Anyone who has watched many State of the Union speeches would recognize the genius in the writing & delivery of President Joe Bidens address and performance. He goaded the Republicans like no other.

State of the Union

President Joe Biden’s speech was well written. What made the address great was that it was not a defensive oration. The administration wrote the speech assertively. It did not fall into fighting on the turf Republicans would like to fight on but on American bread and butter issues.

I want to be precise. Joe Biden is a moderate who likes to play things down the middle. While he delivered the speech from the middle, its content was much more to the liking of Progressives than his delivery would indicate. We will discuss many of these in subsequent blogs.

Republicans, in the aggregate, have no viable policies for poor and middle-class Americans. If you doubt it, watch the Republican response by Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She stayed focused on false controversies but offered no policies that solved any of the current problems Americans are suffering through.

Biden calls out Republicans at SOTU: Embarrassed them on Social Security, Debt Ceiling, Medicare.

President Joe Biden did not pull any punches. He called out the Republicans for not wanting to increase the #DebtCeiling while doing so with their complicity in Trump exploding the debt and deficits. He then called them out for holding the Biden administration from trying to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Biden first pointed out that under his administration, he reduced the deficit.

In the last two years, my administration has cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion — the largest deficit reduction in American history.

Biden first dinged Trump and the Republicans for ballooning the deficit from our inception by 25%.

Because those record deficits, no president added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor.

Nearly 25 percent of the entire national debt that took over 200 years to accumulate was added by just one administration alone, the last one. There are the facts, check it out. Check it out.

He pointed out GOP hypocrisy as they had no problems raising the debt ceiling then.

How did Congress respond to that debt? They did the right thing.

They lifted the debt ceiling three times without preconditions or crisis.

They paid American bills to prevent an economic disaster to the country.

So tonight, I’m asking the Congress to follow suit.

Let’s commit here tonight that the full faith and credit of the United States of America will never, ever be questioned.

And then the president made it clear that Republicans intend to hold the country hostage with the debt ceiling. They want to cut Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.

Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage — I get it — unless I agree to their economic plans. All of you at home should know what those plans are.

Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans, want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s the majority.

Republicans started shouting for being truthfully called out. Biden was ready.

Let me give you — anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy — I’ll give you a copy of the proposal. That means Congress doesn’t vote.

You know, it means if Congress doesn’t keep the programs the way they are, they go away.

Biden then goaded Republicans into “promising” they won’t cut the programs by standing up. Of course, one knows one can never trust the words of Republican politicians or neoliberals as they are owned by the plutocracy.

The President then gave America a reason to keep him.

Folks — so folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? They’re not to be — all right. We’ve got unanimity.

Social Security and Medicare are a lifeline for millions of seniors. Americans have to pay into them from the very first paycheck they started.

So tonight, let’s all agree — and we apparently are — let’s stand up for seniors. Stand up and show them we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare.

Those benefits belong to the American people. They earned it.

And if anyone tries to cut Social Security, which apparently no one’s going to do, and if anyone tries to cut Medicare, I’ll stop them. I’ll veto it. And look, I’m not going to allow them to take away — be taken away.

Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. But apparently it’s not going to be a problem.

The entire speech was well written. But this section was the coup de grace. There is one thing Biden got wrong, however. He gave Republicans an escape from their Social Security fraudulent stance. While they all may not believe in Senator Mike Scott’s plan to kill Social Security, many of them, like former vice-president Mike Pence and Senator Mike Lee, are on video with destructive cuts to the program.

Michael Steele: Republicans wanted to own the Libs. Instead, Biden owned the Republicans at SOTU.

Michael Steele was blunt. His critique of the Biden speech was on point.

“Republicans for a long time have been talking about owning the libs,” Michael Steele said. “They got owned tonight by Joe Biden. He stood his ground. He laid out his agenda. He was very clear. He took the hecklers, and he made America see what he’s been trying to convey in a way that they probably had not seen or heard before.”

Steele then pointed out the repercussions of the speech.

“And I thought for him; it was a very good night,” Steele continued. “I was watching and reading conservatives, and certainly MAGA folks on my Twitter feed just lose their mind over everything. Is that the complete package? Just the repartee back and forth. The clarity of laying out what he did. I mean, the moment on Social Security is going to be in a loop.”

Michael then honed in on Social Security.

“Because everyone in the country knows, at least those who follow Social Security policy, that means you’re elderly and so forth,” Steele said. “That Republicans had a plan that they ran on in 2022 to abolish, to sunset all federal programs, which, guess what? It included Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. And that was Rick Scott, Senator Rick Scott’s plan that the party signed on to.”

Biden received high marks for his State of the Union speech from Steele and from just about every talking head in the mainstream media.

---

Viewers are encouraged to subscribe and join the conversation for more insightful commentary and to support progressive messages. Together, we can populate the internet with progressive messages that represent the true aspirations of most Americans.

Support Our Politics Done Right Store