He wielded them both
“Here’s my message to all of you out there: I have your back,” President Joe Biden told Americans in his second State of the Union Address.
Biden’s 2022 SOTU audience topped 38 million. His speech Tuesday night would be his most-watched of the year. He might not be able to match the right’s 24-hour disinformation networks for daily screen time, but for 75 minutes last night he had as much of the nation’s attention as he would have this year. He knew it and he used it.
Democrats cheered. Republicans, many of them, jeered. Their style is their only substance. Biden brought both. If he meant to contrast his administration with his opposition’s chaos, he succeeded famously.
“Biden made perhaps the best speech of his presidency,” tweeted The New Yorker‘s Susan Glasser. “The heckling from Republicans only helped make his points.”
Biden ran through a list of his administration’s accomplishments to date: a record number of new jobs, Covid tamed, new infrastructure funded, the Electoral Count Reform Act, the Respect for Marriage Act, computer chip factories underway, a 50-year low in unemployment, including for Black and Hispanic workers. Made in America, etc.
“We’ve got to finish the job” was a recurrent them.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy asked Biden ahead of time not to use past divisive language like “extreme MAGA Republicans.” He didn’t. But Biden wasn’t there to play beanbag either. He threw punches. He knew the MAGAs would be there and he anticipated heckling.
When Biden warned Republicans not to use Social Security and Medicare as leverage in negotiations to raise the debt limit, it was game on. He directed many remarks to the Republican side of the chamber.
“Let’s commit here tonight that the full faith and credit of the United States of America will never, ever be questioned,” Biden said.
He baited them and they took the bait. Biden looked straight into the camera so tens of millions of Americas would not miss it:
Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage — I get it — unless I agree to their economic plans. All of you at home should know what those plans are.
Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans, want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s the majority.
Biden referred to a written proposal by Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and statements Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
Republicans shouted and catcalled. He’d struck a soft spot. Rep. Marjorie Tylor Greene (R-Ga.) stood and shouted, “Liar!”
Biden had cut the GOP caucus over the eye, so he worked the eye. He went off-script and engaged them. Republicans may wish they hadn’t.
Let me give you — anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy — I’ll give you a copy of the proposal. That means Congress doesn’t vote — I’m glad to see — no, I tell you, I enjoy conversion.
You know, it means if Congress doesn’t keep the programs the way they are, they go away.
Other Republicans say — I’m not saying it’s a majority of you, I don’t even think it’s even a significant — but it’s being proposed by individuals. I’m not — politely not naming them, but it’s being proposed by some of you.
Look, folks, the idea is that we’re not going to be — we’re not going to be moved into being threatened to default on the debt if we don’t respond.
Folks — so folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? They’re not to be — all right. We’ve got unanimity.
Biden invited them to publicly refute that position. Many of them stood.
Social Security and Medicare are a lifeline for millions of seniors. Americans have to pay into them from the very first paycheck they started.
So tonight, let’s all agree — and we apparently are — let’s stand up for seniors. Stand up and show them we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare.
The chamber, Republicans included, stood again.
“Man, that was a setup and it was nicely done,” tweeted Tom Nichols, staff writer for The Atlantic.
“Wow, we just witnessed Biden paint the Republicans into a corner on live TV,” tweeted Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin. Not that the GOP won’t deny it when the time comes.
Those benefits belong to the American people. They earned it.
And if anyone tries to cut Social Security, which apparently no one’s going to do, and if anyone tries to cut Medicare, I’ll stop them. I’ll veto it. And look, I’m not going to allow them to take away — be taken away.
Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. But apparently it’s not going to be a problem.
Biden addressed a populist message to Americans beset by predatory capitalism. “Look, capitalism without competition is not capitalism. It’s extortion. It’s exploitation.”
“Americans are … tired of being played for suckers,” Biden told working people from coast to coast. He put the country on notice that Democrats are ready to fight for them again.
It’s about time. Americans love a fighter.
For those feeling extorted, Biden pledged to take on surprise bills, junk fees and surcharges, and airline practices that bilk travelers. The Junk Fee Prevention Act will “ban surprise resort fees that hotels charge on your bill. Those fees can cost you up to $90 a night at hotels that aren’t even resorts.”
The tax system is unfair, Biden said. People know it. And he means to make large, wealthy corporations that pay zero in taxes pay their fair share.
“Look, I’m a capitalist. I’m a capitalist. But pay your fair share.”
There was no real wo wonk-speak last night. “I have your back,” Biden said, and he meant it, knowing his largest audience of the year would hear. And see.
We all did. We saw a president who came from the working class speak to America’s struggling working class and shrinking middle class. He knows their everyday concerns and means to address them. If he can get the Republican House to go along.
New York raconteur George Hahn observed, “Joe Biden really taps into pain, loss and empathy like no one can. He knows first-hand. Yet he doesn’t wallow in it. No one can touch him there.”
While Joe Biden let Americans of all political persuasions, even “extreme MAGA Republicans,” that he is there for them, MAGA Republicans in the chamber put on The Greatest Show Not of This Earth.
When Biden addressed defending against threats to democracy, including events that happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Speaker McCarthy was slow to stand and applaud Biden’s condemnation of hate and extremism.
Republicans showed us who they are. It wasn’t the first time.
It was the most remarkable SOTU of my lifetime. And unexpected.
“It’s never, ever been a good bet to bet against America,” Biden said again Tuesday night, showing it’s never a good bet to count him out either.
UPDATE: Looks like I forgot Rep. Mike Lee.