2023 State of the Union Recap

Biden's Second Report on the State of Our Union

• Congratulations to the 118th Congress and new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, to the first African American Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to the longest serving leader in the US Senate, to Chuck Schumer, the Majority Leader. I want to give special recognition to a woman who will go down as the best Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

• We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger.

• 12 million new jobs, more than any American president in history.

• Today, COVID no longer controls our lives.

• Democracy remains unbowed and unbroken after the most heinous act against our Capitol, January 6th.

•  Bipartisanship is evident: stronger and safer Europe, infrastructure law, burn pit bill, Electoral Reform Act, and Marriage Equality Act. Signed over 300 bipartisan bills.

• If we were able to work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we cannot work together in this Congress. To rebuild the backbone of America, we need to finish the job we were sent here to do.

• Build an economy from the bottom up and middle up. Unemployment is at 3.4%, a fifty-year low. Near record unemployment for Black and Hispanic Americans, more than 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, inflation has fallen every month for the last six months. A record 10 million Americans applied to start small businesses.

• Semiconductors: invented in America. Went from producing 40% to 10% of the world's chips. Bipartisan Chips and Science Act was passed to bring chip production back to America. We are going to make sure the supply chain begins in America. This Act will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

• To maintain the highest job market in the world, we need the strongest infrastructure in the world. We are coming back to the top, as we passed the bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the biggest infrastructure law since President Eisenhower. We are improving roads, bridges, airports, highways, and lead pipes, and providing high-speed internet. We are just getting started, and we are going to buy American.

•  We are building back pride in our country.

• Announced new standards requiring all infrastructure materials used in federal projects must be made in America.

• Commitments to blue-collar workers across America.

• The Inflation Reduction Act is taking on special interests (Big Pharma) to lower prescription drug prices around the country. We pay in America more for prescription drugs than any other country in the world. Not anymore.

• The laws we passed are now coming to fruition. We capped the price of insulin at $35 a month for seniors on Medicare and Medicaid. Let's finish the job and cap the price of insulin for all Americans at $35. with Giving Medicare the power to cap drug prices, and it cuts the deficit by billions of dollars.

• The Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest investment in climate change in history (new electric grids, clean energy, 500,000 electric charging stations, tax credits for buying energy-efficient

• The Climate Crisis does not care whether you are in a red or blue state. We have an obligation to protect our planet and confront this crisis. We will need oil and gas for a while, but there is more to do. We have finally made these special interests, big corporations finally pay their fair share (15%) of taxes.

• Nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in income taxes.

• Pass my proposal for a billionaire minimum tax. No billionaire should pay less in taxes than a teacher, nurse, or firefighter.

• More than 25% of our national debt was added under my predecessor. Congress did the right thing and raised the debt ceiling three times. You all must follow the suit so we don’t default. We cannot default on our debt. Add at the same time. Let’s stand up for seniors and show them we will not cut Social Security and Medicare. If any of you try, I will VETO it.

• When I lay down my fiscal plan, you lay out yours. Let’s sit down and discuss our fiscal plans together. My plan will reduce the deficit by $2 trillion. We will expand the Medicare Trust Fund, and pay for it by making the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share in taxes.

• Capitalism without competition is not capitalism. It’s exploitation and extortion.

• We are tackling junk fees and exploitation by online businesses. Overcharging stops now. We have written the Junk Fee Prevention Act to stop this nonsense. Pass it and send it to my desk.

• Pass the PRO Act because American workers have the right to organize and form a labor union.

• We know twelve years of education is not enough to win today’s economic market. Let’s provide universal pre-K, give public educators a raise, reduce student debt, increase Pell grants, connect students to career opportunities, and provide students two years of community college.

• Let’s recognize how far we have come in fighting COVID. Deaths are down by 90%, we have opened up schools, and we will soon end the COVID public health emergency. Congress needs to fund treatment efforts to keep America safe. We must also prosecute predatory companies who stole COVID relief money.

• We have an obligation to ensure all people are safe. Public trust is required to keep people safe. Equal Protection Under Law is a covenant in America. A vast majority of police officers are good and decent people. To help them truly reduce crime and increase public trust, we must pass common-sense criminal justice reform. At the same time, when police officers violate public trust, they must be held accountable. We need to rise to this moment, and we cannot turn away.

• To do something about gun violence, we passed a bipartisan law to crack down on gun violence, the largest investment in 30 years. There is more to do. Ban assault weapons now.

• Let’s also come together on immigration, and make this a bipartisan effort once again. Our border will not be secured if Congress does not act. Pass my immigration reform plan, which will give agents resources to secure the border, and give the right of citizenship to Dreamers.

• We must protect the right taken away by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. If Congress passes a national ban on abortion, I will veto it.

• Let’s pass the bipartisan Equality Act, ensuring LGBTQ+ Americans can live safely.

• Putin’s brutal and unjustified invasion has been a test to the world. We must stand up for democracy around the world. One year later, we know the answer– give united support to Ukraine. We will stand with them as long as it takes.

• China will not overtake us. We will invest in American innovation that China seeks to dominate. We will modernize our military to deter aggression. We are the best positioned in a long time to stand up to China. If China acts against our sovereignty, we will act against it, as I ordered last week.

• A year ago, I offered a Unity Agenda. We are making progress on gun violence, lowering drug costs, the Cancer Moonshot, and tackling the opioid crisis. But we must do more.

• Let’s pass a law to add more machines and systems at the border to stop the trafficking of fentanyl across the border once and for all.

• We must pass bipartisan information to protect the mental health of our children, protect their online profiles, and ensure they are not targeted by predators.

• We must increase job training for our young people, while at the same time, honoring the sacrifice of those who have served our country. 17 veterans are committing suicide every day. We must do more.

• We also re-ignited the Cancer Moonshot to reduce the unbearable grip that cancer has on our society. We must make sure cancer is not a death sentence. It is unacceptable. We must turn this pain into purpose once and for all. Let this truly be an American moment that rallies us together.

• There is no place for political violence in America. We must protect the right to vote, respect our elections, and give hate and violence no safe harbor in this country.

• We meet tonight at an inflection point for our nation. We are not bystanders to history. It is within our power as We the People to be bold, determined, and ready to confront our biggest challenges. This is our moment.

• With democracy, everything is possible. Without it, nothing is possible.

• Because the soul of this nation is strong, because the backbone of our nation is strong, because the American people are strong, the State of Our Union is strong.