-food companies began phasing out the no-poach clauses after 2017. That isn’t something that "just" happened, and it had nothing to do with the Biden administration. It came after a McDonald’s worker took the company to court.

"I stand here tonight after we’ve created, with the help of many people in this room, 12 million new jobs — more jobs created in two years than any president’s created in four years."

Biden is correct about 12 million jobs created, but his comparison with previous presidents is Half True. 

In raw numbers, Biden did oversee greater job growth than any post-World War II president’s first or second term in office. However, this achievement comes with asterisks. 

Population growth skews the calculation, with Biden benefiting from a larger population. Measured by percentage increase from the time the president took office, which reduces the impact of population size, Biden rates in the middle of the pack.

And although Biden has outpaced every post-World War II president in job gains per year, he benefited by taking office on the upswing of a deep recession. He also has not faced a recession yet, something most of his predecessors experienced during their longer terms.

"Nearly 25% of the entire national debt that took over 200 years to accumulate was added by just one administration alone, the last one. Those are the facts, check it out."

This is Half True.

Biden’s number checks out, but the figure leaves out important details and context. 

Assigning debt to a particular president can be misleading. Much of the debt traces back to decades-old, bipartisan legislation that set the parameters for Social Security and Medicare.

Also, the largest single spikes in the federal debt came in 2020 from the initial rounds of coronavirus pandemic relief legislation. Former President Donald Trump signed those laws, but they passed with broad bipartisan support.

Meanwhile, other ways of analyzing the data undermine his point. 

If you look at the raw amount of debt added during a presidency, Barack Obama, who governed with Biden as vice president, ranks first and Trump ranks second.

Obama’s figure is so much larger than Trump’s partly because he served eight years, while Trump served only four. If you divide the debt accumulated during each president’s tenure by the number of years they served, Biden, with only two years in office, has seen the largest rise in debt, with Trump second and Obama third.

"In the last two years, my administration cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion."

This needs context.

Biden has a point that his administration has presided over smaller deficits than those under Trump’s administration, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates. But Biden’s remark leaves out important context. 

The Congressional Budget Office’s most recent estimate projects a 2022 deficit of about $944 billion. That’s much less than the $2.7 trillion the previous year. 

However, the debt had risen in 2021 because of a temporary phase of unusual federal spending because of the coronavirus pandemic. In absolute dollars, the current deficit is much more in line with what it was in pre-pandemic 2019

"Inflation has fallen every month for the last six months while take home pay has gone up."

The first part is accurate: Year-over-year inflation peaked around 9% in June and has since fallen to a little higher than 6%.

Whether "take-home pay has gone up" is more complicated. 

High inflation has hurt workers by cutting into their wages. For the first 18 months of Biden’s presidency, inflation-adjusted wages fell, from $373 a week to $359. Over the past two quarters, which equals six months, wage gains finally started to outpace inflation, rising to $364 per week.

Also, the numbers are averages. Many workers receive yearly salaries or wages that don’t adjust more than once a year, and they wouldn’t necessarily have received wage increases during the high-inflation period to which Biden was referring. 

"In 2020, 55 of the largest corporations in America — the Fortune 500 — made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal taxes."

This is Mostly True.

A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded that at least 55 large companies paid zero federal income taxes in 2020. Critics say that the financial disclosures used to compile the report are imperfect estimates of what the companies actually paid in taxes, since the accounting rules are different for the two types of filings. 

Separate data from the Joint Committee on Taxation, which is based on actual tax returns, has supported the study’s general point that many big companies have small tax bills.

"In the 10 years the (assault weapons) ban was law, mass shootings went down. After we let it expire under a Republican administration, mass shootings tripled."

This is Mostly True. Studies that examined mass shooting deaths found that deaths fell during the 10 years the ban was in place, from 1994 to 2004, and rose dramatically when the ban expired. 

Data in a key 2019 study showed that mass shooting deaths more than tripled in the decade after the ban ended. 

Compared with the decade before the ban, there was a modest decline of 15 deaths during the ban. But the death toll from mass shootings went from an average of 4.8 per year during the ban years to an average of 23.8 per year in the decade afterward.

Some research suggests that limits on large-capacity magazines are the most important factor in reducing mass shooting deaths. 

However, experts say it is difficult to determine whether the ban drove the decline in mass shooting deaths.

"We came together to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the largest investment in infrastructure since President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System."

This is partially accurate, depending on how it’s counted.

The law includes $110 billion in funding to repair roads and bridges and support major projects, like a bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio and a tunnel between New York and New Jersey. There are two ways to assess the impact: by the scale of individual projects, or the total spending on roads and bridges. 

The infrastructure bill has allowed long-delayed projects to proceed, but comparing total spending over the years presents a challenge. 

Biden is correct if you take the last big infrastructure push in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided $27.5 billion for roads and bridges  — a quarter of what’s in the 2021 infrastructure bill. 

But the 2009 money came on top of funds that started flowing in 2005. When Adie Tomer, a researcher at the Brookings Institution think tank, ran the numbers, he found that as a percentage of GDP, total spending on roads and bridges reached 0.3% in 2010. The estimate for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as a percentage of GDP is projected to reach a high of 0.24% in 2027. Viewed that way, although the money in the bill is a relatively large amount, the actual spending from multiple bills was higher in 2010.

The Eisenhower Interstate Highway System was funded at $25 billion in 1956. That would equal about $275 billion today, but Biden didn’t say the 2021 bill surpassed the Eisenhower-era legislation. He said it was the most significant since then.

"We’ve launched a new border plan last month. Unlawful migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela has come down 97% as a consequence of that."

This is based on limited data. Preliminary numbers from the Department of Homeland Security show a 97% decline in encounters with migrants from these four countries from December 2022 to January. But there’s only about one month’s worth of data available so far, so it’s difficult to attribute declines exclusively to the new policy changes, experts say.

Biden said Jan. 5 that every month, 30,000 immigrants in total — from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua — will be allowed to enter the U.S. and work for two years under a parole program if they have a sponsor in the U.S. At the same time, Mexico also agreed to take 30,000 immigrants a month from these countries if they are expelled by U.S. authorities under the Title 42 public health order.

The announcement came in response to the high number of migrants from these countries reaching the southern U.S. border in fiscal year 2022.  

"We’re finally giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices."

That's a touch too broad. Although the Inflation Reduction Act will allow Medicare for the first time to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers, the provision will not take effect until 2026. The initial group of negotiable drugs will be limited to 10 that year. More drugs will be added to the negotiation list each year. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is barred from negotiating on prescription drugs in the Medicare program until they've been on the market for several years. 

"I’ve visited the devastating aftermath of record floods, droughts, storms and wildfires, from Arizona to New Mexico to all the way up to the Canadian border. More timber has been burned that I’ve observed from helicopters than the entire state of Missouri."

His claim about the fires isn’t supported by federal data and the White House provided PolitiFact with no data to back up the assertion.

In 2022, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, 7,577,183 acres burned across the country because of wildfires. That's equivalent to 11,839 square miles. 

Missouri has a total land and water area of 69,707 square miles. To get a Missouri-sized collection of wildfire acreage, you would need to include most of the past six years worth of wildfires, from 2017 to 2022. 

But Biden didn’t specify that he was referring to the past six years, which would have included four years in which he wasn’t in office and wouldn’t have been inspecting any wildfires by helicopter.

There have been about 22,973 square miles of wildfire damage during Biden’s presidency, a size still smaller than Missouri.

Louis Jacobson, Jon Greenberg, Amy Sherman, Maria Ramirez Uribe, Yacob Reyes and Madison Czopek contributed reporting. 

 

Attachment 22(A) = From  POLITIFACT

 

On SCOTT

 

JB stated on May 2, 2022 in News release:

Republican politicians are pushing a plan "that could raise taxes on almost one in three Wisconsinites and sunset Social Security and Medicare in five years."MEDICARE

Social security is vital to many senior citizens, and is a point of contention in the Democratic primary. (AP)

By D.L. DavisJune 15, 2022

Democrats still exaggerating GOP backing of Scott’s plan on Social Security, Medicare, taxes

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

·         There is a mixed bag among Republicans when it comes to U.S. Sen. Rick Scott’s 11-point Rescue America plan — some openly support it, others demure on saying whether they back it.

·         Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has flatly said neither part of the Democrats’ claim will be on the GOP agenda. 

·         Scott, who chairs the  National Republican Senatorial Committee, himself has said "It’s not the Republican plan. It’s more what I believe in."

See the sources for this fact-check

Social Security, Medicare and taxes are among the hair-trigger topics in American politics. Even a hint of trying to modify, change or raise any of the three can ignite a firestorm. 

Enter the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which had this to say in a May 2, 2022, news release:

"Wisconsinites are fed up with Republican politicians pushing a disastrous agenda that could raise taxes on almost one in three Wisconsinites and sunset Social Security and Medicare in five years. The Republican agenda would threaten the hard-earned benefits that Wisconsin seniors rely on and hurt working families across the state." 

That sounded a tad familiar.

We previously rated Mostly False a claim from Alex Lasry, a Democrat hoping to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, that said Johnson "is supporting the Republican plan that phases out Social Security and Medicare."

The election is still about five months away. Can the campaign already be in reruns?

Let’s look again: Are Republicans pushing a plan "that could raise taxes on almost one in three Wisconsinites and sunset Social Security and Medicare in five years"?

"Rescue America" plan rises again

When asked for backup, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin staffers pointed – as Lasry did – to the "Rescue America" plan, released in February 2022 by U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida. 

Scott is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. His 11-point plan addresses a range of issues, including education, crime and safety, immigration, government finances and what it labels "fair, fraud free elections" and "Religious liberty/Big tech."

Point number five in the plan – "Economy/Growth" — states: "No government assistance unless you are disabled or aggressively seeking work. If you can work, but refuse to work, you cannot live off of the hard work and sweat of your fellow Americans. All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount. Currently, over half of Americans pay no income tax."

So, that’s where the tax portion of the Democrats’ claim comes from.

A May 13, 2022 CNN report says that — if enacted — that would mean a tax increase for millions of people. According to estimates from the Tax Policy Center think tank, about 75 million American households in 2022, or 42% of the total, did not pay federal income tax. Americans who don’t pay federal taxes include the jobless as well as employed people who don’t earn enough money to file tax returns; and some retirees, people with disabilities and stay-at-home parents. 

A state-by-state analysis released March 7, 2022, by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said it found that in Wisconsin, 32% of residents would see their taxes go up under the proposal. 

Meanwhile, as we have noted before, point number six in the plan — "Government Reform and Debt" — states: "All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again." 

The proposal does not specifically say Medicare and Social Security would be phased out, but does refer to "federal legislation." And both programs were created generations ago through federal legislation. 

So, that’s the Social Security and Medicare piece.

 

Taken together, the two areas show there’s at least some truth to the claim.

Republicans and the plan  

The biggest problem with the claim, however, is not whether the details can be extracted from the plan – it’s whether the document is, as stated, broadly endorsed by Republicans.

For his part, Scott — his position as head of the Senate GOP campaign arm notwithstanding – has said: "It’s not the Republican plan. It’s more what I believe in." He also told The Washington Post that "everybody’s got a different approach. That’s mine."

In an email to PolitiFact Wisconsin, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin said many GOP candidates across the country have declined to explicitly repudiate Scott’s plan. 

But that’s different than endorsing it.

As we noted in our March 18, 2022, fact-check of the Lasry claim, there is dissension among Republicans. Notably Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky opposes key parts of of the plan.

"Let me tell you what would not be a part of our agenda," McConnell said, according to The Associated Press. "We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half of the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years." 

Here’s a sampling of what some GOP senators have said about the plan.

Mike Braun of Indiana: "I’m glad Rick did it. Nothing is going to be perfect" but "we’ve got to be for something."

Marco Rubio of Florida:  "I have not seen the plan. I’ve read about it, but I think it’s good that people offer ideas. I’m not sure I agree with all of them. I don’t know all of the details of the plan." 

John Cornyn of Texas: "This is not an approach embraced by the entire Republican conference. We’re going to keep our focus on inflation, crime, the border and Afghanistan. And some of these other things are things to think about … after the election is over."

Tommy Tuberville of Alabama: Said he’s "on board" with Scott’s blueprint and said Republicans need to be thinking about "a universal plan that we need to sell to the American people."

Finally, in a news release, Johnson offered praise to Scott for presenting a plan, but stopped short of endorsing it: "I think it’s important for elected officials to tell their constituents what they are for, and I support Senator Scott for doing so." 

Johnson has said elsewhere he does not agree with all of what is in the plan, and his staff noted that in the past Johnson has said Social Security and Medicare need to be preserved for future generations.

Our ruling

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin said Republican politicians are pushing a plan "that could raise taxes on almost one in three Wisconsinites and sunset Social Security and Medicare in five years." 

There is an element of truth to the claim, in that the plan from Scott has those elements. But the claim goes awry by framing it as a plan endorsed by Republicans. Far from it. Scott has said it represents his ideas, not a platform. 

And McConnell has explicitly said the two areas the Democrats hammered on will not be part of any GOP agenda.

For a statement that contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, our rating is Mostly False.

 

 

ATTACHMENT TWENTY THREE – From  CNN

Takeaways from Biden’s State of the Union address

 

By Kevin Liptak, CNN Updated 9:15 AM EST, Wed February 8, 2023

 

When President Joe Biden took to the House Chamber on Tuesday for his annual State of the Union address, his message was one of unadulterated optimism – even in the face of open hostility.

The spectacle of Biden smiling and offering a pointed riposte through multiple rounds of heckling from some House Republicans was, in many ways, an apt illustration of his presidency and a useful preview of his likely 2024 candidacy.

A majority of Americans say he hasn’t accomplished much, many Democrats aren’t thrilled at the prospect of him running for reelection and he faces clear disdain from most Republicans.

But Biden powered through. Delivering what was widely viewed as a test run for his reelection announcement, Biden claimed credit for progress made during his first two years in office while stressing the job isn’t finished.

He faced sometimes-unruly Republicans, with whom he spiritedly sparred from the podium on spending cuts. The feisty display drew cheers inside the White House and offered the best preview to date of the energy Biden hopes to bring to the campaign trail soon.

The speech carried a strain of populism rooted in strengthening the middle class – vintage Biden, but delivered at a pivotal moment for his political future.

No president enters his State of the Union wanting to recite a laundry list of accomplishments and proposals, but – almost inevitably – the speech often veers in that direction. Biden’s was no different, even as the president sought to tie everything together with a refrain of “finish the job” – a phrase that appeared 12 times in his prepared text.

Rather than tout any one accomplishment, however, Biden hoped to address the national mood, one that remains downbeat even as the economy improves and the country attempts to return to normal amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here are six takeaways from Biden’s State of the Union:

Biden spars with sometimes-unruly Republicans

In a room full of elected officials, identifying an adult shouldn’t be difficult. But heading into Tuesday’s speech, both Republican leaders and Biden’s team telegraphed a desire to act as the night’s “adult in the room” – the mature voice seeking common ground and lowering the temperature.

For the first 45 minutes of Biden’s address, that appeared to be the play for both sides. But when Biden began castigating Republicans for plans that would slash Social Security and Medicare, the decorum dropped.

His accusations seemed to provoke Republicans, who lobbed accusations of “liar” from their seats in the chamber.

 

That in itself wasn’t unprecedented. What happened next was rarer: Biden leaned into the opening, responding and engaging his hecklers.

“I enjoy conversion,” he quipped, suggesting they were in agreement on the need to protect the programs for senior citizens.

For Biden, House Republicans act as a useful foil as he prepares to announce his intentions for 2024. His jousting on Tuesday was the best glimpse of how he’ll approach his candidacy, at least until a Republican opponent emerges from the GOP primary process.

White House officials were thrilled by the off script back and forth.

“Couldn’t have written a better moment,” one official said.

More than the substantive back and forth, one official noted how it appeared to animate Biden in real time.

“He gets energy from his audience,” the official said. It’s not a new view on how Biden operates - his advisers constantly talk about how he finds his energy from engaging with people.

Biden and his team believe a serious focus on governing contrasts favorably with House Republicans, who they accuse of threatening to send the nation into default and piling up distractions as they investigate the president and his family.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy entered the speech vowing to treat Biden respectfully – and urging his Republican colleagues to do the same. It was a tall order, given the loose grasp he has on his conference and the propensity from certain Republicans for stunts.

As lawmakers like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupted Biden, McCarthy was silent – but his glare into the crowd spoke for itself. Later he found himself shushing his conference multiple times at outbursts interrupted the president.

Showing vigor

 

For the third year in a row, Biden set the record for the oldest president to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress. It’s an underlying fact of his presidency: No one older has ever served.

As Biden prepares to ask voters to keep him in office until he is 86, it was critical he look and sound like someone who is able to keep doing the job.

His delivery was energetic, even if he stumbled over a few of his prepared lines. When Republicans interrupted him, he responded quickly, deftly turning their heckles back around into challenges.

Over the weekend at Camp David, aides set up a podium, microphone, lights and teleprompter in a conference room inside the Laurel Lodge for Biden to practice his speech with his team. The potential for hecklers was something White House officials had in mind as they prepared for the speech.

At the White House, a similar set up has been used in the Map Room to practice the address.

Aides were focused on the message – but also the language, ensuring the speech lent itself to a vigorous presentation. After all, for many in Biden’s television audience, Tuesday’s speech was one of the only times they actually heard and saw the president this year.

Vintage Biden

Perhaps more than his previous two addresses to Congress, Tuesday’s speech was salted with riffs and lines that appear nearly every time he speaks: inherited wisdoms from his father, anecdotes about inequality and his views of the middle class.

“So many of you feel like you’ve just been forgotten,” he said, directly appealing to a demographic that used to vote reliably for Democrats but has more recently turned to the GOP.

“Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible. Maybe that’s you, watching at home,” he said. “You wonder whether a path even exists anymore for you and your children to get ahead without moving away.”

“I get that,” he said.

Appearing for the first time in front of a divided Congress, Biden also leaned into his record working across the aisle – even as he faced heckling from Republicans.

In many ways, both Biden and McCarthy hoped a more mature showing would set the tone for the next two years of divided government, even if they remain sharply divided on policy.

 “Mr. Speaker, I don’t want to ruin your reputation but I look forward to working together,” Biden said as he launched into his speech.

He acknowledged that over the first years of his presidency “we disagreed plenty.” But he appealed to his political rivals for cooperation.

“To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together in this Congress as well,” he said.

Trying to connect

If there is one political conundrum Biden’s advisers are urgently working to solve, it is why so many Americans seem to believe he has accomplished so little. By all accounts, Biden has passed large, historic pieces of legislation that could have transformational effects on the US economy. But polls show large majorities aren’t feeling them.

Biden hoped in his speech to bridge that gap, to demonstrate he cares about what Americans care about and to identify the problems he’s looking to fix.

His focus on highly specific issues – like eliminating “junk fees” for consumers or reining in tech companies – are areas the White House believes will resonate with Americans who aren’t necessarily attuned to the ins-and-outs of Washington.

At moments, his speech seemed tailor-made for a nation of annoyed consumers, down to annoyances about baggage fees on airlines and fine print on hotel bills.

“Americans are tired of being played for suckers,” he said, listing off the litany of common grievances.

But Biden and his team are acutely aware that simply telling people their lives are improving won’t cut it – they have to actually feel it. Many of the accomplishments Biden helped passed over the past two years are still in the implementation phase, making their effects elusive for now.

Biden seemed to acknowledge that when he urged lawmakers to extend a price cap on insulin – a benefit that is still coming into effect.

China focus

The furious Republican backlash to Biden’s handling of a suspected Chinese spy balloon proved illustrative for many at the White House.

China was included in the text of Biden’s speech well before the balloon slipped into American airspace. But the incursion, which has generated a diplomatic backlash from China and drawn second-guessing from Republicans, lent new urgency to Biden’s message about competing with Beijing.

“Make no mistake: As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did,” Biden said in his speech.

Biden and his aides believe steps to counter China are one of the rare areas where he could find bipartisan support. He saw some success on that front with the passage of a law boosting US semiconductor production last year.

Biden is sensitive to accusations he is weak on China, according to people around him, while still intent on stabilizing the world’s most important bilateral relationship.

Republicans look to ‘new generation’

The GOP’s choice to deliver their response to Biden’s speech, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is – at 40 years old – the nation’s youngest governor. Half the president’s age, her selection was a clear choice to contrast a different generation of leaders.

In part because she lacked an audience and in part because Biden was energetically provoked by Republicans in his own address, her speech was a far more staid affair than the State of the Union. Delivered solemnly from the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, the speech was instead a somewhat dark warning against Democratic policies she deemed “crazy,” a descriptor she used three times.

“The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left,” she said. “The choice is between normal or crazy.”

She accused the Biden administration of appearing “more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality Americans face every day” and leaned heavily on culture war issues that she claimed her party “didn’t start and never wanted to fight.”

And while she cited her tenure as White House press secretary to Donald Trump, she did not rely heavily on her association with the former president.

Instead, she appeared to call for a changing of the guard – an appeal for generational change that could apply as much to Democrats and Biden as it could to Republicans and Trump.

“It’s time for a new generation to lead. This is our moment. This is our opportunity,” she said.

 

ATTACHMENT TWENTY FOUR– From  CNBC

Five key economic points in Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address to Congress

PUBLISHED TUE, FEB 7 202311:55 PM ESTUPDATED WED, FEB 8 202310:04 AM EST

Emma Kinery

KEY POINTS

·         Biden has been upbeat on his economic policies after recent reports showed near-record low unemployment and strong job growth, but his speech showed he has broader ambitions to reshape the economy.

·         He called for increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans in addition to curbing anti-competitive practices and increasing rights for workers.

·         Ultimately in a divided Congress, it will be difficult for Biden to implement much of his plan the way he may hope to. President Joe Biden delivered his second State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night, marking the halfway point of his tenure. It was an opportunity for him to highlight his administration’s achievements to date, as well as set the tone for how he hopes the next two, possibly more, years go.

Biden has been upbeat on his economic policies after recent reports showed near-record low unemployment and strong job growth, but his speech exhibited his broader ambitions to reshape the economy into one that grows “from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down.”

Here is the economic news you missed:

Return of the billionaire tax?

Biden renewed his call for levying a tax on billionaires and corporate stock buybacks to reduce the federal deficit.

“The tax system is not fair; it’s not fair,” Biden said. “The idea that in 2020, 55 of the largest corporations in America, of Fortune 500, made $40 billion in profits and paid $0 in federal taxes? $0? Folks, it’s simply not fair.”

The idea was popularized by progressives like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 campaign. Biden has vowed to not raise taxes on Americans earning under $400,000 annually.

“Now because of the law I signed, billion-dollar companies have to pay a minimum of 15%, God love them,” Biden said to jeers by Democrats. “15%! That’s less than a nurse pays!”

Biden previously proposed a 20% tax on billionaires in March of last year as part of his federal budget. In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Biden called on Congress to “finish the job.” The proposal did not gain much traction then and is unlikely to go anywhere in the Republican-controlled House.

War on ‘junk fees’

Biden continued his crusade against unnecessary “junk fees” from banks, airlines, cable companies and other industries, which add surprise costs to consumer bills.

“Look, junk fees may not matter for the very wealthy but they matter to most other folks in homes like the one I grew up in,” Biden said. “They add up to hundreds of dollars a month. They make it harder for you to pay your bills.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a new rule to ban excessive credit card late fees last week. Congress banned excessive fees in 2009, but the Federal Reserve Board of Governors issued actions to circumvent the law.

Biden in his speech called on Congress to pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act, which would impose further restrictions on excessive fees tacked onto travel and event tickets.

“Airlines can’t treat your child like a piece of baggage. Americans are tired of that. They’re tired of being played for suckers.”

Antitrust takes center stage

In addition to junk fees, Biden’s administration has been dogged in addressing antitrust concerns, a point the president stressed in his State of the Union address. Biden issued an executive order in October allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter, making them much cheaper for the average consumer.

“Look, capitalism without competition is not capitalism, it’s extortion,” Biden said Tuesday night.

The White House used the line in November when Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation botched the rollout of tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, prompting an antitrust probe. The company was later grilled by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for antitrust practices.

“Let’s finish the job, pass the bipartisan legislation to strengthen antitrust enforcement to prevent big online platforms from giving their own products an unfair advantage,” Biden said.

Labor and wages

The president outlined several worker-first initiatives as part of his broader effort to build an “economy [that] works for everyone, so we can all feel pride in what we do.”

He berated companies that make workers sign noncompete agreements, referring to an executive order signed last month that encourages the Federal Trade Commission to ban or limit noncompete agreements. Biden said 30 million Americans have had to sign noncompete agreements from positions ranging from executives to fast-food cashiers.

Further, Biden called on Congress to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which restores employees’ rights to unionize without retaliation.

“I’m bound to get a response from my friends on my left, but the right,” Biden said referring to Republicans. “I’m so sick and tired of companies breaking the law by preventing workers from organizing. Pass the PRO Act!”

Biden went on to call for workers to have access to sick days, paid family leave and affordable child care.

Expanding the insulin price cap

Drug prices were again top of mind for Biden. The president called for broadening the $35 price cap on insulin passed in the Inflation Reduction Act for Medicare to privately insured Americans in need.

“One in 10 Americans had diabetes, many people in this chamber do, in the audience,” Biden said. “And every day millions need insulin to control their diabetes so they can literally stay alive.”

Biden chided drug companies for hiking the price of insulin from roughly $10 a bottle, up to hundreds of dollars a month, “making record profits,” off of the drug. He cheered Congress’ measure to cap the cost for Medicare recipients, but stressed it needed to be expanded.

“There are millions of other Americans who are not on Medicare, including 200,000 young people with Type 1 diabetes that need this insulin to stay alive,” Biden said. “Let’s finish the job this time. Let’s cap the cost of insulin for everybody at $35.”

What does this mean?

Many of the ideas proposed by Biden, like the billionaire tax and PRO Act, are going to be tough sells in the Republican-controlled House and likely dead on arrival.

The White House and House Republicans are already at a standstill on whether Congress will lift the debt ceiling, a routine measure done for decades consistently without conditions. House Republicans are threatening to allow the country to default on its debt obligations if Biden does not agree to spending cuts he believes should be handled separately. One month into the new Congress, the situation is a peek into how other negotiations will play out.

 

 

ATTACHMENT TWENTY FIVE - From Vox

Why Republicans heckled Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech

The frustrated GOP response to Biden’s State of the Union speech was all about the third rail of American politics.

By Ben Jacobs  Feb 8, 2023, 12:50am EST

 

There were boos, heckles, and jeers on Tuesday in Washington. It wasn’t an open mic night at a comedy club. It was the State of the Union.

Joe Biden’s second formal State of the Union address to Congress was a pugnacious and, at times, partisan speech that met with a heated response from Republicans.

It wasn’t just the prepared official Republican response from Sarah Sanders, the newly elected governor of Arkansas who had served as a top press aide to Donald Trump, which focused on hot-button culture-war issues. Sanders argued “the dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy,” and harped on Biden’s surrender to “a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is.”

Instead, Biden’s suggestion that Republicans wanted to get rid of Social Security referencing a proposal from Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) to let all government programs sunset after five years unless explicitly reauthorized, drew loud and angry responses. Although Biden caveated this by saying that only some Republicans want to take away Social Security and Medicare, nearly all of them yelled at him or booed at the implication that they would risk touching the biggest third rail in American politics. Both Speaker Kevin McCarthy and former President Donald Trump have insisted that Republicans would not do any such thing. During Biden’s speech, Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) shouted, “Name one, name one,” from her seat.

Afterward, Republicans were insulted at the implication expressed by Biden. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told Vox that “it cuts me to the core.” One of the most vocal moderates in the Republican Party, Bacon said Biden assuming all Republicans share Rick Scott’s views on entitlement reform was unfair. “We could say the entire Democrat Party is like [Ilhan] Omar and that wouldn’t be fair either, would it?”

This was echoed by Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), a longtime McCarthy ally, who noted that when Biden “came out and said [Republicans are] trying to cut Social Security, there were a lot of boos.” He added, “and I thought that that was pretty fair,” though he expressed his dismay at the vocal heckling that Biden faced from some Republicans.

Republicans also showed their discontent with Biden’s adherence to other progressive orthodoxies. There was an outburst of laughter from Republicans when Biden said that the United States will still need oil for the next 10 years — a line that wasn’t in his prepared remarks — which they viewed as deeply unrealistic. Afterward, LaMalfa noted this immediately when he listed his thoughts on the speech. “I would really wish [Biden] had been more realistic when he said we’re going to need oil for 10 years. We’re going to need it for 150 years.”

This doesn’t mean there still isn’t the potential for bipartisan moments in the coming Congress. After all, the first person in the chamber to jump to applaud Biden’s line about cracking down on Big Tech was Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is not exactly the model of centrism in modern American politics.

But it does set the stage for a real confrontation over the debt ceiling in the coming months. LaMalfa expressed his hope that Biden and McCarthy could build a relationship in the coming months. He contrasted the Biden of the Obama administration who negotiated a fiscal cliff deal with John Boehner as “Biden 1.0” and the more partisan and progressive Biden of recent years as “Biden 2.0.” And, as for the Biden of tonight, LaMalfa said that was “Biden 1.9.”

 

ATTACHMENT TWENTY SIX – From the New York Times

 

A HIGH POINT

 

President Biden used his State of the Union speech to portray the U.S. as a country in recovery, and he is right that there has been a lot of good news lately.

 

Price increases have slowed. Covid deaths are down about 80 percent compared with a year ago. Ukraine is holding off Russia’s invasion. Congress passed legislation addressing climate change, infrastructure and gun violence, and some of it was bipartisan.

What Biden did not emphasize last night was that the U.S. also faces a lot of uncertainty. Depending on what happens over the next few months, the current moment may end up looking like a temporary high point for the country and Biden’s presidency — or another step toward better times. Today’s newsletter provides a fuller picture of the state of the union, looking at four topics that will shape 2023.

 

After those four, we will also give you the highlights from Biden’s speech and reactions to it.

Republican House

 

Biden spent much of his speech celebrating bipartisan accomplishments from the last year, including funding for scientific research, electoral overhaul and same-sex marriage protections. “We’re often told that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together,” Biden said. “But over the past two years, we’ve proved the cynics and naysayers wrong.”

But that bipartisanship was before Republicans took control of the House, and they have been clear that they intend to stifle Biden’s presidency. They have already started investigations into his son’s business dealings and the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

The biggest source of uncertainty is the clashes Republicans have promised over spending. Those fights could lead to government shutdowns or, worse, financial calamity if Congress fails to increase the nation’s debt limit.

Inflation

 

The rate at which prices have been rising — inflation — has now cooled for six straight months.

But inflation is still high. America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, targets an annual rate of roughly 2 percent, and its preferred inflation measure is still closer to 5 percent.

 

The labor market also remains very hot, with last week’s jobs report putting the unemployment rate at its lowest level since 1969. A historically low unemployment rate is normally good news. But in an economy with high inflation, a tight labor market can lead to even higher prices. The Federal Reserve could respond by trying to slow the economy further, which could cause a recession.

War in Ukraine

 

Ukraine has done much better in its fight against Russia than most analysts expected.

But will Ukraine continue to hold out? It is a genuinely open question. Russia has redoubled its efforts, drafting hundreds of thousands of men to the battlefield over the last few months. Vladimir Putin’s forces are planning a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting has become particularly bloody as Russia tries to take the city of Bakhmut.

 

Ukraine has defied expectations so far, and could continue doing so. But if Ukraine falls, it would signal to the world that autocrats can get away with invading democratic countries. It would suggest the Western alliance isn’t as powerful as it once was — shifting global power away from democracies like the U.S. and members of the E.U. and toward authoritarian powers like Russia and China. And for Biden, it could damage his standing domestically and globally, much as America’s messy exit from Afghanistan did.

Crime trends

 

Murders quickly spiked over 2020 and 2021, spawning fears of a new national crime wave. Then good news came in 2022: Murders declined by 5 percent in the country’s largest cities.

But as experts often say, one year does not make a trend. Murder rates are still about 30 percent higher than they were in 2019. Other kinds of crime, including robberies and thefts, increased last year.

 

The crime data speak to the uncertainty the U.S. faces on all of these topics: The trends are good, but not good enough to fully reverse the problems of recent years.

 

More from the speech
  • Biden touted the low unemployment rate and said that bipartisan bills to improve infrastructure and grow high-tech manufacturing would create even more jobs.
  • Republicans heckled Biden and called him a liar when he said members of their party wanted to end Social Security and Medicare. He argued back, leading to a back-and-forth rarely seen in these speeches.
  • Biden’s call for consensus “amounted to the opening of a re-election campaign he plans to formally announce by spring,” The Times’s Peter Baker writes.
  • Mitt Romney scolded George Santos, the New York representative who fabricated parts of his résumé, telling him that he “shouldn’t have been there.”
  • The Republican rebuttal from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas centered on culture-war issues, accusing Biden of surrendering to the “woke mob.”

 

Commentary on the speech

 

  • “Smart of Biden to start the speech with conciliation and working together,” The Washington Post’s Henry Olsen wrote.
  • “Biden made perhaps the best speech of his presidency. The heckling from Republicans only helped make his points,” The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser tweeted.
  • “Joe Biden sparring with the crowd and winning wasn’t something I expected,” Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican representative, said.
  • Biden’s message — that he’s delivering the infrastructure spending and economic nationalism Donald Trump promised — is a potent case for re-election, Ross Douthat writes in Times Opinion.
  • “What did he say on abortion that was new, powerful, energizing or reassuring? Nothing,” the writer Jessica Valenti tweeted. “It came across as an afterthought.”
  • Biden spent the most time discussing the economy, according to NBC News, followed by infrastructure, policing and taxes.

 

 

 

ATTACHMENT TWENTY SEVEN – From  Reuters

State of the Union 2023: Ironic, confusing and stumbling toward MAGA

BY GRADY MEANS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 02/08/23 7:00 AM ET

President Biden’s State of the Union speech was designed to set the stage for the 2024 presidential election. Of course, the speech was targeted at American voters looking for a vision for the country and at our global allies and enemies with a vision for the world, laced with assurances and warnings. 

But Tuesday’s speech was principally designed for the nation’s political establishment, framing Biden’s campaign structure and style for a second term. The intended audience was the Democratic Party establishment, the media, and especially his principal opponents, both Democrats and the Republican frontrunners. It was designed to confront his national disapproval ratings of around 52 percent (as well as the 64 percent of Democrats who hope he doesn’t run), to consolidate financial and political support, and to caution potential rivals such as Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, or Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — all relatively weak — and the truly mortal danger of Michelle Obama, who appears to be edging slowly into the race and was given an exceptional gift with Biden’s move to advance the South Carolina primary to the front of the line. On the Republican side, his principal targets likely were Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Biden’s goal was to appear to be fully in charge — strong and visionary, confident and competent — to convey that the economy is in great shape, that he has a strong and successful foreign policy strategy, and that he is ready and determined to lead the country for four more years. The context is that he is at great risk and one major stumble could end his political career. His position is precarious and subject to losing a lot of ground if America enters a recession caused by inflation and Fed action; if America suffers foreign policy embarrassment or defeat with China, Russia, Europe, Iran, North Korea, Mexico-Latin America; or if more serious scandal erupts from investigations into his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings or the classified documents found in Biden’s home and office.

So, how did he do? In a word, awful. It was probably one of the weakest, most incoherent State of the Union messages in history. His domestic rivals saw an unconvincing and highly vulnerable target. America’s global allies and enemies likely saw a president who is obviously impaired and, in turn, a vulnerable America.

It needs to be said. The president could not complete a single written paragraph without slurring most of the punch line. It is sad, and worrisome.

The speech itself made a floundering attempt at bipartisanship at the start — only to throw it all away with the false accusation that Republicans plan to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. After a strong reaction from Republicans, he was forced to publicly back away from the accusation — perhaps the first time in history that a president retracted a false charge in the middle of his own speech.

Even more strange, he talked about “Buy American,” building plants in the U.S. and demanding American content in manufacturing to recapture American strength and offset lost jobs, and the lost pride and self-worth of employment. This was strange because the “Buy America,” “create jobs at home,” “rebuild America” is pure Trump — the very “Make America Great Again” that Biden blisteringly criticized in last year’s State of the Union address. So, once again, Joe Biden is plagiarizing — this time, Donald Trump. 

The jobs pitch was additionally ironic because, ignoring the fact that Biden’s COVID policies put millions out of work and his extended payments to workers displaced by COVID continue to encourage many not to work at all and have led to one of the lowest labor force participation rates in history, his “record low unemployment rate” is not because of job creation, but because many Americans are still cashing government checks and no longer interested in looking for work.

The same can be said for the portions of the speech decrying the fentanyl crisis; his call for defending the southern border; and his support for police. All represent full adoption of Republican positions. No wonder House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) could not hold back expressions indicating he was either appalled or amused.

Of course, Biden applauded his infrastructure bill. But in an administration that uses semantics to claim that “up” actually means “down” and has Buttigieg claiming that “infrastructure” is social justice, rather than highways and bridges, Biden finally got to the point when he slyly acknowledged that infrastructure is actually, still, political “pork” — and that he would distribute it broadly, even to Republicans who voted against his programs. That was a refreshing, but astonishing, moment of honesty. 

Of course, the president tipped his hat to “soaking the rich” and greater regulation of industry, while, ironically, calling for more investment in small business and oil drilling in America — he still fails to understand that his policies are “soaking the poor” through inflation, discouraging American energy production, and killing private investment sources for small, job-creating businesses.

The ocean science community must put science before stigma with anomalous phenomenaMaximizing the climate benefits of natural gas exports

He devoted a fraction of his time to foreign policy and, rather than laying out any approach to dealing with the growing potential for nuclear conflict with Russia or the rising military aggression from China, he simply resorted to chest-pounding for cheap applause. That risks leaving our enemies with the impression of a weak leader providing a series of green lights for aggression over the next year.

In short, this was a weak speech full of irony, confusion and contradiction, i.e., danger for America.