It was supposed to be Joe Biden's first address to a joint Congress. What it was, as anyone brave enough to tune in saw, was his first address to an almost empty room. The scene was certainly a downer, punctuated by a 100-days speech that reminded everyone just how long the next four years will be. "America is on the move again," the president insisted. In what a majority of Americans see as the wrong direction.
"If you missed President Joe Biden's big speech to the nation last night, congratulations," Jim Geraghty joked. His analysis, which compared the monologue to a bowl of reheated oatmeal, was actually one of the kinder reviews. "Boring, lifeless, and predictable" might have been all right, he agreed, if the actual talking points were ones that Americans could swallow. Instead, Biden's dull delivery was only cover for the most extreme socialist agenda this country has ever seen. And he'll have to put more than Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) to sleep if he has any intentions of accomplishing it.
"Biden conjured a world in which there was no danger from unprecedented deficit spending, no possible adverse consequences from raising taxes on corporations and rich people, no spike in violent crime that needs attending, and no foreign threats that demand of us more than platitudes about leadership," the NRO editors blasted. "Even as he proposed one of the most radically Left policy agendas in American history, he continued to feign an eagerness to work with Republicans."
At this point, he's said the word unity more than any president -- but meant it less than all combined. His sweeping proposals -- everything from Big Government toddler-care to free college and elder care "infrastructure" -- all cashes out to more $11 trillion dollars in new spending, a number so radical that even liberal Republicans like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) warned Biden: that's not the path to bipartisanship. "How [are we going] to pay for it?" Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) asked on "Washington Watch." "We haven't even gotten to the appropriations [bills] and his budget, which we expect to be about $4.5 trillion dollars in other spending..." It's cradle-to-the-grave socialism. That's not something you can have a "productive discussion" with Republicans about. For them, and for the majority of Americans in this nation, this "moderate radicalism," as CNN hilariously tried to spin it, is a non-starter.
Not to mention, analysts point out, a complete and utter fiscal disaster. One of Biden's favorite words in the 6,045 marathon was "jobs" (which he used 46 times) or -- my personal favorite, "millions and millions of jobs" (four times). His disastrous climate initiative would create jobs, Biden said. His $2 trillion dollar COVID relief hoax will create jobs. Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord will send "hundreds of thousands" of people to work. No one is quite sure how, since all of the fact-checkers seemed anxious to take his word for it. Maybe he means we'll all have to take two and three jobs to pay for our share of the costs of his new government programs. Either way, he's living on a planet where facts don't matter.
The reality is, David Bossie points out, the American people aren't looking for radical change. This is a nation that, by generous counts, voted President Biden into office by just 40,000 votes. Democrats have a "microscopic majority in the House, and they control the U.S. Senate by a heartbeat. There's no mandate for Joe Biden to move forward with this extreme socialist overhaul.
For a party claiming to be so in touch with Americans, nothing this White House is pursuing has the support of the nation it's governing. It's true on overseas abortion funding (77 percent oppose), abolishing girls' sports (54 percent oppose), court-packing (65 percent oppose), ending voter ID (77 percent oppose), defunding the police (62 percent oppose), abolishing the filibuster (52 percent oppose), higher taxes/bigger government (56 percent oppose), overturning the Hyde amendment (58 percent oppose), and granting amnesty over controlling the border (62 percent oppose).
It's no wonder Biden's speech bombed. Even CNN admitted that Donald Trump's maiden address got higher marks than his successor. That's because, for all of his flaws, President Trump still spoke in a language of common values -- life, faith, freedom, patriotism. This president spent Wednesday night offering to lead a new war on faith with the Equality Act and applauding children who want to ruin their lives and mutilate their bodies against their family's wishes. "To all transgender Americans watching at home, especially young people, who are so brave, I want you to know, your president has your back." And yet, that same back is turned on all of the parents, all of the regretful adults, all of the counselors and doctors who are desperate to protect our sons and daughters.
Meanwhile, there was no word of the real crises in our midst (which is not, as Joe Biden would have you believe, the lack of taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for minors). He never mentioned the chaos at the border. Never hinted that one of those "human rights commitments" America cares about is stopping genocide against Chinese Uyghurs. He did, however, find time to repeat the harmful lie about our country's supposed racism (a word he mentioned twice as often as faith, for anyone keeping count.)
Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) ripped the tired argument to shreds in his GOP response, masterfully exposing Biden as a political opportunist who's only using this rhetoric to try to get more support for his policy. "Hear me clearly," Scott said. "America is not a racist country." And yet, he points out, from colleges to corporations, "people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven't made any progress. By doubling down on the divisions we've worked so hard to heal." The Democratic leadership is no different. They're using race, he insisted, as "a political weapon to settle every issue the way one side wants." That's wrong. "It's backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination, and it's wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present."
It's all a ruse. Just like the political theater of a socially-distanced, half-empty room, when every single member of Congress has been vaccinated. "It's interesting," Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said. Democrats didn't mind 100 senators in the same room, inches apart for hours on end, to impeach Donald Trump for the second time. "Apparently, COVID was not an issue then." The message, the New York Post editors think, is that this nightmare will never end. Thank goodness the same can't be said of this nightmare of a Biden presidency.
