[as delivered, as transcribed by the
White House]1
PRESIDENT BIDEN:
[The President presents his prepared remarks to Speaker Johnson.] Your
bedtime reading. [off-mic]
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Thank you. Thank you. [off-mic]
PRESIDENT BIDEN:
[The President presents his prepared remarks to Vice President Harris.] [off-mic,
inaudible]
VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS:
[off-mic, inaudible]
PRESIDENT BIDEN:
Tony!
[Secretary of State Antony Blinken, seated front row, center left] Thank you. Looking for Jill
[Biden].
SPEAKER JOHNSON: [gavels four times for
order in the Chamber signaling the President's formal remarks are about to begin.]
PRESIDENT BIDEN:
Good
evening. Good evening. If I were smart, I’d go home now.
Mr. Speaker, Madam Vice President, members of Congress, my fellow Americans:
In January 1941, Franklin Roosevelt came to this chamber to speak to the
nation. And he said, “I address you...at a moment unprecedented in the history of
the union."2 Hitler was on the march. War was raging in Europe.
President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up Congress and alert the American
people that this was no ordinary time. Freedom and democracy were under assault
in the world.
Tonight, I come to the same chamber to address the nation. Now it’s we who face
an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union.
And, yes, my purpose tonight is to wake up the Congress and alert the American
people that this is no ordinary moment either. Not since President Lincoln and
the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are
today.
What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack at --
both at home and overseas at the very same time.
Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos
throughout Europe and beyond.
If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you: He will
not.
But Ukraine -- Ukraine can stop Putin. Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with
Ukraine and provide the weapons that it needs to defend itself.
That is all -- That is all Ukraine is asking. They’re not asking for American
soldiers. In fact, there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine, and I’m
determined to keep it that way.
But now assistance to Ukraine is being blocked by those who want to walk away
from our world leadership.
It wasn’t long ago when a Republican President named
Ronald Reagan thundered,
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
Now -- now my predecessor, a former Republican President, tells Putin, quote,
“Do whatever the hell you want.”
AUDIENCE: Booo --
PRESIDENT BIDEN: That’s a quote.
A former President actually said that -- bowing down to a Russian leader. I
think it’s outrageous, it’s dangerous, and it’s unacceptable.
America is a founding member of NATO, the military alliance of democratic
nations created after World War Two prevent -- to prevent war and keep the
peace.
And today, we’ve made NATO stronger than ever. We welcomed Finland to the
Alliance last year. And just this morning, Sweden officially joined, and
their Prime Minister is here tonight. Stand up. Welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. And they know how to fight.
Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to NATO, the strongest military alliance the world
has ever seen.
I say this to Congress: We have to stand up to Putin. Send me a bipartisan
national security bill. History is literally watching. History is watching.
If the United States walks away, it will put Ukraine
at risk. Europe is at risk. The free world will be at risk, emboldening others
to do what they wish to do us harm.
My message to President Putin, who I’ve known for a long time, is simple: We
will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down.
In a literal sense, history is watching. History is watching -- just like
history watched three years ago on January 6th when
insurrectionists stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger to the throat of
American democracy.
Many of you were here on that darkest of days. We all saw with our own eyes the
insurrectionists were not patriots. They had come to stop the peaceful transfer
of power, to overturn the will of the people.
January 6th lies about the 2020 election and the plots to steal the election
posed a great -- gravest threat to U.S. democracy since the Civil War.
But they failed. America stood -- America stood strong and
democracy prevailed. We must be honest: The threat to democracy must be
defended [defeated].
My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6th. I
will not do that.
This is a moment to speak the truth and to bury the lies. Here’s the simple
truth: You can’t love your country only when you win.
As I’ve done ever since being elected to office, I ask all of you, without
regard to party, to join together and defend democracy. Remember your oath of
office to defend against
all threats foreign and domestic.
Respect -- respect free and fair elections, restore trust in our institutions,
and make clear political violence has absolutely no place -- no place in
America. Zero place.
Again, it’s not -- it’s not hyperbole to suggest history is watching. They’re
watching. Your children and grandchildren will read about this day and what we
do.
History is watching another assault on freedom. Joining us tolight
[tonight] is Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama.
Fourteen months ago -- fourteen months ago, she and her husband welcomed a baby
girl thanks to the miracle of IVF. She scheduled treatments to have that
second child, but the Alabama Supreme Court shut down IVF treatments across the
state, unleashed by a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. She was
told her dream would have to wait.
What her family had gone through should never have happened. Unless Congress
acts, it could happen again.
So, tonight, let’s stand up for families like hers. To my friends across the
aisle -- don’t keep this waiting any longer. Guarantee the right
to IVF. Guarantee it nationwide.
Like most Americans, I believe Roe v. Wade got it right.
I thank Vice President Harris for being an incredible leader defending
reproductive freedom and so much more. Thank you.
My predecessor came to office determined to see Roe v. Wade overturned. He’s
the reason it was overturned, and he brags about it. Look at the chaos that has
resulted.
Joining us tonight is Kate Cox, a wife and mother
from Dallas. She’d become pregnant again and had a fetus with a fatal
condition. Her doctor told Kate that her own life and her ability to have
future in the fil- -- children in the future were at risk if she didn’t act.
Because Texas law banned her ability to act, Kate and her husband had to leave
the state to get what she needed.
What her family had gone through should have never happened as well. But it’s
happening to too many others.
There are state laws banning the freedom to choose, criminalizing doctors,
forcing survivors of rape and incest to leave their states to get the treatment
they need.
Many of you in this chamber and my predecessor are promising to pass a national
ban on reproductive freedom.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
PRESIDENT BIDEN: My God, what freedom else would you take away?
Look, its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court majority wrote the
following -- and with all due respect, Justices -- “Women are not without
electoral -- electoral power” -- excuse me -- “electoral or political power.”
You’re about to realize just how much you were right about that.
Clearly -- Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade
have no clue about the power of women.
But they found out. When reproductive freedom was on the ballot, we won in 2022
and 2023. And we’ll win again in 2024.
If you -- If you, the American people, send me a Congress that supports the
right to choose, I promise you I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land
again.
Folks, America cannot go back.
I am here to- -- tonight to show what I believe is the way forward, because I
know how far we’ve come.
Four years ago next week, before I came to office, the country was hit by the
worst pandemic and the worst economic crisis in a century.
Remember the fear, record losses?
Remember the spikes in crime and the murder rate? A raging virus that took more
than 1 million American lives of loved ones, millions left behind.
A mental health crisis of isolation and loneliness.
A President, my predecessor, failed in the most basic Presidential duty that he
owes to American people: the duty to care.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Lies!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I think that’s unforgivable.
I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in the
nation’s history. We have.
It doesn’t make new, but in a -- news -- in a thousand cities and towns, the
American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told.
So, let’s tell the story here -- tell it here and now.
America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities; building an
economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down; investing in
all of America, in all Americans to make every- -- sure everyone has a fair shot
and we leave no one -- no one behind.
The pandemic no longer controls our lives. The vaccine that saved us from COVID
is -- are now being used to beat cancer.
Turning setback into comeback. That’s what America does. That’s what America
does.
Folks, I inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now, our economy is
literally the envy of the world.
Fifteen million new jobs in just three years. A record. A record.
Unemployment at 50-year lows.
A record 16 million Americans are starting small businesses, and each one is a
literal act of hope, with historic job growth and small-business growth for
Black and Hispanics and Asian Americans. Eight hundred thousand new
manufacturing jobs in America and counting.
Where is it written we can’t be the manufacturing capital of the world? We are
and we will.
More people have health insurance today -- more people have health insurance
today than ever before.
The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.
Wages keep going up. Inflation keeps coming down. Inflation has dropped from 9
percent to 3 percent -- the lowest in the world and tending [trending]
lower.
The landing is and will be soft. And now, instead of aporting -- importing
foreign products and exporting American jobs, we’re exporting American products
and creating American jobs right here in America, where they
belong.
And it takes time, but the American people are beginning to feel it. Consumer
studies show consumer confidence is soaring.
“Buy America” has been the law of the land since the 1930s. Past
Administrations, including my predecessor -- including some Democrats, as well,
in the past -- failed to buy American. Not anymore.
On my watch, federal projects that you fund -- like helping build American
roads, bridges, and highways -- will be made with American products and built by
American workers creating good-paying American jobs.
And thanks to our CHIPS and Science Act, the United States is
investing more in research and development than ever before. During the
pandemic, a shortage of semiconductors, chips that drove up the price of
everything from cell phones to automobiles -- and, by the way, we invented those
chips right here in America.
Well, instead of having to import them, instead of -- private companies are now
investing billions of dollars to build new chip factories here in America, creating tens of thousands of jobs, many of those jobs paying
$100,000 a year and don’t require a college degree.
In fact, my policies have attracted $650 billion in private-sector investment in
clean energy, advanced manufacturing, creating tens of thousands of jobs here in
America.
And thanks -- and thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new
projects have been announced all across your communities.
And, by the way, I noticed some of you who’ve strongly voted against it are
there cheering on that money coming in. And I like
it. I’m with you. I’m with you.
And if any of you don’t want that money in your district, just let me know.
Modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, public transit systems.
Removing poisonous lead pipes so every child can drink clean water
without risk of brain damage.
Providing affordable -- affordable high-speed Internet for every American, no
matter where you live -- urban, suburban, or rural communities in red states and
blue states.
Record investments in Tribal communities.
Because of my investment in family farms because I invested in
family farms -- led by my Secretary of Agriculture, who knows more about this
anybody I know -- we’re better able to stay in the family for the -- those farms
so their -- and their children and grandchildren won’t have to leave -- leave
home to make a living. It’s transformative.
The great comeback story is Belvidere, Illinois. Home to an auto plant for
nearly 60 years. Before I came to office, the plant was on its way to shutting
down. Thousands of workers feared for their livelihoods. Hope was fading.
Then, I was elected to office, and we raised Belvidere repeatedly with auto
companies, knowing unions would make all the difference. The UAW worked like
hell to keep the plant open and get these jobs back. And together, we
succeeded.
Instead of auto factories shutting down, auto factories are reopening and a new
state-of-the-art battery factory is being built to power those cars there at the
same.
To the folks -- to the folks of Belvidere, I’d say: Instead of your town being
left behind, your community is moving forward again. Because instead of
watching auto ja- -- jobs of the future go overseas, 4,000 union jobs with
higher wages are building a future in Belvidere right here in America.
Here tonight is UAW President Shawn Fain, a great friend and a great labor
leader. Shawn, where are you? Stand up.
And -- and Dawn -- and Dawn Simms, a third-generation worker -- UAW worker at
Belvidere.
Shawn, I was proud to be the first President to stand in the picket line. And
today, Dawn has a good job in her hometown, providing stability for her family
and pride and dignity as well.
Showing once again Wall Street didn’t build America. They’re not bad guys.
They didn’t build it, though. The middle class built the country, and unions
built the middle class.
I say to the American people: When America gets knocked down, we get back up. We keep going. That’s America. That’s you, the American people.
It’s because of you America is coming back. It’s because of you our future is
brighter. It’s because of you that tonight we can proudly say the state of our
Union is strong and getting stronger.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Tonight -- Tonight, I want to talk about the future of
possibilities that we can build together -- a future where the days of
trickle-down economics are over and the wealthy and the biggest corporations no
longer get the -- all the tax breaks.
And, by the way, I understand corporations. I come from a state that has more
corporations invested than every one of your states in the state -- the United
States combined. And I represented it for 36 years. I’m not anti-corporation.
But I grew up in a home where trickle-down economics didn’t put much on my dad’s
kitchen table. That’s why I’m determined to turn things around so the middle
class does well. When they do well, the poor have a way up and the wealthy still
do very well. We all do well.
And there’s more to do to make sure you’re feeling the benefits of all we’re
doing.
Americans pay more for prescription drugs than anywhere in the world. It’s
wrong, and I’m ending it.
With a law that I proposed and signed -- and not one of your Republican buddies
work- -- voted for it -- we finally beat Big Pharma.
Instead of paying $400 a month or thereabouts for insulin with diabetes -- and
it only costs 10 bucks to make -- they only get paid $35 a month now and still
make a healthy profit.
And I want to -- and what to do next, I want to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a
month for every American who needs it -- everyone.
For years, people have talked about it. But finally, we got it done and gave
Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices on prescription drugs, just like
the VA is able to do for veterans.
That’s not just saving seniors money. It’s saving taxpayers money. We cut the
federal deficit by $160 billion -- because Medicare will no longer
have to pay those exorbitant prices to Big Pharma.
This year, Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the costliest drugs
on the market that treat everything from heart disease to arthritis. It’s now
time to go further and give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for 500
different drugs over the next decade.
They’re making a lot of money, guys. And they’ll still be extremely
profitable. It will not only save lives; it will save taxpayers another $200
billion.
Starting next year, the same law caps total prescription drug costs for seniors
on Medicare at $200 -- at $2,000 a year, even for expensive cancer drugs that
cost $10-, $12-, $15,000. Now I want to cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 a
year for everyone.
Folks, I’m going to get in trouble for saying that, but any of you want to get
in Air Force One with me and fly to Toronto, Berlin, Moscow -- I mean, excuse
me. Well, even Moscow, probably. And bring your prescription with you, and I
promise you, I’ll get it for you for 40 percent the cost you’re paying now.
Same company, same drug, same place.
Folks, the Affordable Care Act -- the old “Obamacare” -- is still a very big
deal.
Over 100 million of you can no longer be denied health insurance because of a
preexisting condition. But my predecessor and many in this chamber want to take
the -- that prescription drug away by repealing Affordable Care Act.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I’m not going to let that happen. We stopped you 50 times
before, and we’ll stop you again.
In fact, I’m not only protecting it, I’m expanding it. The -- we enacted tax
credits of $800 per person per year [to] reduce healthcare costs for millions of
working families. That tax credit expires next year. I want to make that
savings permanent.
To state the obvious: Women are more than half of our population, but research
on women’s health has always been underfunded.
That’s why we’re launching the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s
Health Research, led by Jill -- doing an incredible job as First
Lady -- to -- to pass my plan for $12 billion to transform
women’s health research and benefit millions of lives all across America.
I know the cost of housing is so important to you. Inflation keeps coming
down. Mortgage rates will come down as well, and the Fed acknowledges that.
But I’m not waiting. I want to provide an annual tax credit that will give
Americans $400 a month for the next two years as mortgage rates come down to put
toward their mortgages when they buy their first home or trade up for a little
more space. That’s for two years.
And my Administration is also eliminating title insurance [fees] on federally
backed mortgages. When you refinance your home, you can save $1,000 or more as a
consequence.
For millions of renters, we’re cracking down on big landlords who use antitrust
law -- using antitrust -- who break antitrust laws by
price-fixing and driving up rents.
We’ve cut red tape so builders can get federally financing, which is
already helping build a record 1.7 million new house u- -- housing units
nationwide.
Now pass -- now pass [my plan] and build and renovate 2 million affordable homes
and bring those rents down.
To remain the strongest economy in the world, we need to have the best education
system in the world. And I, like I suspect all of you, want to give a child --
every child a good start by providing access to preschool for three- and
four-years-old.
You know, I think I pointed out last year -- I think I pointed out
last year that children coming from broken homes where there’s no books, they’re
not read to, they’re not spoken to very often start school -- kindergarten or
first grade hearing -- having heard a million fewer words spoken.
Well, studies show that children who go to preschool are nearly 50 percent more
likely to finish high school and go on to earn a two- and four-year degree no
matter what their background is.
I met a year and a half ago with the leaders of the Business Roundtable. They
were mad that I was ever -- angry -- I -- well, they were discussing why I wanted to spend money on education.
I pointed out to them: As Vice President, I met with over 8 -- I think it was
182 of those folks -- don’t hold me to the exact number -- and I asked them what
they need most -- the CEOs. And you’ve had the same experience on both sides of
the aisle. They say, “A better-educated workforce,” right?
So, I looked at them. And I say, “I come from Delaware. DuPont used to be the
eighth-largest corporation in the world. And every new enter- -- enterprise
they bought, they educated the workforce to that enterprise. But none of you do
that anymore. Why are you angry with me providing you the opportunity for the
best-educated workforce in the world?”
And they all looked at me and said, “I think you’re right.”
I want to expand high-quality tutoring and summer learning to see that every
child learns to read by third grade.
I’m also connecting local businesses and high schools so students get hands-on
experience and a path to a good-paying job whether or not they go to college.
And I want to make sure that college is more affordable. Let’s continue
increasing the Pell Grants to working- and middle-class families and increase
record investments in HBCUs and minority-serving institutions, including
Hispanic institutions.
When I was told I couldn’t universally just change the way in which we did --
dealt with student loans, I fixed two student loan programs that already existed
to reduce the burden of student debt for nearly 4 million Americans, including
nurses, firefighters, and others in public service.
Like Keenan Jones, a public educator in Minnesota, who’s here with us tonight.
Keenan, where are you? Keenan, thank you.
He’s educated hundreds of students so they can go to college. Now he’s able to
help, after debt forgiveness, get his own daughter to college.
And, folks, look, such relief is good for the economy because folks are now able
to buy a home, start a business, start a family.
And while we’re at it, I want to give public school teachers a raise.
And, by the way, the first couple of years, we cut the deficit.
Now let me speak to the question of fundamental fairness for all Americans.
I’ve been delivering real results in fiscally responsible ways. We’ve already
cut the federal deficit -- we’ve already cut the federal deficit by over $1
trillion.
I signed a bipartisan deal to cut another trillion dollars in the next decade.
It’s my goal to cut the federal deficit another $3 trillion by making big
corporations and the very wealthy finally beginning to pay their fair share.
Look, I’m a capitalist. If you want to make or can make a million or millions
of bucks, that’s great. Just pay your fair share in taxes.
A fair tax code is how we invest in things that make this country great:
healthcare, education, defense, and so much more.
But here’s the deal. The last Administration enacted a $2 trillion tax cut
overwhelmingly benefit the top 1 percent -- the very wealthy --
AUDIENCE: Booo --
PRESIDENT BIDEN: -- and the biggest corporations -- and exploded the federal
deficit.
They added more to the national debt than any Presidential term in American
history. Check the numbers.
Folks at home, does anybody really think the tax code is fair?
AUDIENCE: No!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Do you really think the wealthy and big corporations need
another $2 trillion tax break?
AUDIENCE: No!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I sure don’t. I’m going to keep fighting like hell to make it
fair. Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an
additional penny in federal taxes -- nobody -- not one penny. And
they haven’t yet.
In fact, the Child Tax Credit I passed during the pandemic cut taxes for
millions of working families and cut child poverty in half.
Restore that Child Tax Credit. No child should go hungry in this country.
The way to make the tax code fair is to make big corporations and the very
wealthy begin to pay their share. Remember in 2020, 55 of the biggest companies
in America made $40 billion and paid zero in federal income tax. Zero.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Not anymore.
Thanks to the law I wrote and we signed, big companies now have to pay a minimum
of 15 percent. But that’s still less than working people pay in federal taxes.
It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21 percent so every big corporation finally begins to pay their fair share.
I also want to end tax breaks for Big Pharma, Big Oil, private jets, massive
executive pay when it was only supposed to be a million bal- -- a million
dollars that could be deducted. They can pay them $20 million if they want, but
deduct a million.
End it now.
You know, there are 1,000 billionaires in America. You know what the average
federal tax is for those billionaires?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Zero!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: No.
They’re making great sacrifices -- 8.2 percent.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
PRESIDENT BIDEN: That’s far less than the vast majority of Americans pay.
No billionaire should pay a lower federal tax rate than a teacher, a sanitation
worker, or a nurse.
I proposed a minimum tax for billionaires of 25 percent -- just 25 percent. You
know what that would raise? That would raise $500 billion over the next 10
years.
And imagine what that could do for America. Imagine a future with affordable
childcare, millions of families can get what they need to go to work to help
grow the economy.
Imagine a future with paid leave, because no one should have to choose between
working and taking care of their sick family member.
Imagine -- imagine a future with home care and eldercare, and people living with
disabilities so they can stay in their homes and family caregivers can
finally get the pay they deserve.
Tonight, let’s all agree once again to stand up for seniors.
Many of my friends on the other side of the aisle want to put Social Security on
the chopping block.
If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement
age, I will stop you.
The working people -- the working people who built this country pay more into
Social Security than millionaires and billionaires do. It’s not fair.
We have two ways to go. Republicans can cut Social Security and give more tax
breaks to the wealthy. I will --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: [Inaudible.]
PRESIDENT BIDEN: That’s the proposal. Oh, no? You guys don’t want another $2
trillion tax cut?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Liar!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I kind of thought that’s what your plan was. Well, that’s good
to hear. You’re not going to cut another $2 trillion for the super-wealthy?
That’s good to hear.
I’ll protect and strengthen Social Security and make the wealthy pay their fair
share.
Look, too many corporations raise prices to pad their profits, charging more and
more for less and less.
That’s why we’re cracking down on corporations that engage in price gouging and
deceptive pricing, from food to healthcare to housing.
In fact, the snack companies think you won’t notice if they change the size of
the bag and put a hell of a lot fewer -- same -- same size bag --
put fewer chips in it. No, I’m not joking. It’s called “shrink-flation.”
Pass Bobby Casey’s bill and stop this. I really mean it.
You probably all saw that commercial on Snickers bars. And you get -- you get
charged the same amount, and you got about, I don’t know, 10 percent fewer
Snickers in it.
Look, I’m also getting rid of junk fees -- those hidden fees at
the end of your bill that are there without your knowledge. My Administration
announced we’re cutting credit card late fees from $32 to $8.
Banks and credit card companies are allowed to charge what it costs them to in-
-- to instigate the collection. And that’s more -- a hell of a lot like $8 than
30-some dollars.
But they don’t like it. The credit card companies don’t like it, but I’m
saving American families $20 billion a year with all of the junk fees I’m
eliminating.
Folks at home, that’s why the banks are so mad. It’s $20 billion in profit.
I’m not stopping there.
My Administration has proposed rules to make cable, travel,
utilities, and online ticket sellers tell you the total price up front so there
are no surprises.
It matters. It matters.
And so does this. In November, my team began serious negotiations with a
bipartisan group of senators. The result was a bipartisan bill with the
toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Oh, you don’t think so?
AUDIENCE: Booo --
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Oh, you don’t like that bill -- huh? -- that conservatives got
together and said was a good bill? I’ll be darned. That’s amazing.
That bipartisan bill would hire 1,500 more security agents and officers, 100
more immigration judges to help tackle the backload of 2 million cases, 4,300
more asylum officers, and new policies so they can resolve cases in six months
instead of six years now. What are you against?
One hundred more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the
ability to screen and stop vehicles smuggling fentanyl into America that’s
killing thousands of children.
This bill would save lives and bring order to the border.
It would also give me and any new President new emergency authority to
temporarily shut down the border when the number of migrants at the border is
overwhelming.
The Border Patrol union has endorsed this bill.
[Cross-talk.]
The federal Chamber of Commerce has -- yeah, yeah. You’re saying “no.” Look at
the facts. I know -- I know you know how to read.
I believe that given the opportunity -- for -- a majority in the House and
Senate would endorse the bill as well -- a majority right now.
AUDIENCE
MEMBER: Yes!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: But unfortunately, politics have derailed this bill so far.
I’m told my predecessor called members of Congress in the Senate to demand they
block the bill. He feels political win -- he viewed it as a -- it would be a
political win for me and a political loser for him. It’s not about him. It’s
not about me. I’d be a winner -- not really. I --
REPRESENTATIVE GREENE: What about Laken Riley?
[Cross-talk.]
AUDIENCE: Booo --
REPRESENTATIVE GREENE: Say her name!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: [The President holds up a pin reading “Say Her Name, Laken
Riley.”] Lanken -- Lanken [Laken] Riley,3 an innocent young woman
who was killed.
REPRESENTATIVE GREENE: By an illegal!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: By an illegal. That’s right. But how many of thousands of
people are being killed by legals?
[Cross-talk.]
To her parents, I say: My heart goes out to you. Having lost children myself, I
understand.
But, look, if we change the dynamic at the border -- people pay people -- people
pay these smugglers 8,000 bucks to get across the border because they know if
they get by -- if they get by and let into the country, it’s six to eight years
before they have a hearing. And it’s worth the -- taking the chance of the
$8,000.
[Cross-talk.]
But -- but if it’s only six mon- -- six weeks, the idea is it’s highly unlikely
that people will pay that money and come all that way knowing that they’ll be --
able to be kicked out quickly.
Folks, I would respectfully su- -- suggest to my friend in -- my Republican
friends owe it to the American people. Get this bill done. We need to act
now.
AUDIENCE: Get it done! Get it done! Get it done!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: And if my predecessor is watching: Instead of paying
[playing] politics and pressuring members of Congress to block the bill, join me
in telling the Congress to pass it.
We can do it together.
But that’s what he apparently -- here’s what he will not do.
I will not demonize immigrants, saying they are “poison in the blood of our
country.”
I will not separate families.
I will not ban people because of their faith.
Unlike my predecessor, on my first day in office, I introduced a comprehensive
bill to fix our immigration system. Take a look at it. It has all these and
more: secure the border, provide a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers, and so
much more.
But unlike my predecessor, I know who we are as Americans. We’re the only
nation in the world with a heart and soul that draws from old and new.
Home to Native Americans whose ancestors have been here for thousands of years.
Home to people of every pla- -- from every place on Earth.
They came freely. Some came in chains. Some came when famine struck, like my
ancestral family in Ireland. Some to flee persecution, to chase dreams that are
impossible anywhere but here in America.
That’s America. And we all come from somewhere, but we’re all Americans.
Look, folks, we have a simple choice: We can fight about fixing the border or we
can fix it. I’m ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now.
AUDIENCE: Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: A transformational his- -- moment in history happened 58 -- 59
years ago today in Selma, Alabama. Hundreds of foot soldiers for justice
marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after the Grand Dragon of the Ku
Klux Klan, to claim their fundamental right to vote.
They were beaten. They were bloodied and left for dead. Our late friend and
former colleague John Lewis was on that march. We miss him.
But joining us tonight are other marchers, both in the gallery and on the floor,
including Bettie Mae Fikes, known as the “Voice of Selma.”
The daughter of gospel singers and preachers, she sang songs of prayer and
protest on that Bloody Sunday to help shake the nation’s conscience.
Five months later, the Voting Rights Act passed and was signed into law.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
But 59 years later, there are forces taking us back in time: voter suppression,
election subversion, unlimited dark money, extreme gerrymandering.
John Lewis was a great friend to many of us here. But if you truly want to
honor him and all the heroes who marched with him, then it’s time to do more
than talk.
Pass the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis Voting Right[s] Act.
And stop -- stop denying another core value of America: our diversity across
American life. Banning books is wrong. Instead of erasing history, let’s make
history.
I want to protect fundamental rights.
Pass the Equality Act.
And my message to transgender Americans: I have your back.
Pass the PRO Act for workers’ rights.
Raise the federal minimum wage, because every worker has the right to a decent
living more than eig- -- seven bucks an hour.
We’re also making history by confronting the climate crisis, not denying it. I
don’t think any of you think there’s no longer a climate crisis. At least, I
hope you don’t.
I’m taking the most significant action ever on climate in the history of the
world.
I’m cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030; creating tens of thousands of
clean energy jobs, like the IBEW workers building and installing 500,000
electric vehicle charging stations; conserving 30 percent of
America’s lands and waters by 2030; and taking action on environmental justice
-- fence-line communities smothered by the legacy of pollution.
And patterned after the Peace Corps and AmericaCorps [AmeriCorps], I
launched the Climate Corps to put 20,000 young people to work
in the forefront of our clean energy future. I’ll triple that number in a
decade.
To state the obvious, all Americans deserve the freedom to be safe. And America
is safer today than when I took office.
The year before I took office, murder rates went up 30 percent.
MR. NIKOUI: Remember Abbey Gate!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Thirty percent, they went up --
MR. NIKOUI: United States Marines! Kareem Mae’Lee Nikoui!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: -- the biggest increase in history.
MR. NIKOUI: [Inaudible.]
PRESIDENT BIDEN: It was then, through no -- through my American Rescue Plan --
which every American [Republican] voted against, I might add -- we made
the largest investment in public safety ever.
Last year, the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history. Violent crime
fell to one of its lowest levels in more than 50 years.
But we have more to do. We have to help cities invest in more community police
officers, more mental health workers, more community violence intervention.
Give communities the tools to crack down on gun crime, retail crime, and
carjacking. Keep building trust, as I’ve been doing, by taking executive action
on police reform and calling for it to be the law of the land.
Directing my Cabinet to review the federal classification of marijuana and
expunging thousands of convictions for the mere possession, because no one
should be jailed for simply using or have it on their record.
Take on crimes of domestic violence. I’m ramping up the federal enforcement of
the Violence Against Women Act that I proudly wrote when I was a senator so we
can finally -- finally end the scourge against women in America.
There are other kinds of violence I want to stop.
With us tonight is Jasmine, whose nine-year-old sister Jackie was murdered with
21 classmates and teachers in her elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Very soon after that happened, Jill and I went to Uvalde for a couple days. We
spent hours and hours with each of the families. We heard their message so
everyone in this room, in this chamber could hear the same message.
The constant refrain -- and I was there for hours, meeting with every family.
They said, “Do something.” “Do something.”
Well, I did do something by establishing the first-ever Office of Gun Violence
Prevention in the White House, that the Vice President is leading the charge.
Thank you for doing it.
Meanwhile -- Meanwhile, my predecessor told the NRA he’s proud he
did nothing on guns when he was President.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
PRESIDENT BIDEN: After another shooting in Iowa recently, he said -- when asked
what to do about it, he said, just “get over it.” That was his quote. Just
“get over it.”
I say stop it. Stop it, stop it, stop it.
I’m proud we beat the NRA when I signed the most significant gun safety law in
nearly 30 years because of this Congress. We now must beat the NRA again.
I’m demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Pass
universal background checks.
None of this -- none of this -- I taught the Second Amendment for 12 years.
None of this violates the Second Amendment or vilifies responsible gun owners.
[Cross-talk.]
You know, as we manage challenges at home, we’re also managing crises abroad,
including in the Middle East.
I know the last five months have been gut-wrenching for so many people -- for
the Israeli people, for the Palestinian people, and so many here in America.
This crisis began on October 7th with a massacre by a terrorist group called
Hamas, as you all know. One thousand two hundred innocent people -- women and
girls, men and boys -- slaughtered after enduring sexual violence. The
deadliest day of the -- for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. And 250
hostages taken.
Here in this chamber tonight are families whose loved ones are still being held
by Hamas. I pledge to all the families that we will not rest until we bring
every one of your loved ones home.
We also -- We will also work around the clock to bring home Evan
and Paul -- Americans being unjustly detained by the Russians -- and others
around the world.
Israel has a right to go after Hamas. Hamas ended this conflict by releasing
the hostages, laying down arms -- could end it by -- by releasing the hostages,
laying down arms, and s- -- surrendering those responsible for October 7th.
But Israel has a h- -- excuse me. Israel has a added burden because Hamas hides
and operates among the civilian population like cowards -- under hospitals,
daycare centers, and all the like.
Israel also has a fundamental responsibility, though, to protect innocent
civilians in Gaza.
This war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all previous wars
in Gaza combined. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Says who?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: -- most of whom are not Hamas. Thousands and thousands of
innocents -- women and children. Girls and boys also orphaned.
Nearly 2 million more Palestinians under bombardment or displacement. Homes
destroyed, neighborhoods in rubble, cities in ruin. Families without food,
water, medicine.
It’s heartbreaking.
I’ve been working non-stop to establish an immediate ceasefire that would last
for six weeks to get all the prisoners released -- all the hostages released and
to get the hostages home and to ease the intolerable an- -- humanitarian crisis
and build toward an enduring -- a more -- something more enduring.
The United States has been leading international efforts to get more
humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to
lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on
the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water,
medicine, and temporary shelters.
No U.S. boots will be on the ground.
A temporary pier will enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian
assistance getting into Gaza every day.
And Israel must also do its part. Israel must allow more aid into Gaza and
ensure humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the crossfire.
And they’re announcing they’re going to -- they’re going to ca- -- have a
crossing in Northern Gaza.
To the leadership of Israel, I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a
secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent
lives has to be a priority.
As we look to the future, the only real solution to the situation is a two-state
solution over time.
And I say this as a lifelong supporter of Israel, my entire career. No one has
a stronger record with Israel than I do. I challenge any of you here. I’m the
only American President to visit Israel in wartime.
But there is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and democracy.
There is no other path that guarantees Pa- -- that Palestinians can live in
peace with po- -- with peace and dignity.
And there is no other path that guarantees peace between Israel and all of its
neighbors -- including Saudi Arabia, with whom I’m talking.
Creating stability in the Middle East also means containing the threat posed by
Iran. That’s why I built a coalition of more than a dozen countries to defend
international shipping and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
I’ve ordered strikes to degrade the Houthi capability and defend U.S. forces in
the region.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect
our people and our military personnel.
For years, I’ve heard many of my Republican and Democratic friends say that
China is on the rise and America is falling behind. They’ve got it backwards.
I’ve been saying it for over four years, even when I wasn’t President.
America is rising. We have the best economy in the world. And since I’ve come
to office, our GTB [GDP] is up, our trade deficit with China is down to
the lowest point in over a decade.
And we’re standing up against China’s unfair economic practices.
We’re standing up for peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits.
I’ve revitalized our partnership and alliance in the Pacific: India, Australia,
Japan, South Korea, the Pacific Islands. I’ve made sure that the most advanced
American technologies can’t be used in China -- not allowing to trade them
there.
Frankly, for all his tough talk on China, it never occurred to my predecessor to
do any of that.
I want competition with China, not conflict. And we’re in a stronger position
to win the conflict [competition] of the 21st century against China than
anyone else for that matter -- than at any time as well.
Here at home, I’ve signed over 400 bipartisan bills. But there’s more to pass
my Unity Agenda.
Strengthen penalties on fentanyl trafficking. You don’t want to do that, huh?
Pass bipartisan privacy legislation to protect our children online.
Harness -- harness the promise of AI to protect us from peril. Ban AI voice
impersonations and more.
And keep our truly sacred obligation to train and equip those we send into
harm’s way and care for them and their families when they come home and when
they don’t.
That’s why, with the strong support and help of Denis and the VA, I signed the
PACT Act -- one of the most significant laws ever, helping
millions of veterans exposed to toxins who now are battling more than 100
different cancers. Many of them don’t come home, but we owe them and their
families support.
And we owe it to ourselves to keep supporting our new health research agency
called ARPA-H and remind us -- to remind us that we can do big
things, like end cancer as we know it. And we will.
Let me close with this. (Yay!)
I know you don’t want to hear anymore, Lindsey, but I got to say a few more
things.
I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while. When you get to be my age, certain things become clearer than ever.
I know the American story. Again and again, I’ve seen the contest between
competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation, between those who
want to pull America back to the past and those who want to move America into
the future.
My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy, a future based on
core values that have defined America -- honesty, decency, dignity, and
equality; to respect everyone; to give everyone a fair shot; to give hate no
safe harbor.
Now, other people my age see it differently. The American story of resentment,
revenge, and retribution.
That’s not me. I was born amid World War Two, when America stood for the
freedom of the world. I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont,
Delaware, among working-class people who built this country.
I watched in horror as two of my heroes -- like many of you did -- Dr. King and
Bobby Kennedy, were assassinated. And their legacies inspired me to pur- --
pursue a car- -- a career in service.
I left a law firm and became a public defender because my city of Wilmington was
the only city in America occupied by the National Guard after Dr. King was
assassinated because of the riots. And I became a county councilman almost by
accident.
I got elected to the United States Senate when I had no intention of running, at
age 29.
Then vice President to our first Black President. Now a President to the first
woman vice President.
In my career, I’ve been told I was too young. By the way, they didn’t let me
on the Senate elevators for votes sometimes. They -- not a joke.
And I’ve been told I am too old.
Whether young or old, I’ve always been known -- I’ve always known what endures.
I’ve known our North Star. The very idea of America is that we’re all created
equal, deserves to be treated equally throughout our lives.
We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it
either. And I won’t walk away from it now.
I’m optimistic. I really am. I’m optimistic, Nancy.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
PRESIDENT BIDEN: My fellow Americans, the
issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are; it’s how old are our ideas.
Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are the oldest of ideas. But you can’t
lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead America,
the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future and what can and
should be done.
Tonight, you’ve heard mine.
I see a future where [we’re] defending democracy, you don’t diminish it.
I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect our freedoms,
not take them away.
I see a future where the middle class has -- finally has a fair shot and the
wealthy have to pay their fair share in taxes.
I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country
from gun violence.
Above all, I see a future for all Americans. I see a country for all
Americans. And I will always be President for all Americans because I believe
in America. I believe in you, the American people. You’re the reason we’ve
never been more optimistic about our future than I am now.
So, let’s build the future together. Let’s remember who we are.
We are the United States of America. And there is nothing -- nothing beyond
our capacity when we act together.
God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you, thank you, thank
you.
[As prepared for delivery]
Good evening.
Mr. Speaker. Madam Vice President. Members of Congress. My Fellow Americans.
In January 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt came to this chamber to speak to
the nation.
He said, “I address you at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union.”
Hitler was on the march. War was raging in Europe.
President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up the Congress and alert the American
people that this was no ordinary moment.
Freedom and democracy were under assault in the world.
Tonight I come to the same chamber to address the nation.
Now it is we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union.
And yes, my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress, and alert the
American people that this is no ordinary moment either.
Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been
under assault here at home as they are today.
What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both
at home and overseas, at the very same time.
Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos
throughout Europe and beyond.
If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will
not.
But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it
needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking. They are not asking for
American soldiers.
In fact, there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine. And I am determined
to keep it that way.
But now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk
away from our leadership in the world.
Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to NATO, the strongest military alliance the world
has ever known.
I say this to Congress: we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan
National Security Bill.
History is watching.
If the United States walks away now, it will put Ukraine at risk,
Europe at risk, the free world at risk, emboldening others who wish to do us
harm.
My message to President Putin is simple:
We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down.
History is watching, just like history watched three years ago on
January 6th.
Insurrectionists stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger at the throat of
American democracy.
Many of you were here on that darkest of days.
We all saw with our own eyes these insurrectionists were not patriots.
They had come to stop the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the will of
the people.
January 6th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the
election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War.
But they failed. America stood strong and democracy prevailed.
But we must be honest the threat remains and democracy must be defended.
My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6th.
I will not do that.
This is a moment to speak the truth and bury the lies.
And here’s the simplest truth. You can’t love your country only when you win.
As I’ve done ever since being elected to office, I ask you all, without regard
to party, to join together and defend our democracy!
Remember your oath of office to defend against all threats foreign and domestic.
Respect free and fair elections! Restore trust in our institutions! And make
clear -- political violence
has absolutely no place in America!
History is watching.
And history is watching another assault on freedom.
Joining us tonight is Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama.
14 months ago tonight, she and her husband welcomed a baby girl thanks to the
miracle of
IVF [In Vitro Fertilization].
She scheduled treatments to have a second child, but the Alabama Supreme Court
shut down IVF treatments across the state, unleashed by the Supreme Court
decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
She was told her dream would have to wait.
What her family has gone through should never have happened. And unless Congress
acts, it could happen again.
So tonight, let’s stand up for families like hers!
To my friends across the aisle, don’t keep families waiting any longer.
Guarantee the right to IVF nationwide!
Like most Americans, I believe Roe v. Wade got it right. And I thank Vice
President Harris for being an incredible leader, defending reproductive freedom
and so much more.
But my predecessor came to office determined
to see Roe v. Wade overturned.
He’s the reason it was overturned. In fact, he brags about it.
Look at the chaos that has resulted.
Joining us tonight is Kate Cox, a wife and mother
from Dallas.
When she became pregnant again, the fetus had a fatal condition.
Her doctors told Kate that her own life and her ability to have children in the
future were at risk if she didn’t act.
Because Texas law banned abortion, Kate and her husband had to leave the state
to get the care she needed.
What her family has gone through should never have happened as well. But it is
happening to so many others.
There are state laws banning the right to choose, criminalizing doctors, and
forcing survivors of rape and incest to leave their states as well to get the
care they need.
Many of you in this Chamber and my predecessor are promising to pass a national
ban on reproductive freedom.
My God, what freedoms will you take away next?
In its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court majority wrote, “Women
are not without –
electoral or political power.”
No kidding.
Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the
power of women in America.
They found out though when reproductive freedom
was on the ballot and won in 2022, 2023, and they will find out again, in 2024.
If Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise
you, I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again!
America cannot go back. I am here tonight to show the way forward. Because I
know how far we’ve come.
Four years ago next week, before I came to office, our country was hit by the
worst pandemic and the worst economic crisis in a century.
Remember the fear. Record job losses. Remember the spike in crime. And the
murder rate.
A raging virus that would take more than 1 million American lives and leave
millions of loved ones behind.
A mental health crisis of isolation and loneliness.
A President, my predecessor, who failed the most basic duty. Any President owes
the American people the duty to care.
That is unforgivable.
I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our
nation’s history.
And we have. It doesn’t make the news but in thousands of cities and towns the
American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told.
So let’s tell that story here and now.
America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an
economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, investing in
all of America, in all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot and we
leave no one behind!
The pandemic no longer controls our lives. The vaccines that saved us from COVID
are now being used to help beat cancer.
Turning setback into comeback.
That’s America!
I inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now our economy is the envy of the
world!
15 million new jobs in just three years – that’s a record!
Unemployment at 50-year lows.
A record 16 million Americans are starting small businesses and each one is an
act of hope.
With historic job growth and small business growth for Black, Hispanic, and
Asian-Americans.
800,000 new manufacturing jobs in America and counting.
More people have health insurance today than ever before.
The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.
Wages keep going up and inflation keeps coming down!
Inflation has dropped from 9% to 3% – the lowest in the world!
And trending lower.
And now instead of importing foreign products and exporting American jobs, we’re
exporting American products and creating American jobs – right here in America
where they belong!
And the American people are beginning to feel it.
Consumer studies show consumer confidence is soaring.
Buy American has been the law of the land since the 1930s.
Past Administrations including my predecessor failed to Buy American.
Not any more.
On my watch, federal projects like helping to build American roads bridges and
highways will be made with American products built by American workers creating
good-paying American jobs!
Thanks to my Chips and Science Act the United States is investing more in
research and development than ever before.
During the pandemic a shortage of semiconductor chips drove up prices for
everything from cell phones to automobiles.
Well instead of having to import semiconductor chips, which America invented I
might add, private companies are now investing billions of dollars to build new
chip factories here in America!
Creating tens of thousands of jobs many of them paying over $100,000 a year and
don’t require a college degree.
In fact my policies have attracted $650 Billion of private sector investments in
clean energy and advanced manufacturing creating tens of thousands of jobs here
in America!
Thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been
announced across your communities – modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and
airports, and public transit systems.
Removing poisonous lead pipes so every child can drink clean water without risk
of getting brain damage.
Providing affordable high speed internet for every American no matter where you
live.
Urban, suburban, and rural communities -- in red states and blue.
Record investments in tribal communities.
Because of my investments, family farms are better be able to stay in the family
and children and grandchildren won’t have to leave home to make a living.
It’s transformative.
A great comeback story is Belvidere, Illinois. Home to an auto plant for nearly
60 years.
Before I came to office the plant was on its way to shutting down.
Thousands of workers feared for their livelihoods. Hope was fading.
Then I was elected to office and we raised Belvidere repeatedly with the auto
company knowing unions make all the difference.
The UAW worked like hell to keep the plant open and get those jobs back. And
together, we succeeded!
Instead of an auto factory shutting down an auto factory is re-opening and a new
state-of-the art battery factory is being built to power those cars.
Instead of a town being left behind it’s a community moving forward again!
Because instead of watching auto jobs of the future go overseas 4,000 union
workers with higher wages will be building that future, in Belvidere, here in
America!
Here tonight is UAW President, Shawn Fain, a great friend, and a great labor
leader.
And Dawn Simms, a third generation UAW worker in Belvidere.
Shawn, I was proud to be the first President in American history to walk a
picket line.
And today Dawn has a job in her hometown providing stability for her family and
pride and dignity.
Showing once again, Wall Street didn’t build this country!
The middle class built this country! And unions built the middle class!
When Americans get knocked down, we get back up!
We keep going!
That’s America! That’s you, the American people!
It’s because of you America is coming back!
It’s because of you, our future is brighter!
And it’s because of you that tonight we can proudly say the State of our Union
is strong and getting stronger!
Tonight I want to talk about the future of possibilities that we can build
together.
A future where the days of trickle-down economics are over and the wealthy and
biggest corporations no longer get all the breaks.
I grew up in a home where not a lot trickled down on my Dad’s kitchen table.
That’s why I’m determined to turn things around so the middle class does well
the poor have a way up and the wealthy still does well.
We all do well.
And there’s more to do to make sure you’re feeling the benefits of all we’re
doing.
Americans pay more for prescription drugs than anywhere else.
It’s wrong and I’m ending it.
With a law I proposed and signed and not one Republican voted for we finally
beat Big Pharma!
Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin seniors with diabetes only have to
pay $35 a month!
And now I want to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American who
needs it!
For years people have talked about it but I finally got it done and gave
Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs just like
the VA does for our veterans.
That’s not just saving seniors money.
It’s saving taxpayers money cutting the federal deficit by $160 Billion because
Medicare will no longer have to pay exorbitant prices to Big Pharma.
This year Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the costliest drugs
on the market that treat everything from heart disease to arthritis.
Now it’s time to go further and give Medicare the power to negotiate lower
prices for 500 drugs over the next decade.
That will not only save lives it will save taxpayers another $200 Billion!
Starting next year that same law caps total prescription drug costs for seniors
on Medicare at $2,000 a year even for expensive cancer drugs that can cost
$10,000, $12,000, $15,000 a year.
Now I want to cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for everyone!
Folks Obamacare, known as the Affordable Care Act is still a very big deal.
Over one hundred million of you can no longer be denied health insurance because
of pre-existing conditions.
But my predecessor and many in this chamber want to take that protection away by
repealing the Affordable Care Act I won’t let that happen!
We stopped you 50 times before and we will stop you again!
In fact I am protecting it and expanding it.
I enacted tax credits that save $800 per person per year reducing health care
premiums for millions of working families.
Those tax credits expire next year.
I want to make those savings permanent!
Women are more than half of our population but research on women’s health has
always been underfunded.
That’s why we’re launching the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s
Health Research, led by Jill who is doing an incredible job as First Lady.
Pass my plan for $12 Billion to transform women’s health research and benefit
millions of lives across America!
I know the cost of housing is so important to you.
If inflation keeps coming down mortgage rates will come down as well.
But I’m not waiting.
I want to provide an annual tax creditthat will give Americans $400 a month for
the next two years as mortgage rates come down to put toward their mortgage when
they buy a first home or trade up for a little more space.
My Administration is also eliminating title insurance fees for federally backed
mortgages.
When you refinance your home this can save you $1,000 or more.
For millions of renters, we’re cracking down on big landlords who break
antitrust laws by price-fixing and driving up rents.
I’ve cut red tape so more builders can get federal financing, which is already
helping build a record 1.7 million housing units nationwide.
Now pass my plan to build and renovate 2 million affordable homes and bring
those rents down!
To remain the strongest economy in the world we need the best education system
in the world.
I want to give every child a good start by providing access to pre-school for 3-
and 4-year-olds.
Studies show that children who go to pre-school are nearly 50% more likely to
finish high school and go on to earn a 2- or 4-year degree no matter their
background.
I want to expand high-quality tutoring and summer learning time and see to it
that every child learns to read by third grade.
I’m also connecting businesses and high schools so students get hands-on
experience and a path to a good-paying job whether or not they go to college.
And I want to make college more affordable.
Let’s continue increasing Pell Grants for working- and middle-class families and
increase our record investments in HBCUs and Hispanic and Minority-serving
Institutions
I fixed student loan programs to reduce the burden of student debt for nearly 4
Million Americans including nurses firefighters and others in public service
like Keenan Jones a public-school educator in Minnesota who’s here with us
tonight.
He’s educated hundreds of students so they can go to college now he can help his
own daughter pay for college.
Such relief is good for the economy because folks are now able to buy a home
start a business even start a family.
While we’re at it I want to give public school teachers a raise!
Now let me speak to a question of fundamental fairness for all Americans.
I’ve been delivering real results in a fiscally responsible way.
I’ve already cut the federal deficit by over one trillion dollars.
I signed a bipartisan budget deal that will cut another trillion dollars over
the next decade.
And now it’s my goal to cut the federal deficit $3 trillion more by making big
corporations and the very wealthy finally pay their fair share.
Look, I’m a capitalist.
If you want to make a million bucks – great!
Just pay your fair share in taxes.
A fair tax code is how we invest in the things –
that make a country great, health care, education, defense, and more.
But here’s the deal.
The last Administration enacted a $2 Trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly
benefits the very wealthy and the biggest corporations and exploded the federal
deficit.
They added more to the national debt than in any Presidential term in American
history.
For folks at home does anybody really think the tax code is fair?
Do you really think the wealthy and big corporations need another $2 trillion in
tax breaks?
I sure don’t. I’m going to keep fighting like hell to make it fair!
Under my plan nobody earning less than $400,000 will pay an additional penny in
federal taxes.
Nobody. Not one penny.
In fact the Child Tax Credit I passed during the pandemic cut taxes for millions
of working families and cut child poverty in HALF.
Restore the Child Tax Credit because no child should go hungry in this country!
The way to make the tax code fair is to make big corporations and the very
wealthy finally pay their share.
In 2020 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 Billion in profits and
paid zero in federal income taxes.
Not any more!
Thanks to the law I wrote and signed big companies now have to pay a minimum of
15%.
But that’s still less than working people pay in federal taxes.
It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21% so every big
corporation finally begins to pay their fair share.
I also want to end the tax breaks for Big Pharma, Big Oil, private jets, and
massive executive pay!
End it now!
There are 1,000 billionaires in America.
You know what the average federal tax rate for these billionaires is? 8.2
percent!
That’s far less than the vast majority of Americans pay.
No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a sanitation worker,
a nurse!
That’s why I’ve proposed a minimum tax of 25% for billionaires. Just 25%.
That would raise $500 Billion over the next 10 years.
Imagine what that could do for America. Imagine a future with affordable child
care so millions of families can get the care they need and still go to work and
help grow the economy.
Imagine a future with paid leave because no one should have to choose between
working and taking care of yourself or a sick family member.
Imagine a future with home care and elder care so seniors and people living with
disabilities can stay in their homes and family caregivers get paid what they
deserve!
Tonight, let’s all agree once again to stand up for seniors!
Many of my Republican friends want to put Social Security on the chopping block.
If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement
age I will stop them!
Working people who built this country pay more into Social Security than
millionaires and billionaires do. It’s not fair.
We have two ways to go on Social Security.
Republicans will cut Social Security and give more tax cuts to the wealthy.
I will protect and strengthen Social Security and make the wealthy pay their
fair share!
Too many corporations raise their prices to pad their profits charging you more
and more for less and less.
That’s why we’re cracking down on corporations that engage in price gouging or
deceptive pricing from food to health care to housing.
In fact, snack companies think you won’t notice when they charge you just as
much for the same size bag
but with fewer chips in it.
Pass Senator Bob Casey’s bill to put a stop to shrinkflation!
I’m also getting rid of junk fees those hidden fees added at the end of your
bills without your knowledge. My Administration just announced we’re cutting
credit card late fees from $32 to just $8.
The banks and credit card companies don’t like it.
Why?
I’m saving American families $20 billion a year with all of the junk fees I’m
eliminating.
And I’m not stopping there.
My Administration has proposed rules to make cable travel utilities and online
ticket sellers tell you the total price upfront so there are no surprises.
It matters.
And so does this.
In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of
Senators.
The result was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security
reforms we’ve ever seen
in this country.
That bipartisan deal would hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers.
100 more immigration judges to help tackle a backload of 2 million cases.
4,300 more asylum officers and new policies so they can resolve cases in 6
months instead of 6 years.
100 more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability
to screen and stop vehicles from smuggling fentanyl into America.
This bill would save lives and bring order to the border.
It would also give me as President new emergency authority to temporarily shut
down the border when the number of migrants at the border is overwhelming.
The Border Patrol Union endorsed the bill.
The Chamber of Commerce endorsed the bill.
I believe that given the opportunity a majority of the House and Senate would
endorse it as well.
But unfortunately, politics have derailed it so far.
I’m told my predecessor called Republicans in Congress and demanded they block
the bill. He feels it would be a political win for me and a political loser for
him.
It’s not about him or me.
It’d be a winner for America!
My Republican friends you owe it to the American people to get this bill done.
We need to act.
And if my predecessor is watching instead of playing politics and pressuring
members of Congress to block this bill, join me in telling Congress to pass it!
We can do it together. But here’s what I will not do.
I will not demonize immigrants saying they “poison the blood of our country” as
he said in his own words.
I will not separate families.
I will not ban people from America because of their faith.
Unlike my predecessor, on my first day in office I introduced a comprehensive
plan to fix our immigration system, secure the border, and provide a pathway to
citizenship for Dreamers and so much more.
Because unlike my predecessor, I know who we are
as Americans.
We are the only nation in the world with a heart and soul that draws from old
and new.
Home to Native Americans whose ancestors have been here for thousands of years.
Home to people from every place on Earth.
Some came freely.
Some chained by force.
Some when famine struck, like my ancestral family in Ireland.
Some to flee persecution.
Some to chase dreams that are impossible anywhere but here in America.
That’s America, where we all come from somewhere, but we are all Americans.
We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it.
Send me the border bill now!
A transformational moment in our history happened 59 years ago today in Selma,
Alabama.
Hundreds of foot soldiers for justice marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge,
named after a Grand Dragon of the KKK, to claim their fundamental right to vote.
They were beaten bloodied and left for dead.
Our late friend and former colleague John Lewis was at the march.
We miss him.
Joining us tonight are other marchers who were there including Betty May Fikes,
known as the “Voice of Selma."
A daughter of gospel singers and preachers, she sang songs of prayer and protest
on that Bloody Sunday,
to help shake the nation’s conscience. Five months later, the Voting Rights Act
was signed into law.
But 59 years later, there are forces taking us back in time.
Voter suppression. Election subversion. Unlimited dark money. Extreme
gerrymandering.
John Lewis was a great friend to many of us here. But if you truly want to honor
him and all the heroes who marched with him, then it’s time for more than just
talk.
Pass and send me the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act!
And stop denying another core value of America our diversity across American
life.
Banning books.
It’s wrong!
Instead of erasing history, let’s make history!
I want to protect other fundamental rights!
Pass the Equality Act, and my message to transgender Americans: I have your
back!
Pass the PRO Act for workers rights! And raise the federal minimum wage because
every worker has the right to earn a decent living!
We are also making history by confronting the climate crisis, not denying it.
I’m taking the most significant action on climate ever in the history of the
world.
I am cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030.
Creating tens of thousands of clean-energy jobs, like the IBEW workers building
and installing 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.
Conserving 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030.
Taking historic action on environmental justice for fence-line communities
smothered by the legacy of pollution.
And patterned after the Peace Corps and Ameri Corps, I’ve launched a Climate
Corps to put 20,000 young people to work at the forefront of our clean energy
future.
I’ll triple that number this decade.
All Americans deserve the freedom to be safe, and America is safer today than
when I took office.
The year before I took office, murders went up 30% nationwide the biggest
increase in history.
That was then.
Now, through my American Rescue Plan, which every Republican voted against, I’ve
made the largest investment in public safety ever.
Last year, the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history, and violent
crime fell to one of the lowest levels in more than 50 years.
But we have more to do.
Help cities and towns invest in more community police officers, more mental
health workers, and more community violence intervention.
Give communities the tools to crack down on gun crime, retail crime, and
carjacking.
Keep building public trust, as I’ve been doing by taking executive action on
police reform, and calling for it to be the law of the land, directing my
Cabinet to review the federal classification of marijuana, and expunging
thousands of convictions for mere possession, because no one should be jailed
for using or possessing marijuana!
To take on crimes of domestic violence, I am ramping up federal enforcement of
the Violence Against Women Act, that I proudly wrote, so we can finally end the
scourge of violence against women in America!
And there’s another kind of violence I want to stop.
With us tonight is Jasmine, whose 9-year-old sister Jackie was murdered with 21
classmates and teachers at her elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Soon after it happened, Jill and I went to Uvalde and spent hours with the
families.
We heard their message, and so should everyone in this chamber do something.
I did do something by establishing the first-ever Office of Gun Violence
Prevention in the White House that Vice President Harris is leading.
Meanwhile, my predecessor told the NRA he’s proud he did nothing on guns when he
was President.
After another school shooting in Iowa he said we should just “get over it.”
I say we must stop it.
I’m proud we beat the NRA when I signed the most significant gun safety law in
nearly 30 years!
Now we must beat the NRA again!
I’m demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines!
Pass universal background checks!
None of this violates the Second Amendment or vilifies responsible gun owners.
As we manage challenges at home, we’re also managing crises abroad including in
the Middle East.
I know the last five months have been gut-wrenching for so many people, for the
Israeli people, the Palestinian people, and so many here in America.
This crisis began on October 7th with a massacre by the terrorist group Hamas.
1,200 innocent people women and girls men and boys slaughtered, many enduring
sexual violence.
The deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
250 hostages taken.
Here in the chamber tonight are American families whose loved ones are still
being held by Hamas.
I pledge to all the families that we will not rest until we bring their loved
ones home.
We will also work around the clock to bring home Evan and Paul, Americans being
unjustly detained all around the world.
Israel has a right to go after Hamas.
Hamas could end this conflict today by releasing the hostages, laying down arms,
and surrendering those responsible for October 7th.
Israel has an added burden because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian
population. But Israel also has a fundamental responsibility to protect innocent
civilians in Gaza.
This war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all previous wars
in Gaza combined.
More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Most of whom are not Hamas.
Thousands and thousands are innocent women and children.
Girls and boys also orphaned.
Nearly 2 million more Palestinians under bombardment or displaced.
Homes destroyed, neighborhoods in rubble, cities in ruin.
Families without food, water, medicine.
It’s heartbreaking.
We’ve been working non-stop to establish an immediate ceasefire that would last
for at least six weeks.
It would get the hostages home, ease the intolerable humanitarian crisis, and
build toward something more enduring.
The United States has been leading international efforts to get more
humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to
establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can
receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters.
No U.S. boots will be on the ground.
This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of
humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day.
But Israel must also do its part.
Israel must allow more aid into Gaza and ensure that humanitarian workers aren’t
caught in the cross fire.
To the leadership of Israel I say this.
Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining
chip.
Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.
As we look to the future, the only real solution is a two-state solution.
I say this as a lifelong supporter of Israel and the only American President to
visit Israel in wartime.
There is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and democracy.
There is no other path that guarantees Palestinians can live with peace and
dignity.
There is no other path that guarantees peace between Israel and all of its Arab
neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.
Creating stability in the Middle East also means containing the threat posed by
Iran.
That’s why I built a coalition of more than a dozen countries to defend
international shipping and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
I’ve ordered strikes to degrade Houthi capabilities and defend U.S. Forces in
the region.
As Commander in Chief, I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect
our people and military personnel.
For years, all I’ve heard from my Republican friends and so many others is
China’s on the rise and America is falling behind.
They’ve got it backward.
America is rising.
We have the best economy in the world.
Since I’ve come to office, our GDP is up.
And our trade deficit with China is down to the lowest point in over a decade.
We’re standing up against China’s unfair economic practices.
And standing up for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
I’ve revitalized our partnerships and alliances in the Pacific.
I’ve made sure that the most advanced American technologies can’t be used in
China’s weapons.
Frankly for all his tough talk on China, it never occurred to my predecessor to
do that.
We want competition with China, but not conflict.
And we’re in a stronger position to win the competition for the 21st Century
against China or anyone else for that matter.
Here at home I’ve signed over 400 bipartisan bills.
But there’s more to do to pass my Unity Agenda.
Strengthen penalties on fentanyl trafficking.
Pass bipartisan privacy legislation to protect our children online.
Harness the promise of A.I. and protect us from its peril.
Ban A.I. voice impersonation and more!
And keep our one truly sacred obligation, to train and equip those we send into
harm’s way and care for them and their families when they come home, and when
they don’t.
That’s why I signed the PACT Act, one of the most significant laws ever, helping
millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins and who now are battling more
than 100 cancers.
Many of them didn’t come home.
We owe them and their families.
And we owe it to ourselves to keep supporting our new health research agency
called ARPA-H and remind us that we can do big things like end cancer as we know
it!
Let me close with this.
I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while.
And when you get to my age certain things become clearer than ever before.
I know the American story.
Again and again I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for
the soul of our nation.
Between those who want to pull America back to the past and those who want to
move America into the future.
My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy.
A future based on the core values that have defined America.
Honesty. Decency. Dignity. Equality.
To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor.
Now some other people my age see a different story.
An American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution.
That’s not me.
I was born amid World War II when America stood for freedom in the world.
I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Claymont, Delaware among working people
who built this country.
I watched in horror as two of my heroes, Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy, were
assassinated and their legacies inspired me to pursue a career in service.
A public defender, county councilman, elected United States Senator at 29, then
Vice President, to our first Black President, now President, with our first
woman Vice President.
In my career I’ve been told I’m too young and I’m too old.
Whether young or old, I’ve always known what endures.
Our North Star.
The very idea of America, that we are all created equal and deserve to be
treated equally throughout our lives.
We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it
either.
And I won’t walk away from it now.
My fellow Americans the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are it’s how
old our ideas are?
Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas.
But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back.
To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of
what America can and should be.
Tonight you’ve heard mine.
I see a future where we defend democracy not diminish it.
I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms
not take them away.
I see a future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and the wealthy
finally have to pay their fair share in taxes.
I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country
from gun violence.
Above all, I see a future for all Americans!
I see a country for all Americans!
And I will always be a President for all Americans!
Because I believe in America!
I believe in you the American people.
You’re the reason I’ve never been more optimistic about our future!
So let’s build that future together!
Let’s remember who we are!
We are the United States of America.
There is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together!
May God bless you all.
May God protect our troops.
1
Off-mic comments after "bedtime reading" and
before the President's formal remarks transcribed by Michael E.
Eidenmuller.
2Extended Quotation from Roosevelt's "Four
Freedoms" Address: "Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, members of the 77th
Congress: I address you, the members of this new Congress, at a moment
unprecedented in the history of the union. I use the word
“unprecedented” because at no previous time has American security been
as seriously threatened from without as it is today." [Source: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrthefourfreedoms.htm]
3
Because the President's pronunciation was less
than clear at this juncture, opinions vary on the symbol(s) President
Biden used in referring to Laken Riley's first name. To this auditor,
the President seems to say "Lanken" first, followed by "Lincoln." The
White House transcriptionist apparently hears it differently.
Conservative news outlets and others are certain that the President said
"Lincoln" twice. Questionable pronunciation aside, the
referent, -- or meaning -- was clear
enough to those familiar with recent events..
Original Text Source: WhiteHouse.gov
Original Audio Source: DVIDShub.net
As Delivered Text Note: Some audience
nonverbals [e.g., "applause," "laughing"] and all
partially delivered words {e.g., "poi"] edited out, as they convey no
commonly understood meaning and tend to hamper continuity for the
reader.
Audio Note: Feed switching volume anomalies
prior to formal remarks present at source. AR-XE = American Rhetoric Extreme Enhancement
Page Updated: 3/21/24
U.S. Copyright Status:
Text = Public domain. Audio = Property of
AmericanRhetoric.com.
