Joe Biden makes case to redefine role for government

Joe Biden makes a case to redefine the role of government.

President Joe Biden presented an ambitious agenda Wednesday night to rewrite the American social compact by vastly expanding family leave, child care, health care, preschool, and college education so that millions of people are funded by a higher tax on income.

The $ 1.8 trillion plan that he unveiled in his first address to a joint session of Congress along with previous proposals to build roads and bridges, expand other social programs and combat climate change represents a fundamental reorientation of the role of government Not seen since the days of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society.

“We have to show that democracy still works, that our government still works and can deliver on the people,” Biden planned to say in his nationally televised address, according to excerpts released by the White House earlier in the day.

Taken together, the collection of initiatives that Biden has introduced in his first 100 days in office suggests an impressive scope of change sought by a 78-year-old president who spent his entire life as a more mainstream legislator. After running during last year’s campaign as a “transitional candidate” to follow Donald Trump’s volatile tenure, Biden has positioned himself since his inauguration as a transformative president.

But the succession of expensive proposals amounts to a risky bet that a country deeply polarized along ideological and cultural lines is ready for a more activist government and the kind of redistribution of wealth that progressives have long sought. Biden’s Democrats have only a slim majority in the House and Senate to push through the broader legislation and, with success or not, he may have framed the terms of the debate for the next election.

“Our best future will not come from Washington’s plans or socialist dreams,” Sen. Tim Scott, RS.C., planned to say in his party’s official televised response, according to excerpts from the trailer. “It will come from you, the American people.”

For Biden, who watched such speeches as a senator or vice president for nearly half a century, it was the first time behind the microphone the agenda for what was the functional equivalent of a State of the Union address was set. But in the waning days of the coronavirus pandemic and less than four months after a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, the event was unlike any other presidential speech, as Biden faced a half-empty chamber.

On the advice of the Capitol doctor, only 200 members of Congress and other officials were invited instead of the usual 1,600, all wearing masks in assigned seats at least 6 feet apart. The president, battering his way down the hall, arrived amid tighter security than usual, with the streets around the building closed and patrolled by swarms of police and National Guard troops.

For the first notable time, Biden became the first president to address Congress with two women seated behind him representing the next in line for him, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Speaker of the House. of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. After addressing her as “Madam Vice President,” Biden said to applause: “No president has ever said those words, and it is about time.”