“I think people can expect to hear him position that as the importance of the United States as a leader in the world, of standing up for values, stand
“I think people can expect to hear him position that as the importance of the United States as a leader in the world, of standing up for values, standing up for global norms,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Monday, previewing the speech.
On the domestic front, Mr. Biden returns to the same chamber where he unveiled his ambitious $1.8 trillion social spending package to great fanfare a year ago only to watch it go nowhere amid lock step Republican opposition and the defection of two Democratic senators. Having given up on the full panoply of initiatives he advocated last year, he plans to push Congress to adopt pieces of the original program, including policies to lower the costs of child care, elder care and prescription drugs.
Mr. Biden also intends to unveil a plan to address what the White House called “an unprecedented mental health crisis among people of all ages” following two years of pandemic lockdowns and restrictions. Among other things, it would expand coverage of mental health visits and access to tele-health appointments, upgrade a new 988 national suicide hotline scheduled to open this year and institute stronger online protections to guard young people from unhealthy social media.
Despite his setbacks on his legislative priorities from last year, Mr. Biden plans to highlight his success in passing a $1 trillion plan with Republican support to rebuild and expand the nation’s highways, bridges, airports, rail, internet broadband and other infrastructure.
He plans to talk about the progress in combating Covid as the Omicron wave recedes and governments ratchet back pandemic restrictions, claiming credit for partially or fully vaccinating about three-quarters of the population while cautioning that future variants could still threaten Americans.
The average number of new coronavirus cases has fallen more than 90 percent since its January peak and deaths have come down 23 percent in past two weeks. But even so, more than 1,800 people are still dying on average from Covid every day in the United States and Mr. Biden wants to be careful not to sound too rosy as many believe he did last summer.
One of Mr. Biden’s challenges on Tuesday night will be convincing Americans that the economy is actually doing better than polls show they think it is. The economy grew 5.7 percent last year, the largest boom since 1984, and added 6.7 million jobs while unemployment fell to 4 percent. But inflation hit 7.5 percent, the highest in four decades, and has dominated the national conversation.
www.nytimes.com