What Went Down During President Biden’s Speech To Congress

It was a standard, meaty State of the Union address (even if pedants will insist it wasn’t technically a State of the Union!), with particular emphasis on Biden’s three big spending packages. That’s unsurprising, as they all poll very well. But, of course, as with every State of the Union, it probably won’t persuade Congress to pass any bills that weren’t already on track to pass. I’ll personally be curious to see if any of the bills outside Biden’s “big three” — such as the For the People Act or immigration reform — get anywhere close to passage.

That speech was well to the left of Obama on economics — the list of plans, the spending, etc. It was probably to the left of Obama on racial issues, too. It was very “Biden,” with some economic populism for the Warren/Sanders crowd and the broadest base of voters, hitting core Democratic issues for the base and an emphasis on American democracy that appeals to the “Never Trump” Democrats/Republicans.

The big question going forward is how much of the stuff in the first 45 minutes and the economic plan actually passes. Most of the stuff in the second half of the speech has no chance of passing, as long as the filibuster remains in place.

It was a focused speech, and Biden touched on a lot of hot-button issues: guns, immigration, raising the minimum wage, voting rights, COVID-19, vaccine distribution, the economy, etc. But I can’t help but come back to the fact that Biden’s remarks about race and police reform were relegated to the tail end of his speech.