Washington, (Samajweekly) US President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered his first speech to the US Congress and declared “America is on the move again”. Biden’s speech to Congress started as a victory lap and ended with a warning.
Biden, delivering his first address to a joint session of the US Congress, said: “America is rising anew. Choosing hope over fear”.
He also cited the Capitol riot as “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War”, the BBC reported.
“If we are to truly restore the soul of America, then we need to protect the sacred right to vote. Congress should pass H.R. 1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and send them to my desk right away,” Biden tweeted from US President’s official handle.
“Trickle-down economics has never worked. It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out,” he said in another tweet.
The Biden speech was held on the eve of the Democrat’s 100th day in office. In a historic first for the US, both people seated behind the President during the speech were women. When Vice President Kamala Harris was asked about the momentous event, what she thought about this breaking of a historic glass ceiling — she said: “Normal”.
Biden pitched two massive spending packages to overhaul the US social safety net.
He began by touting what has been by all accounts a very successful rollout of vaccinations in the US, paving the way for a return to some semblance of normalcy in the months ahead.
Biden boasted of hundreds of thousands of new jobs created in his first 100 days and a growing economy. He touted recently passed funding that will help cut child poverty in the US in half.
That was all a set-up, however, for the President’s pitch for more – more spending and more action from Congress.
The US President proposed a trillion-dollar package of universal pre-kindergarten, two years of free college education, family leave and childcare funding. He called for legislation on gun control, immigration, criminal justice reform and voting rights.
He concluded, however, by turning to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and the threat posed to democracy by the world’s autocratic nations. He said the biggest threat to homeland was from white supremacists.
Biden assured the nation that the US will prevail.
President Biden urged the joint session of Congress to pass a federal policing overhaul named after George Floyd, who was killed last year by a police officer in Minneapolis, fuelling the Black Lives Matter movement.
Twitterati appeared satisfied with Biden speech as it trended. A CNN poll showed 7 out of 10 who watched the speech felt optimistic about the future.
