Biden's State of the Union address highlights US economic crisis, police violence

US President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night that at times turned strikingly rowdy and featured tense exchanges with Republicans.  

The rancorous atmosphere in the House chamber during the traditionally decorous event telegraphed fights ahead, including over-budget priorities and avoiding a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt. 

At several points, Biden’s speech on Tuesday night was interrupted by Republicans, who criticized his handling of the country and heckled him.

The encounter featured stark moments of unscripted drama the likes of which were rarely seen during State of the Union addresses of the past. When he mentioned the fentanyl crisis, some Republicans heckled him. “The border! The border!” some shouted. “It’s your fault!”

"Fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year," said Biden during his speech.

As US officials struggle to stem the tide of fentanyl, a new wave of deadly synthetic opioids is flooding into street drug scenes on the East Coast and Midwest.

Biden challenged the new House Republican majority to work together with him to “finish the job” of police reform, repairing America’s unsettled economy and fragile "democracy" even as the emboldened opposition push back and asked him to change course.

"Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible. Maybe that’s you watching at home. You remember the jobs that went away," Biden said.

He also engaged in a heated argument with Republicans when he accused them of threatening Social Security and Medicare, an assertion that drew some of them to their feet to hit back angrily. At least one of them shouted, “Bullshit!”

“Liar!” screamed Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia.

“Contact my office,” the president responded, offering to give her proof of his point.

The president and the House are heading for a collision that could jeopardize the nation’s credit rating and stuttering economic recovery. “Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage,” Biden charged.

He used his speech to call again for Congress to pass a so-called “billionaire’s tax,” saying some of the biggest corporations in the country are raking in billions of dollars in profits but paying no federal income taxes.

Biden did not spell out the specifics of his proposal. But in the past, he has called for a 20% levy on households with a net worth of more than $100 million.

Social media companies exploiting children

Biden called on US lawmakers to restrict how social media companies lure children and collect their data, as he accused Big Tech of conducting a "for profit" experiment on the nation's youth.

"We must finally hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit," he said. 

"And it's time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on kids and teenagers online, ban targeted advertising to children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data that companies collect on all of us." 

Last month, he urged Republicans and his Democrats to break through years of political gridlock and pass laws that would rein in the power of US-based tech giants Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook-owner Meta.

The United States has trailed governments in Europe and Asia in drawing up more modern rules to curb the power of the biggest tech companies.

Police brutality 

Touching on the continuing police brutality, he mentioned Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died after being beaten by Memphis police officers. Biden called for more police training and more resources to reduce violent crime. 

I signed an executive order for all federal officers banning chokeholds, restricting no-knock warrants, and other key elements of the George Floyd Act.

But all of us need to rise to this moment. We can’t turn away.

Let’s come together and finish the job on police reform.

— President Biden (@POTUS) February 8, 2023

"When police officers or police departments violate the public trust, they must be held accountable," he said.

"Just as every cop, when they pin on that badge in the morning, has a right to be able to go home at night, so does everybody else out there," he said. "Our children have a right to come home safely," he added.

Biden also urged Congress to take stronger steps to address gun violence, including banning high-powered assault weapons used in many of the mass shootings across the country.

He said that mass shootings had tripled after a 10-year ban which he had sponsored when he was in Congress expired in 2004.

Dismal approval rating

The speech and the GOP response will frame the terms of debate heading into the coming year as Biden prepares to announce his re-election campaign.

Despite his efforts, Biden remains unpopular. His public approval rating edged one percentage point higher to 41% in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll that closed on Sunday.

That is close to the lowest level of his presidency, with 65% of Americans saying they believe the country is on the wrong track, compared to 58% a year earlier.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who once served as press secretary for Trump, roasted Biden in her Republican response to his address.

“In the radical left’s America, Washington taxes you and lights your hard-earned money on fire. But you get crushed with high gas prices, empty grocery shelves, and our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race,” Sanders said in her televised remarks.

Biden turned 80 in November and, if re-elected, would be 82 at the start of a second term, a fact that concerns many Democratic voters, recent polls show.

Some House Republican lawmakers have questioned Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential race against Donald Trump, vowing to investigate his Cabinet and family.

'Steadfast' support for Ukraine

Still, foreign policy played barely a passing role in the speech. Biden tried to cement bipartisan support for his efforts to send tens of billions of dollars in arms and other aid to Ukraine to help it counter Russian forces, nearly a year after the war began.

Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy said last fall that if Republicans won there would be no more “blank check” for Ukraine, and polls show rising skepticism among Republican voters.

Biden introduced Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, who was in the first lady’s box. “We are going to stand with you as long as it takes,” he said.

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