In the State of the Union on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden will extend a hand to Republicans for bipartisanship, tout the American story of “progress and resilience” while also emphasizing the recent strong economic numbers, according to excerpts released by the White House.
CBS News will air the State of the Union as a special report, anchored by “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell. The speech begins at 9 p.m. ET and will be streamed for free online on the CBS News streaming network.
Mr. Biden’s olive branch to Republicans comes as he faces a divided Congress for the first time since he took office two years ago. A new CBS News poll released Tuesday showed many Americans are still anxious about inflation and the economy, and nearly half say Mr. Biden’s policies are making their own families’ finances worse.
“My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten,” Mr. Biden is expected to say. “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. And you wonder whether a path even exists anymore for you and your children to get ahead without moving away. I get it. That’s why we’re building an economy where no one is left behind. Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back because of the choices we made in the last two years. This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives.”
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The speech comes days after the government said the U.S. added a stunning 517,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.4%, the lowest rate since 1969. Mr. Biden will likely bring up the strong jobs numbers during his address, touting them as a sign that the economy continues to grow even as inflation begins to recede.
White House aides said Tuesday that the president will also highlight his four-part “unity agenda” that he introduced during last year’s State of the Union address, which includes overcoming the opioid epidemic, fighting cancer, supporting veterans and improving mental health care.
The president will announce efforts to disrupt the trafficking, distribution and sale of fentanyl and work with Congress to ensure tough penalties for fentanyl suppliers, the aides said. A father whose daughter died of a fentanyl overdose is attending the speech as one of first lady Jill Biden’s guests.
The White House said Mr. Biden will also urge Congress to reauthorize the National Cancer Act to boost funding for research and care centers, a key issue for the president, whose son died of brain cancer in 2015.
Mr. Biden will discuss how the Department of Veterans Affairs is working to help prevent veteran suicides. More than 71,000 veterans have died by suicide since 2010, the White House said, and the VA is working to expand the number of specialists who can support them.
On mental health, the president will call for bipartisan support to ban targeted online advertising aimed at young people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will also launch a campaign to provide mental health resources for health care organizations to support their workforces. The president will discuss how to better connect more Americans to health care coverage, including with more than $280 million in grants the Department of Education will give to high-need districts to increase the number of mental health professionals in schools.
The State of the Union comes amid heightened tensions with China following the intrusion of a suspected spy balloon over U.S. skies last week that U.S. fighter jets eventually shot down off the coast of South Carolina. China has said the balloon was a civilian vessel and has denounced the use of force. The discovery of the balloon caused Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing.
Mr. Biden is also expected to mention the ongoing standoff over raising the debt ceiling. Last week, Mr. Biden had his first formal meeting with new Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who said after the meeting that the two focused on the debt limit and spending.
