Vice President Joe Biden, April 7, 2015. Photo courtesy of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Will Joe Biden use tonight’s State of the Union speech as an opportunity to “revamp his presidency with a new agenda of American strength and prosperity,” wonders James Freeman in the WSJ. “Unfortunately, the White House seems to be clinging to its current agenda and simply trying to find new ways to market it.”
As one writer at the Associated Press notes:
The state of the union is disunity and division. It’s a state of exhaustion from the pandemic.
It’s about feeling gouged at the grocery store and gas pump… This is what a grand funk looks like…
The country is litigating how to keep kids safe and what to teach them, weary over orders to wear masks, bruised over an ignominious end to one war, in Afghanistan, and suddenly plenty worried about Russian expansionism.
From Annie Linskey and Tyler Pager in the Washington Post:
Some top advisers have cautioned Biden to avoid using the phrase “Build Back Better” in the speech to describe his upcoming legislative priorities and instead focus on individual programs. The phrase, according to one ally, is viewed as too broad and bland to excite the public, while some of the individual elements are popular.
White House officials are instead planning to make a pitch to revive Biden’s economic agenda… but without using its original name, according to a person familiar with the speech.
Mr. Freeman writes of a policy plan that, without further ado, would address energy supplies, Russian aggression, Washington-made inflation, and Covid weariness: economic liberty.
- Make it easier and cheaper to produce goods and services in the U.S.
- Remove federal barriers and encourage governors to remove state barriers that discourage unmasked and unvaccinated Americans from participating in the workforce.
- Declare a moratorium on new regulations.
- Encourage American frackers to do their highly disinflationary work of producing oil and gas and reducing the importance of Putin’s Russia in the global energy market.
Keep the U.S. Prosperous
There is no need for another Washington spending blowout. Maintaining a prosperous United States is the best way to enhance the peace and freedom of people all over the world. And if Mr. Biden would put this idea at the center of his agenda, this column can guarantee that his polling will improve.
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