Key points from Joe Biden's State of the Union Address
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The news: US President Joe Biden said bills the Republicans opposed had attracted USD650 billion ($981.6 billion) into private sector investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing.
The context: During his State of the Union speech today, Biden highlighted several economic proposals, goals, and wins including tackling inflation, infrastructure investments, taxing big corporations and the wealthy, and “standing up” to China.
Biden said he had inherited an economy that was on the brink but was now the envy of the world as wages were rising and inflation was coming down.
Inflation, he said, had fallen from 9% to 3%, was the “lowest in the world” and continued to trend lower.
Biden noted that the US was now exporting American products and creating jobs in the country rather than importing foreign products and exporting American jobs. This, he claimed, led to consumer confidence soaring.
The US president said policies that Republicans opposed attracted USD650 billion of private sector investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing and pointed to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that created 46,000 new projects.
“By the way I noticed some of you strongly voted against it or they’re cheering on that money coming in. If any of you don’t want that money in your district just let me know,” he said.
On the country’s federal deficit, Biden said his goal was to cut the deficit by another USD3 trillion through taxing big corporations and the very wealthy paying “their fair share”.
“Look, I’m a capitalist. If you want to make a million bucks – great! Just pay your fair share in taxes. A fair tax code is how we invest in the things – that make a country great, health care, education, defence, and more,” he said.
Biden noted the last administration enacted a USD2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefitted the very wealthy and the biggest corporations and said he did not think it was fair they received the tax breaks.
“Under my plan nobody earning less than $400,000 will pay an additional penny in federal taxes. Nobody. Not one penny,” he said.
“... It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21% so every big corporation finally begins to pay their fair share.”
Biden said he proposed that billionaires should pay a minimum tax of 25% as the current average rate was 8.2% and this would raise USD500 billion over the next decade.
On China, Biden said the US’ trade deficit with China was down to the lowest point in over a decade and that the country was “standing up” against China’s “unfair economic practices”.
“And standing up for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. I’ve revitalised our partnerships and alliances in the Pacific,” he said.
“I’ve made sure that the most advanced American technologies can’t be used in China’s weapons. Frankly for all his tough talk on China, it never occurred to my predecessor to do that.
“We want competition with China, but not conflict.”
Biden opened his address by saying the world was experiencing an "unprecedented moment" in history, drawing comparisons of Russian aggression with Franklin Roosevelt's address in 1941 when "Hitler was on the march".
"If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not," Biden said. "But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself."
The president urged Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and to pursue a two-state solution. He said he would direct the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean to help provide urgent humanitarian assistance into Gaza, noting that 30,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed.
"This war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all previous wars in Gaza combined," Biden said.
