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Focusing on issues, US President Joe Biden has called for a bipartisan approach “to restore the soul of the nation” in his State of the Union address.

Biden combined his sweeping rhetoric about “unity” and the challenges to American democracy with a speech documenting achievements over the past two years and detailing what needs to be done.

With the notable exceptions of Ukraine and China, the address concentrated on domestic issues, notably the economy, health care, women’s rights, and gun control.

Highlighting historic legislation passed with the backing of Republicans such as its Senate leader Mitch McConnell, Biden said:

To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there’s no reason we can’t work together and find consensus on important things in this Congress as well….

Fighting for the sake of the fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere.

We’ve been sent here to finish the job.

Some House Republicans and Trumpists heckled and even shouted expletives. When he called for action over the fentanyl crisis, introducing a father who lost a daughter to an overdose, a group of GOP legislators berated him, “The border! The border! It’s your fault!”

But Biden maintained composure and focus, pointing out facts supporting his points. When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — a Q-Anon sympathizer who repeatedly screamed and gestured at Biden — yelled, “Liar!”, Biden responded coolly, “Contact my office.”

Progress and Plans for Economy

Biden began with his focus on the economy, citing two years of progress after the chaos of the Trump years and the Coronavirus pandemic.

He made carefully-documented points such as a 50-year low of 3.4% unemployment, the fastest growth in manufacturing job in 40 years, a record cut in the Federal Government’s deficit spending, and a fall in inflation in each of the past six months.

Bolstering the theme of bipartisanship, he detailed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package; the $800 billion of his slimmed-down “Build Back Better” in the Inflation Reduction Act — relabelled as Build Back Pride — for investment, climate change initiatives, health care provision, and lower prescription drug prices; and the CHIPS and Science Act to boost the microchip industry.

He pledged that no taxes will be raised on anyone making less than $400,000 per year, instead targeting corporate stock buybacks, tax loopholes, and record profits of companies such as “Big Oil”.

“Capitalism without competition is not capitalism. It is exploitation,” he summarized.

The President used the record to appeal for further progress in the next years — and for his likely bid for re-election.

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.

Health Care, Social Security, and Education

Biden used the impetus of the successful legislation to seek more advances over health care. Pointing to the Inflation Reduction Act’s limits on health care and drug bills, he proposed an extension of the $35 monthly cost of insulin to “every American who needs it”. He called on Congress to extend Obamacare to make saving on premiums permanent and to “expand coverage to those left off Medicaid”.

Putting the onus on Republicans, he cautioned those “threatening to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act”: “Make no mistake, if you try to do anything to raise the cost of prescription drugs, I will veto it.”

Biden said some Republicans had threatened to cut Medicare and Social Security. When a group of GOP legislators howled in protest that this was wrong, he responded, “I’m glad to see — I tell you, I enjoy conversion.”

Later in the speech, he issued a headline call for a “Cancer Moonshot” seeking a cure, “Our goal is to cut the cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years. Turn more cancers from death sentences into treatable diseases. And provide more support for patients and families.”

Addressing education, Biden quoted his wife “Jill, who teaches full-time”: “Any nation that out-educates us will out-compete us.”

To meet that challenge, he proposed access to pre-school for all 3- and 4-year-olds; pay raises for teachers in public schools; two years of community college for any qualified applicant; increases in grants for lower-income university students; and further reduction in student debt after his executive order over outstanding loans.

Remembering Gun Control, Addressing Police Violence

With any initiative on gun control certain to be stymied by the Republican majority in the House, Biden concentrated on ensuring the issue is not forgotten.

He cited what he achieved through executive orders and a gun safety law which “includes things that the majority of responsible gun owners support, like enhanced background checks for 18 to 21-year-olds and red flag laws keeping guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others”.

But even more of the speech was devoted to the issue of police violence, following last month’s killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee.

Biden introduced Nichols’ parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, and said:

Imagine what it’s like to lose a child at the hands of the law.

Imagine having to worry whether your son or daughter will come home from walking down the street or playing in the park or just driving their car….

Imagine having to worry like that every day in America….

We all want the same thing. Neighborhoods free of violence. Law enforcement who earn the community’s trust. Our children to come home safely.

Equal protection under the law; that’s the covenant we have with each other in America.

As RowVaughn Wells wiped away a tear, Biden challenged, “Let’s come together and finish the job on police reform.”

From Immigration to Women’s and LGBT Rights

Biden navigated through the immigration issue, “America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts”:

If you won’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border. And a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.

Then he turned to women’s rights, including over access to abortion.

Calling for the near-impossible, given the GOP majority in the House, he asked Congress to rectify the Supreme Court’s reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade percent, codifying it into law.

More realistically, he said, “The Vice President and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy.”

He called out “more than a dozen states…enforcing extreme abortion bans” and assured, “Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it.”

He asked legislators to “pass the bipartisan Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity”.

“An Inflection Point”

Biden concluded with an invocation of “an inflection point — one of those moments that only a few generations ever face, where the decisions we make now will decide the course of this nation and of the world for decades to come”.

Rallying Americans to “be the nation we have always been at our best” and reject division — “we must see each other not as enemies” — he upheld optimism:

Because the soul of this nation is strong, because the backbone of this nation is strong, because the people of this nation are strong, the State of the Union is strong.

As I stand here tonight, I have never been more optimistic about the future of America. We just have to remember who we are.

We are the United States of America and there is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.