U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday touted bipartisan unity in his second State of the Union Address even as congressional divide hardened and Republican lawmakers sat on their hands through many of his proposals.
“We’re often told that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together. But over the past two years, we proved the cynics and naysayers wrong,” he said in his first address to a joint session of Congress since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.
Noting that he signed over 300 bipartisan laws since taking office, the president called for finding consensus across the aisle.
Biden is faced with an imminent challenge as he has to win GOP support to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling to avoid a default in the coming months. But the two parties are at loggerheads over Republicans’ demand for spending cuts.
“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 … want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” he said, drawing boos.
Biden blamed high inflation in the U.S. on “the pandemic that disrupted supply chains” and the conflict in Ukraine that disrupted energy and food supplies, a rebuttal to Republican claims that it was his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in 2021 that threw the U.S. economy into disarray.
But the president said the U.S. has emerged stronger from the pandemic and touted the economic progress made under his administration.
“We have created a record 12 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.”
Biden also touched upon many polarizing topics in the latter half of his hour-long address. He threatened to veto any legislation that would ban abortion nationwide, called for a ban on assault weapons and urged Congress to pass reforms to hold police accountable for abusive behavior.
