What Went Down During President Biden’s Speech To Congress

This was a pretty typical speech in, as Sarah mentioned, a still very abnormal time in our country. I’m not sure Americans have a lot of mental capacity for a laundry list of policies on everything from climate change to gun reform. The pandemic (and its economic impacts) and the continued ramifications of systemic racism loom so large at this moment that a “normal” speech felt kind of … abnormal.

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.