Biden takes a gamble with his State of the Union address

His campaign has only just begun, but no event on his path to re-election will be of greater consequence than the speech President Joe Biden is scheduled to give this Thursday in Washington before a few hundred people. It will take place on Capitol Hill, and he will be delivering his annual State of the Union address to both chambers of Congress. In it, Biden will take a gamble before millions of viewers in the United States and around the world.

It will be a long speech, long enough to give him time to sell his administration’s accomplishments and give those who doubt Biden’s fitness to serve — he is an 81-year-old man, who would be 86 upon leaving office if he is reelected — the opportunity to assess whether what special prosecutor Robert Hur said about him is true. Hur was tasked with investigating Biden’s handling of confidential papers he retained from his years as Barack Obama’s vice president, but the former decided to also put on his geriatrician’s hat and add an unsolicited diagnosis of the president’s “poor memory.” Hur said that Biden forgot dates, some as significant as the death of his son Beau, who died of a brain tumor in 2015.

Hovering over the event — over which Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson will preside and before both chambers of congress and famous and anonymous guests of the president — is the question of Biden’s performance, particularly whether he is too old to lead the world’s major power at a time of great geopolitical instability. It is a significant challenge, especially for a man who has never been particularly comfortable with giving speeches and who has tended to avoid contact with the press over the past three years.

According to the White House, Biden was putting the finishing touches on the text over the weekend at Camp David, aided by teleprompters, six assistants and a historian from the school of optimists, Jon Meacham, along with tea designed to, ahem, soothe the throat.

It is such an important speech, especially in this election year, that his aides began working on it in December. Its content is being kept secret. As a result, it is unclear whether his address will mention his opponent, Donald Trump, although it is certain that Biden will talk about Ukraine, Israel’s war in Gaza, China, abortion and immigration.

Healthcare and the economy

In calls with journalists, Biden administration officials detailed two of the most important issues that the president will address on Thursday during his prime-time speech (9:00 p.m. EST; 6:00 p.m. PST). In regard to health care, they said he plans to ask Congress to work to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, including setting a cap on the price of widely used medicine.

On the economic front, Biden plans to focus on “prioritizing the middle class in the U.S. economy,” according to White House economic advisor Lael Brainard. Among other measures, he will talk about raising the corporate tax to 28% [from the 21% tax set by the Trump administration in 2017], as well as his “fight to reduce taxes on working families.” Brainard added that “none of their policies will mean higher taxation for anyone making less than $400,000 a year. Republicans in Congress want to cut taxes even further for the wealthy and large corporations, which will mean adding more than $3 billion to the debt. President Biden has made it clear whose side he’s on.” He is also expected to promise to tax massive wealth at 25%.

The State of the Union address comes a day after Americans confirmed a situation that, according to the polls, they wanted to avoid at all costs: a repeat of the 2020 showdown between Biden and Trump. Both scored comfortable victories on Super Tuesday. Biden reached that date with the Democratic nomination guaranteed, as befits an incumbent president running for reelection. Trump cleared his final hurdle a few hours after the polls closed in Alaska. Nikki Haley, his last remaining challenger, announced that she was suspending her campaign, clearing the way for the tycoon to pursue a second presidential term just over three years after dishonorably leaving the White House following the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Tradition dictates that the opposition party respond to the presidential address. And that they do it far from the Capitol. On Thursday, Alabama Senator Katie Boyd Britt will deliver the response to the State of the Union. She has only been in office for one year and, at 42, is the youngest of the 100 U.S. senators. As such, she represents the future of the Republican Party. “At this decisive moment in our country’s history, it’s time for the next generation to step up and preserve the American Dream for our children and our grandchildren,” Britt said in a statement to congressional leaders in which she confirmed that she would give the response.

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