- Biden sought to relaunch his stalled economic agenda at the State of the Union.
- He seemed to split his plans into separate buckets with one designed to combat inflation.
- Some measures like the expanded child tax credit face steep hurdles to becoming law.
If President Joe Biden's first formal State of the Union address sparked some deja vu, that was the point.
The president rolled out his updated economic agenda Tuesday night, aiming to newly launch his domestic agenda including much of his $2 trillion Build Back Better plan which stalled out in Congress late last year.
Biden brought up plenty of priorities that Democrats ran on during the 2020 election, like a $15 an hour minimum wage, establishing paid family and medical leave, and the PRO Act designed to make it easier for workers to unionize. He also grouped a monthly child tax credit program that expired last year alongside these.
He said spending big on workers would lead to economic growth from the "bottom up and the middle out."
He urged Congress to pass these measures but, in reality, they have little shot of reaching his desk anytime soon. That batch of proposals were kept separate from what could form a new package that hands the White House a realistic shot at another legislative victory. Biden outlined a new plan to fight the highest inflation in four decades. Rising prices for groceries, gas, and housing have caused political headaches for the Biden administration, providing fodder for GOP attacks and contributing to his low approval ratings ahead of the midterms.
It's also been a key concern of Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia. He sank the social and climate spending bill in December over persistent fears it would worsen inflation. So the White House started repackaging what it once billed as a transformational agenda into something geared at helping families with their day-to-day expenses and cutting the federal deficit.
"I call it building a better America," he said. "My plan to fight inflation will lower your costs and lower the deficit."
Biden laid out seven steps that he argued would provide relief to squeezed paychecks:
- Cutting the cost of prescription drugs
- Reducing energy prices $500 annually per family by combating the climate emergency
- Renewing federal subsidies so Americans can buy cheaper Obamacare health coverage
- Establishing affordable childcare
- Affordable housing
- Setting up universal pre-k for every three and four-year-old
- Home and long-term care for seniors and the disabled
Biden didn't specify when he'd try to get this slimmer spending plan over the Congressional finish line, or how much it might cost. Democrats can't approve their plan in the 50-50 Senate without Manchin, who hasn't let up in his intense opposition to further federal spending for two months. He didn't seem persuaded to get onboard the effort after the Tuesday evening speech either.
The president also said he'd take additional steps to reduce prices.
Biden announced the US and 30 other countries will release 60 million barrels of crude oil from their strategic reserves in hopes of alleviating some of the supply pressures in the gas market. The US alone will release 30 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a network of underground oil infrastructure that stores the commodity for times of need.
Biden also provided an update to the country's infrastructure revamp. The president signed the bipartisan infrastructure plan into law in November, approving $1 trillion of new spending for repairing roads and bridges, improving ports, and expanding broadband access across the country. That spending is expected to fix more than 65,000 miles of highway and 1,500 bridges by the end of 2022, Biden said Tuesday, adding the projects will help bolster job creation.
To be sure, the announcements offer little for the Democratic Party to celebrate. Daily oil consumption averaged 18 million barrels in 2020, meaning the newly announced release accounts for less than two days of normal activity. And while the highway and bridge renovations won backing on both sides of the aisle, Biden's challenge has been with his more ambitious party-line bill, not his bipartisan proposals.
Getting such a legislative victory in 2022, then, will require a different playbook that the party used before. Biden's Tuesday speech showed he's still pursuing the same policy goals, but recent history signals he has a steep hill to climb to win his entire caucus's support.