Wait! What Did They Say?
My Top 5 Thoughts about the SOTU 2022 Address
By Pamela Hilliard Owens
On Tuesday, March 1, 2022, President Joe Biden gave his first constitutionally required (Article II, Section 3) State of the Union (SOTU) Address to Congress and to the nation. In 2021, Mr. Biden gave an address to the “Joint Session of Congress.”
The first address to Congress made by a president right after the inauguration is called “Address to the Joint Session of Congress,” not the SOTU because it is thought that since the president has not yet been in office for at least a year, comments cannot be made on the “State of the Union” based on the administration of the former president.
Presidents George Washington and John Adams gave their addresses in person, but in 1801, President Thomas Jefferson started the tradition of sending a written message to Congress.
In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson revived presenting the SOTU Address in person, and the address was broadcast on the radio in 1921. In 1947, President Harry Truman started calling the address the “State of the Union,” and that year was the first time it was televised.
The Speaker of the House, third in line for the presidency, issues a formal invitation to the president to present the address (or any address by the president.)
2022 was also the first time that the sitting vice-president and the current speaker of the house were both women. Vice-president Kamala Harris (2nd in line for the presidency) and Nancy Pelosi (3rd in line and the first and only woman to be Speaker), are both liberal Democrats from California, much to the chagrin of Republicans.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was nominated for the Supreme Court on February 25. Support for Ukraine was an important topic and took up a lot of time in the speech, and saluting retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer (who will be replaced by Judge Brown Jackson upon confirmation) and mentioning Judge Jackson were also important (albeit with much shorter mentions) topics during the speech.
The Top 5 Memories from the 2022 SOTU Address
President Biden had a lot of issues to fit into a 1-hour speech, so he said a lot, but also left out a lot. For the first time in a long time, almost no one wore masks, and a recent negative COVID test was supposedly required. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and a few others skipped the speech because they said they “didn’t have time to waste taking a COVID test.”
Here are my top five thoughts as I watched the speech:
The president called for “unity.” Of course, he called for unity in support for Ukraine and against Russian president Vladimir Putin. He also mentioned that it was his work and the work of Secretary of State Antony Blinken who brought the NATO countries and others together to fight against Putin in various ways to defend “democratic values.” The goals of Biden’s predecessor and of Putin included destroying NATO altogether and attempting to destroy democratic governments.
President Biden also called for unity in the United States, reminding people (especially Republicans) that we are all Americans and we should be working together to defend democratic values here at home. Mr. Biden did not mention the January 6th insurrection at all.
President Biden attempted to bring most issues to the center, especially when he called for “funding the police” instead of “defunding,” although his definition is not funding with just money, but with better policies and procedures. Other important progressive and liberal issues such as voting rights, LGBTQA+ rights, and abortion rights received only passing mentions, and climate change wasn’t mentioned at all. Nor did the president mention the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Although many progressives and Democrats had hoped that Biden would really hit back against all of the Republican attacks, fawning over Putin (until February 24 when they all of a sudden changed their tune), the January 6 insurrection, racism, and anti-Semitism, and name-calling (especially framing every non-Republican issue as “radical socialism”), the only times he really attacked Republicans were on their 2017 $2 trillion tax cut vs the 2021 American Rescue Plan. He never mentioned his predecessor’s name, but again teased about the many failed “infrastructure weeks.”
He also touted some of his other accomplishments, including the fact that he created a record 6.4 million jobs and reduced the deficit by about 1/2 in his first year, as well as the infrastructure bill.
On COVID, he did mention that although we were all doubly gobsmacked with the Delta and Omicron variants, those who are vaccinated and boosted have much better chances of avoiding serious illness and hospitalization even if another variant appears. He spoke of moving towards “not living with COVID,” but better managing it, especially with his new “test-to-treat” initiative that will allow people to be tested at CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart, and if they test positive, they will be given anti-viral pills immediately, all at no cost.
President Biden reminded people that he understands the pain of inflation, and outlined some of the things his administration is planning to do to combat it. But not only is inflation global and increased largely because of the pandemic, but a lot of things, including the cost of food and gasoline, are going to go higher because of the war in Ukraine. Personally, I wish he would have mentioned that and channeled his inner FDR and stated that we are all going to have to sacrifice to fight attacks on democracy abroad. All he can really do is hope the pandemic recedes and then inflation along with it.
Except for cheering about Ukraine (even though many felt fealty with Putin just a week prior) and a few other things, Republicans were their usual sour-faced selves during the speech. Democratic Congressman Joe Manchin (WV) sat on the “Republican side” next to Senator Mitt Romney to show, he said, “…bipartisan solidarity on Ukraine.”
But the worst Republican show of classlessness was by Representatives Lauren Robert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. They both broke protocol and were just downright rude when they 1) turned their backs as members of the Biden Cabinet entered the Chamber, 2) screamed at and heckled the president as he was speaking. Their ridiculous and ill-timed “look at me” outbursts fell completely flat, even among Republicans.
Did you watch the 2022 SOTU Address?
If so, what did you think?
If not, why not?
Let us know in the comments.