5 Things to Know About Joe Biden's Address to Congress

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden gave his first address to Congress. He touted his COVID-19 “relief” bill and urged Congress to pass his “infrastructure” bill, the union giveaway PRO Act, the anti-Christian Equality Act, and his new American Families Plan.

Biden framed his agenda in terms of jobs and helping the middle class, but his bills represent a far-left giveaway to Democratic constituencies and they’d cost far more than Biden plans to raise in new taxes — supposedly only for people who make $400,000 or more.

1. “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!”

Biden cunningly framed his agenda in terms of jobs “rebuilding” America. He even characterized the increased regulations on cheap and effective forms of energy as a jobs program.

“For too long, we have failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis: jobs, jobs, jobs,” the president said. “When I think climate change, I think jobs.”

He made a similar statement later on in the speech. While Biden admitted that the U.S. only accounts for less than 15 percent of global carbon emissions, he said he rejoined the Paris Accord to build a consensus that “if we act to save the planet, we can create millions of jobs, economic growth and opportunity, and raise the standard of living for most everyone in the world.”

Biden did not address the jobs that he destroyed on his first day in office by canceling the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and the border wall. He did not address the millions of jobs that would disappear if he raised the minimum wage to $15/hour. He did not address the jobs that will be lost due to his ban of drilling for oil on federal lands.

Biden did, however, take credit for the jobs created during his first 100 days. “The economy created more than 1.3 million new jobs in 100 days, more new jobs in the first 100 days than any president on record.”

The president did not note that those jobs came back due to the abatement of the COVID-19 pandemic, an abatement due in large part to the historic vaccines President Donald Trump helped to launch through Operation Warp Speed.

2. Success fighting COVID-19.

Biden did not mention his predecessor, but he did begin his speech by celebrating his own election, saying that “America is rising anew. Choosing hope over fear. Truth over lies. Light over darkness.”

Yet the president celebrated many of the achievements against COVID-19 that his predecessor, Donald Trump, made possible.

“After I promised 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots in 100 days – we will have provided over 220 million COVID shots in 100 days,” he said. “We’re marshalling every federal resource. We’ve gotten the vaccine to nearly 40,000 pharmacies and over 700 community health centers.”

Biden is right to celebrate this historic vaccine effort, but he did not once give any credit to Trump, whose Operation Warp Speed made the vaccines possible.

3. A deceptive agenda.

Biden used deceptive terms to urge Congress to pass a raft of legislation packed with giveaways to Democratic constituencies.

He touted the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 “relief” package that only included $75 billion for vaccines, treatments, testing, and medical supplies. The bill had $19 billion for “public health” and another $10 billion for the Indian Health Service. This adds up to about 5 percent of the entire bill. So what else was in the bill? Bailouts for government pension systems, a payoff to states that launched harsh lockdowns, and money for schools 95 percent of which will not be spent until between 2022 and 2028.

Biden touted the “American Rescue Plan” as “one of the mot consequential rescue packages in American history,” but he didn’t mention the blue-state bailout.

Similarly, when he urged Congress to pass his infrastructure bill, he mentioned “roads, bridges, highways,… ports and airports,” but he didn’t mention the fact that traditional infrastructure only makes up 10 percent of the bill.

The $2.25 trillion “insfrastructure” bill includes only $115 billion for roads and bridges. It includes another $80 billion for railways, $25 billion for airports, and $17 billion for waterways and ports. This traditional infrastructure only makes up 10.5 percent of the bill. Meanwhile, the bill includes green handouts like $174 billion for electric vehicle incentives, $100 billion for “electric grid and clean energy,” $46 million for “clean energy manufacturing,” and $35 billion for “climate technology.” The bill also dedicates $400 billion to “in-home care” for the elderly and those with disabilities — 17.8 percent of the bill, far more than the infrastructure costs.

Finally, Biden laid out his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, which would: add two years of government-funded preschool for 3-year-old and 4-year-old children along with two years of government-funded community college; cover much of the cost of child care for low-income families; provide up to 12 weeks of paid family medical leave; and extend the child tax credit through 2025.

Biden also urged Congress to pass the Violence Against Women Act — which includes anti-gun provisions and a pro-transgender provision — the union giveaway PRO Act, the Equality Act — which explicitly strips religious freedom protections — and more. None of these bills are moderate.

4. How to pay for it?

While Biden demanded Congress pass at least $4 trillion in spending, he insisted that this was “fiscally responsible” because he had a plan to pay for it: taxing the wealthy.

“I will not impose any tax increases on people making less than $400,000 a year,” he promised. “It’s time for corporate America and the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans to pay their fair share, just their fair share.”

Biden claimed that 55 of America’s largest corporations — which made more than $40 billion in profits — paid zero in federal income tax in 2020. He mentioned tax havens like the Cayman Islands, tax loopholes, and tax deductions, promising to rein in these tax-evasion efforts.

Then Biden made some concrete proposals.

“We take the top tax bracket for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans –
those making $400,000 or more – back up to 39.6 percent,” he said. “We’re going to get rid of the loopholes that allow Americans who make more than $1 million a year pay a lower rate on their capital gains than working Americans pay on their work. This will only affect three tenths of 1% of all Americans.”

“And the IRS will crack down on millionaires and billionaires who cheat on their taxes,” Biden added.

So, what’s the big pay-off? How much money will taxing the wealthy get the federal government? It’s got to be big to offset the $4 trillion Biden wants to spend, right?

“That’s estimated to be billions of dollars,” the president said, with a straight face.

Then he added this line: “What I’ve proposed is fair. It’s fiscally responsible.”

How is it “fiscally responsible” to spend $4 trillion — when America already spent $1.9 trillion on Biden’s COVID-19 “relief” bill — and only take in a vague “billions” of dollars? The national debt stands at $28 trillion and climbing, without accounting for Biden’s infrastructure or family bills.

5. Saving “democracy”

Throughout the speech, Biden framed the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot as an “existential threat” to America and “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” He insisted that America is at an inflection point between representative government and autocracy.

Biden began the speech by saying he had “inherited a nation in crisis: the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”

The president urged Congress to pass H.R. 1, a bill that guts election integrity efforts, federalizes elections, and attacks free speech in politics. He dismissed concerns about the integrity of the 2020 election and urged H.R. 1 as an effort to “protect the sacred right to vote.” In that context, he returned to the Capitol riot.

“As we gather here tonight, the images of a violent mob assaulting this Capitol—desecrating our democracy—remain vivid in our minds,” Biden said. “Lives were put at risk. Lives were lost. Extraordinary courage was summoned. The insurrection was an existential crisis—a test of whether our democracy could survive.”

“It did,” Biden triumphantly declared.

“But the struggle is far from over. The question of whether our democracy will long endure is both ancient and urgent,” he warned. “Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate and fears that have pulled us apart? America’s adversaries – the autocrats of the world – are betting it can’t. They believe we are too full of anger and division and rage.”

“They look at the images of the mob that assaulted this Capitol as proof that the sun is setting on American democracy. They are wrong. And we have to prove them wrong. We have to prove democracy still works,” Biden declared, as if undermining election integrity will somehow bolster democracy.

Biden’s hyperbolic statements on the Capitol riot suggested that a lawless group of angry unarmed people breaking into the Capitol was somehow a greater threat to the U.S. government than the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. He then used this absurd hyperbole to advocate a bill that will make elections less secure, not more secure.

From jobs to “democracy,” Biden pushed a radical agenda in deceptive terms. He presented costly climate plans as jobs programs, the pork-stuffed “infrastructure” bill as a roads and bridges effort, and attempts to close tax loopholes as a major revenue-raiser. He took credit for successes that Trump had worked to build, while condemning the former president’s tenure as an age of “darkness.”