WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden closed out his first 100 days urging a pandemic-fatigued nation to remain vigilant, but also underscoring how far it has come since he moved into the White House: lockdowns are lifting, the economic outlook is brightening, a big stimulus package put money in people’s pockets and created landmark improvements to the social safety net.
Now comes the most challenging part: using that honeymoon period as a springboard for the rest of a costly, contentious agenda that Biden vows would heal the nation and restore America’s place as a global leader. Many critics have deep reservations about those plans.
In his first address to a joint session of a masked and socially distant Congress on Wednesday, Biden laid out the course he will chart to overcome them.
Some takeaways from Biden’s 65-minute speech:
Go big or go home
Biden was deliberate in his framing of a historically ambitious agenda that would vastly expand the role of government and rebalance who pays for it. His plans include free community college for all, universal prekindergarten, an expansion of the Affordable Care Act and 12 weeks of guaranteed paid family leave for all Americans. He promised his infrastructure blueprint would generate millions of jobs upgrading such things as transportation networks and water systems, and transitioning the nation to green energy.
The president’s pitch for all this spending — and tax hikes for the wealthy to cover the tab — was simple. The nation, he said, is at a crossroads, with democracy under unprecedented stress and its future uncertain. He said the prescription for fixing it is transformative change that pulls millions of Americans out from underneath mountains of debt, economic uncertainty and family strain. That New Deal-style approach has proven a tough sell in modern American politics, yet Biden invoked how Franklin D. Roosevelt guided the nation through an earlier time of deep anxiety.
“In another era when our democracy was tested, Franklin Roosevelt reminded us: In America: we do our part,” Biden said. “If we do, then we will meet the central challenge of the age by proving that democracy is durable and strong. The autocrats will not win the future.”
A new setting, a new tone
The optics of the night reflected how dramatically things have shifted in Washington. For the first time in history, standing behind the president on the dais were two women: Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Their presence amplified the direction of diversity and inclusion Democrats are aiming to steer the nation toward.
The mask wearing and social distancing in the chamber muted the usual performative applause and audience shouting that has punctuated previous presidential addresses to Congress. Instead, the setting reflected the somber tone of the time, the resiliency of a pandemic the nation still struggles to overcome and a president whose approach to meeting the challenge is more technocratic than theatrical.
“One hundred days ago, America’s house was on fire,” Biden said as he began to tick off the moves his administration and Congress have made since then. “We had to act.”
Redefining the political ‘middle’
Biden took the stage under fire from Republicans, who brand him as anything but the moderate he claims to be. Most of the initiatives Biden has pushed forward don’t have GOP buy-in, and congressional Democrats are moving with urgency on his agenda as they face the prospect of losing control of Congress in the midterms. Republicans were unimpressed by some of the moves Biden made that annoyed the left, such as holding off on plans to lower the age of Medicare eligibility.
But the measures Biden is championing share one thing in common: They are broadly popular, and not just with Democrats. His administration is taking the approach that the opinions of voters matter more than the opinions of lawmakers, and that Biden’s agenda is not radical so long as it impresses voters across partisan lines. Whether the bipartisan appeal can withstand a sustained assault on the agenda by congressional Republicans remains to be seen.
