President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address will be delivered to a nation that is fractured, pessimistic, and burdened by inflation and rising costs, positioning him at the bottom of a steep climb for the hopeful economic case he plans to deliver.
Biden came into office asking to be judged based on his success passing major legislation and overcoming disunity in the country. One year in, and against the backdrop of war in Europe, the public doubts his ability to deliver on these promises.
Surging prices, inflation that has spiked to a 40-year high under the president’s watch, and a stalled domestic agenda that failed to unite Democrats and a bipartisan coalition in numbers sufficient to save it have cast doubt over his vision.
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Biden’s press secretary said the president would detail plans to lower costs for people through measures the White House believes bipartisan lawmakers can get behind.
“You can certainly expect to hear him call on Congress to send bills to his desk that deliver progress on ideas that have historically been supported by Democrats and Republicans,” Jen Psaki told reporters Monday, with the push for child and eldercare programs and lowering prescription drug costs still on the table.
“Those are not done yet,” she said.
Inflation is at record levels, placing hardship on the country’s most vulnerable families. Psaki said the president would not shy away from this. “That is a huge issue on the minds of Americans,” she said.
During a call Monday, senior administration officials said Biden’s remarks would deliver a hopeful picture of where the country is headed, with policies to shore up jobs, manufacturing, and marketplace competition.
“He’ll talk about the progress that we’ve made in the last year in the face of deep challenges, and he’ll talk about his optimism for the future,” one official said. “He’ll remind the country that our best days lie ahead.”
And in a nod to the economic pressures facing Americans, another senior official said Biden would make the case for lowering the deficit as well as urging his agenda.
“He’ll talk about reducing the deficit, and he’ll call on Congress to act now and [focus] on the ideas and what they mean for families in our economy,” this person said.
The official insisted that Biden’s reconciliation bill, known as Build Back Better, would reduce the deficit, a claim that has earned pushback from some in the president’s party.
It’s a message that may not have the reach the White House is hoping for, with the public already turned away after a fraught year of pandemic messaging mishaps, a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, and price spikes pummeling voters’ pocketbooks.
“They’re in an iron lung,” presidential historian Craig Shirley told the Washington Examiner, pointing to the Republican Party’s polling advantage on ballots asking voters to select a generic Democrat or Republican for Congress next year.
Shirley said Biden’s outlook appeared bleak, signaling a bitter struggle for the rest of his term.
“This is the first year, and this is his honeymoon,” said Shirley, author of April 1945: The Hinge of History. “His next three years is going to be the divorce.”
Democrats face major electoral headwinds that could be hard to shift in an election year.
“Voters had lukewarm opinions of Biden when he took office and generally hoped he would help unify the country, restore some civility to politics, and eliminate the chaos and confusion from COVID-19,” said Republican pollster Robert Blizzard. “Instead, we are now in a more negative political environment, voters are angrier, more frustrated, and the country is even more polarized than it was when he took office.”
Blizzard said voters’ economic woes show little sign of abating, causing anxiety with no end in sight and paving a challenging uphill road for Democrats as the midterm elections approach.
“Attitudes toward this president have already set in, and despite significant organic improvement on the COVID-19 front, Biden’s numbers haven’t improved, and neither have Democrats’ chances of maintaining control of Congress,” Blizzard said.
One year ago, the president pledged his “whole soul” to unite the country. This effort has not materialized, with recent polls instead showing that the president has drawn independents and Republicans against him, with Democrats still in his corner.
The result is a record-low presidential approval rating — 37% of people surveyed by ABC-Washington Post last week voiced support for the job he is doing, compared to 55% who disapprove. In total, 44% of respondents said they strongly disapprove.
While unhappiness with the president’s work was highest among Republicans (86%), most independents (61%) also shared a negative opinion. By contrast, 77% of Democrats gave Biden favorable marks.
The poll was conducted between Feb. 20-24, with a sample of 1,011 adults and a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
Biden’s message Tuesday will seek to move beyond his Build Back Back Act, which collapsed late last year amid pressure on a key centrist Senate vote.
Instead, Biden’s case for future spending will rest on building support for individual measures instead of the larger bill that Democrats had pushed for much of the last year.
Officials on a call declined to say whether the president would use the name of his stalled Build Back Better plan.
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“It’s not about the name of the bill — it’s about the ideas. It’s about lowering costs for families,” an official said.
In addition to the economy, Biden’s address will focus on the president’s efforts to halt a Russian invasion of Ukraine, an area in which the administration has devoted considerable time to rallying its trans-Atlantic allies.
