The Annual State of the Union is Tuesday night, and President Biden will speak to Congress.
A few days ago, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 6 in 10 Americans did not think the President had accomplished much. Whether Biden’s speech can change these numbers remains to be seen.
The poll made me wonder if maybe what Americans are undergoing is culture shock. This would relate to the brash, rude, unprecedented behavior of former President Trump. Remember? Every day was a new, often ridiculous quote.
But back to President Biden. Yoohoo! Biden’s been doing his job, head down, working hard, and producing results. The difference is the results and how he’s polite about it. Maybe his mama taught him not to brag? Maybe Miss Manners said that bragging is unbecoming.
Since Biden isn’t a braggart, I am compelled to do it for him. Let’s check the boxes when we watch him at the State of the Union.
√. This President is growing the economy from the bottom up and middle out — 12 million jobs have been created since he took office. More than half a million — 517,000 … yes, HALF A MILLION AND MORE … just in January!
√. The lowest unemployment rate in 54 years — just 3.4%
√. And these new jobs? 800 million in manufacturing in just the last two years. These are good-paying jobs where four-year degrees are not required.
But wait! What are the Republicans offering? They want to raise taxes on working people with a 30% sales tax. Just think about tacking on 30% every time we walk out of the grocery store … or think about buying a car … PLUS 30%. “PLUS 30% would substitute for the Republican plan to eliminate the IRS, and in doing so, they are saying, “Let’s let the tax cheats off the hook.”
Readers will remember the rule: Believe what people say. For the 2022 election, Republicans promised to cut or eliminate Social Security and Medicare. Voters listened, with the result that they said NO to the big majority in the House that Republicans were confident about, and they gave Democrats a boost in the Senate.
The poll made me wonder. It’s always easier to criticize than it is to brag about positive results so here’s a reminder: When Trump left office, 25.5 million workers—15.0% of the workforce—were either unemployed, otherwise out of work due to the pandemic or employed but experiencing a drop in hours and pay.
So what about that culture shock? This would relate to the brash, rude, unprecedented behavior of former President Trump. Remember? Sometimes funny. Sometimes ugly. Sometimes not a word of truth. Every day was a new, often ridiculous quote, and many of these quotes were actually cover-ups — “funny” cover-ups to avoid saying, let’s not talk about 25.5 million people out of jobs. As a reminder, here are a few of the quotes.
- Trump on John McCain: “[John McCain is]… not a war hero. He’s a war hero – he’s a war hero ’cause he was captured. I Like people that weren’t captured, OK, I hate to tell you.”
- Trump on the 1.5 million Americans who’ve tested positive for coronavirus: “When you say that we lead in [coronavirus] cases, that’s because we have more testing than anybody else. So when we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing. I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better.’
- Trump on global warming, “It’s really cold outside, they are calling it a major freeze, weeks ahead of normal. Man, we could use a big fat dose of global warming.
- Trump on global warming (yes, again): “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
- Trump on the campaign trail on Hillary Clinton: “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the second amendment [the right to have a gun]. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the second amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”
- Trump on his financial success: “I look very much forward to showing my financials, because they are huge.”
Oh my! There were many more, etc., etc. Many were ones I wouldn’t want my children or grandchildren to hear, i.e., listen and repeat.
Still, wondering about that 60%? The fact that they missed the massive drop in unemployment is pretty dramatic. It’s also pretty scary that they do not understand Social Security and Medicare can be cut or eliminated because what Republicans want as they refuse to pass the debt ceiling is to do just that. If they were serious about the debt ceiling, they would do what we ordinary people would do, i.e., we would give the wealthiest people in this country the opportunity to pay their fair share. Instead, the Republicans are raising taxes on working families with their proposals: PLUS a 30% sales tax, making gas prices more expensive, and increasing the national debt by letting the big-time tax cheats off the hook. For this last tax cheat fiasco, see New York as they prosecute Trump as a master tax cheat.
Or maybe that 60% doesn’t understand what I like to call “process.” “Process” is government at work. This is what President Biden is good at. Remember the bills that Biden nudged Congress to pass and then signed, e.g., Biden’s Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.
These bills are Biden’s tools that put people back to work, protect our seniors, and keep families from bankruptcy because of outrageous medical costs. How about joining me tomorrow night to see how many “boxes” Biden deservedly will brag about … or will he brag?