2 years ago
Democrats are hoping President Joe Biden’s prime-time address on Tuesday effectively hits the reset button ahead of the November election after months marked by legislative breakdowns.
Biden will be delivering his first State of the Union speech to a nation that’s largely skeptical of his leadership at the moment. His approval ratings are near the lowest of his presidency as Americans remain immersed in anxiety over the pandemic, the economy, and now, a Russian invasion of Ukraine that’s increasingly demanding U.S. attention.
Already worried they could lose control of both chambers of Congress this fall, many Democrats are urging the White House to use the speech as a turnaround point — but also a sales pitch. The party swept into complete control of Washington just over a year ago with the economy on the brink of Covid-induced recession, only to watch internal squabbles distract attention from what it got done.
That makes the State of the Union a chance for Biden to remind voters exactly how Democrats have used their power after months of underselling their achievements. His job is as tricky as messaging gets, though: Many in his party say they’ve failed to show how well they’ve done averting a bigger economic debacle; still, they want Biden to deliver a victory lap without downplaying sky-high consumer prices that continue to frustrate the public.
“He’s going to be talking about what we are doing now and what we intend to do in the future,” said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, chair of the chamber's Democratic campaign arm. “That’s what people want to hear and what they want to know, and an acknowledgment of what they’ve gone through. Everybody’s fed up with the pandemic … people want to move on. There are some positive signs we’re moving on, but we have to get through it all.”
Few Democrats expect Biden to use his speech to fully resurrect his stalled social spending bill — the so-called "Build Back Better" plan that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) single-handedly derailed in December. Still, they’re hoping he’ll lay out more specific priorities going into November.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said the remarks could offer Biden an opportunity for a reboot. “What we ought to focus on is getting things done and talking about them,” Tester said. “We got things done last year, but we didn’t talk about it."
The party’s most vulnerable Democrats have fretted for weeks that the Biden administration lacks a clear vision. And many of them have begun to privately push their leadership to take up popular bills on the biggest issues they’re hearing about back home, such as the skyrocketing cost of prescriptions, food and utilities, as well as rising crime.
One group of battleground House Democrats used the two-week congressional recess to draft a kind of alternate agenda for the party, pointing to dozens of bipartisan bills on issues like health care, supply chains and law enforcement that they say stand a better chance of becoming law than Biden’s moribund climate and social safety net measure.
“It's critically important that we lay out a clear agenda for November and for the direction we’re heading in,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), one of the group's roughly half-dozen members. While he said Democrats don’t need to abandon Biden’s broader package, “we also can’t be frozen in place in the meantime.”
The group, which also includes Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), recently met virtually with White House chief of staff Ron Klain to urge Biden to lean into those kinds of economic issues during his address. They have also briefed their House leadership on the details of their draft plan, which was obtained by POLITICO.
“He’s got to lay out a vision for what’s next. I’m hoping he rises to the occasion. It may be one of the most important addresses we’ve heard in a long time,” said Phillips, who said his own top priorities are “Covid,” “cost” and “crime.”
House and Senate Democrats have already begun to pivot to inflation, racing to put bills on the floor that might be marketable as helping push down consumer prices. They're also focused on retooling existing legislation, like a sprawling bill designed to help the U.S. counter China’s economic influence.
Prior to leaving for the February recess, Senate Democrats also discussed proposals designed to reduce costs including a push from vulnerable incumbents to temporarily suspend the gas tax. That's on top of an already-launched push, with the White House playing a role, to spotlight the benefits of last year's bipartisan infrastructure law.
During a meeting in early February between Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Peters, Schumer urged Biden to talk more about the party's efforts to lower costs, according to a Democratic aide familiar with the meeting.
Of course, no new supply-chain or inflation bills will be paying off by the time Biden stands in front of lawmakers on Tuesday night.
“It’s really important to speak about everyday issues,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). “When I talk to families, they’re not quite sure what’s in Build Back Better, but they for sure want lower prescription drug prices.”
The economy is expected to be a dominant piece of the speech. Within the party, though, some Democrats — including pollsters — have warned not to cheerlead the economy at the risk of looking tone-deaf to millions of Americans dealing with higher prices.
But other Democrats have been more insistent: If they don’t talk about Biden’s work to rescue the economy, nobody else is going to do the sales pitch for them.
“It's very important to state the facts,” said Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.). “The economy is humming. We didn't go into a depression or recession. Yeah, we've got inflation. That's because of Covid shortages. We still have chip shortages. Now we're gonna have oil shortages."
Democrats are also eager to hear Biden tout the dramatic turnaround that the U.S. has seen on Covid cases over the last month, as the virus' Omicron surge has waned. Blue states like Illinois, New York and California have dropped restrictions such as mask mandates as their governors call for a new normal — a sudden shift that Republicans have decried as political.
Mask requirements have also been lifted in the Capitol itself, as of Monday.
And on the pandemic front, the scene in the chamber on Tuesday night will offer a starkly different picture than a year ago, when attendance at Biden's address was capped to prevent the spread of the virus. Democrats hope it will serve as a potent reminder for how far the nation has come since the start of Biden’s presidency.
“We need to remind Americans that a year ago hardly anybody was vaccinated,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) “The pandemic is still with us of course and … the idea that we’re going to eradicate Covid like we eradicated polio is just not the way this disease is going to unfold. But it becomes less and less dangerous to people who are using all the tools.”
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