Tuesday night, President Joe Biden gave his first State of the Union speech to a nation that had been beaten and battered by his policies. To raucous applause by his party members, the president made his way into the House chamber. This was a staged spectacle that added insult to injury.
Biden took the podium and began his speech. He lifted several applause lines that were from previous remarks. In doing so, he made no admission that any of the country’s woes happened on his watch due to his decision-making.
In my initial write-up, written about the time Biden began to headbutt people in the audience on his way out (no, I’m not kidding), I opined that the speech was incoherent, focusing on a dead agenda and offering no workable solutions whatsoever. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Sen. Joe Manchin was asked about the president’s messaging and gave a response that was solid gold.
Joe Manchin jokes that “they can’t help but laugh” about Biden trying revive some of his key elements in the Build Back better agenda.
“I don’t even know where this came from,” he says in a joke.
“Nothing’s been changed,” he stated.
He added, “That was a bit far.”
— Alex Bolton (@alexanderbolton) March 2, 2022
Not to toot my own horn, but occasionally, my analysis is worth something, and this is exactly what I meant when I said Biden spent way too much time on a bill that is already dead and won’t be resurrected. The reconciliation package Build Back Better isn’t going to be passed. Manchin has made that clear, and for the White House’s part, they aren’t even attempting to revive negotiations. As many of us predicted months ago, once the calendar flipped to an election year, Biden’s agenda would be officially dead. That’s exactly what has happened.
In an effort to divert attention from the actual problems facing Americans, the State of the Union’s focus on Build back Better was misguided. After all, if you don’t have answers for your failures, the only thing left to do is to point at a nebulous spending package as a solution to everyone’s ills, right? Only the most dedicated Democrat partisans think that government intervention is necessary to make matters better. The results from the past year have been seen by Americans and polls reflect how Americans view them.
Biden was able to reset his mind last night. I’m not saying it would have made a big difference in his and his party’s fortunes. He could have shifted away from the failed policies and embraced a clearer, more unifying message. He could also have spoken out in honor of those who were killed during Afghanistan withdrawal and pledged to expand domestic oil production against Russia. Instead, the president just repeated the same things he’s been saying since he announced his campaign. It was all the same old, familiar, and unremarkable.
Given all that, it’s no surprise that Manchin has only hardened in his opposition to the administration. Actually, he satIn a move that will anger many left-leaning people, Republicans sided with them last night. The guy just doesn’t care anymore, and you love to see it, even if he is still a Democrat at heart.
This post was last modified on March 2, 2022 8:34 am
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