On the evening of this Tuesday, February 7, 2023, the President of the United States Joe Biden will give his State of the Union speech on national television and in front of the representatives of the House of Representatives and the Senate, the judges of the Supreme Court, the commanders of the Army and the government cabinet.
As stated in the Constitution of the United States, Joe Biden will give a balance of what happened from the Capitol so far in his administration, what’s to come, as well as calling to work together for the American people.
Among the possible issues that the president will address in what will be his second State of the Union addressare immigration, the war in Ukraine, the country’s economy, China, among others.
Joe Biden arrives at this annual event at a time when it seems most Americans are not yet feeling the impact of his administration’s actions, a Washington Post-ABC Newspoll poll revealed.
war in ukraine
Since the war in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, President Joe Biden has focused his efforts to give full support to the government of Volodimir Zelenski and NATO member countries.
For this speech it is expected that Joe Biden addresses sanctions imposed on Russia; the constant economic shipments approved by the US Congress for Ukraine; the weapons made available to the Zelenski government and the dispatch of US troops to support NATO allies, among others.
It is estimated that since the start of the war the Biden administration has allocated about $29.3 billion in military aid to kyiv to Ukrainein addition to sending 31 Abrams tanks; the supply of Patriot anti-missile batteries, and ammunition and long-range rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
Economy
Economic factors such as inflation, employment, and the infrastructure plan cannot be missing from President Joe Biden’s speech.
Inflation in the United States skyrocketed in 2022 due to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, which reached 9.1% in June of that year.
However, and despite all the forecasts, at the end of the midterm elections last November the economic outlook looked more encouraging for President Biden due to the fact that Inflation reached 6.5% in December 2022, its lowest in more than a year.
Thanks to the cheaper gasoline, which had skyrocketed during the summer of 2022, they placed the prices of the products in that same December at 0.1% per month, registering a year-on-year drop of 1.5%, a situation that meant a breather for Biden.
Employment growth, which stood at January 2023 in 517,000 new sources of work, surpassed the month of December 2022 where 269,000 jobs had been createda situation that meant one more point in favor for the US president.
According to data from the Labor Department, the unemployment rate fell to 3.4% last Januarythe lowest figure since 1969.
In addition to all this, in recent months Joe Biden has been in charge of promoting the historic Infrastructure Act that aims to repair and modernize the aging American infrastructure.
Immigration
Since he came to government, Joe Biden has tried to distance himself from his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, on immigration.
For this, he proposed a series of actions where he promised to give permanent residence to the so-called Dreamers, eliminate the Remain in Mexico policyand establish limits on the construction of the border wall, a situation where his Mexican counterpart, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has repeatedly thanked for stopping the construction of the wall in the south of the country.
Also Joe Biden arrives at this speech in search of a more orderly migration where new temporary visas for Central American migrants are granted with the “CBP One” application and Mexico is able to agree to receive expelled migrants within its territory.
However, An issue that causes President Biden many frictions with his opponents from the Republican Party is the so-called Title 42the controversial border restriction implemented on March 20, 2020 during the presidency of Donald Trump.
This measure, which was issued as a public health order by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it was intended to stop the spread of COVID-19 and allowed authorities to immediately expel migrants of US territory from the borders with Mexico and Canada.
But Title 42 became a controversial measure after the Biden administration announced its intention to withdraw it permanently.
On April 1, 2022, the CDC noted that the order was no longer necessary after the pandemic abated and could be rescinded, a situation that generated intense debate between Democrats and Republicansa fight that has even reached the courts of some states such as Arizona, Louisiana or Missouri, and that could also reach Joe Biden’s second State of the Union address.
China
China could be an unexpected guest in President Joe Biden’s speech to the presence of the spy balloon that was shot down by US forces last Saturday February 4th off the coast of South Carolina.
The discovery that a Chinese balloon was flying over US territory from Montana to South Carolina led to President Biden will make the decision to order his demolition as soon as he reached the sea according to his own statements.
The Awkward Ones: Classified Papers and Hunter Biden
Other topics that might not be included in President Biden’s speech, but no less important, would be the recent scandal of the classified papers who were found both in his Washington office last November and at his Delaware home address.
In addition to this, another The controversial issues that could remain unresolved are the scandals surrounding his son, Hunter Biden, such as: the dissemination of personal data found on your laptop; accusations for drug and alcohol use; the alleged business that he carried out with China, among other controversial situations.
Source: La Opinion
