In newly released excerpts of President Joe Biden's upcoming State of the Union address, the president will tout the progress America has made on the economy on his watch — and ask Republicans to work with him on a bipartisan basis.
"We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it," Biden is expected to say. "That is what we are doing again. Two years ago our economy was reeling. As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs – more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years. Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much. Today, COVID no longer controls our lives. And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken."
Biden, whose first two years saw the passage of major legislation like the American Rescue Plan, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, is expected to push what he calls a "blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America."
"My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten," the pre-released excerpts state. "Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible."
Above all, Biden will be asking Republicans for bipartisan cooperation over the next two years, following the GOP's narrow takeover of the House in the midterm elections, and amid fears the GOP will hold the debt ceiling hostage to try to extract partisan demands from the budget.
"[I]f we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress," Biden's speech is expected to say. "The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere ... We’ve been sent here to finish the job!"
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