Biden vows to check Russian aggression, battle inflation

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden vowed to make Russia’s leader pay for the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and outlined his domestic plan to remedy spiraling inflation and rising costs on Americans during his State of the Union speech Tuesday.

“He has no idea what’s coming,” Biden said to applause during the speech.

The president announced the United States would close its airspace to Russian flights and would level more economic sanctions that have inflicted financial hardship on that country’s elites. Yachts, airplanes and luxury apartments would be seized, he said.

“Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson — when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos,” Biden said.

Ukrainian ambassador Oksana Markarova was seated in the House gallery as a guest of the first lady.

Biden said Putin thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over, “instead he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people.”

Domestic challenges

But along with the crisis in Eastern Europe, Biden addressed problems at home.

The president touted the American Rescue Plan and a bipartisan infrastructure bill to instill confidence in his economic agenda stalled in Congress. He acknowledged the economic hardship of inflation and the rising costs of consumer goods that have resulted in his lowest public approval ratings during his year-old presidency.

Biden said his proposals to Congress would create more jobs through the manufacture of cars and semiconductors at home, lessening the dependence on foreign-made products. That prompted a Democratic chant of “USA, USA, USA,” in the chamber.

“Economists call it ‘increasing the productive capacity of our economy.’ I call it building a better America,” the president said.

Biden highlighted the economic growth over the past year that followed the coronavirus pandemic that crippled states, including Nevada, with business closures, decreased travel, unemployment and the deaths of more than 800,000 Americans who died with COVID-19.

Since then, the economy has rebounded.

Vaccine production and distribution has ramped up, but mandates on vaccinations and other restrictions issued by the Biden administration have been halted or overruled in federal court. It also created a backlash from conservatives who claim the measures were government overreach. Biden said the country can end business and school shutdowns. “Our schools are open. Let’s keep it that way. Our kids need to be in school,” he said to applause.

Republican, progressive reactions

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds delivered the Republican response from Des Moines.

Reynolds rose to prominence during the pandemic when she, like other Republican governors, rejected federal mandates and relaxed restrictions on masks and social distancing guidelines.

She gave a blistering critique of the Biden administration on foreign policy, border policy, education and the coronavirus response for “focusing on political correctness instead of military readiness.”

Despite the optimistic picture painted by Biden about the state of the union, most Republicans, like Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada, said “it’s been a tough year.”

“I don’t think you need an elephant tattoo or a donkey tattoo anywhere on you to know this has been a pretty nasty year for this country in terms of border security, energy security, economy, inflation, foreign relations, the whole gamut,” Amodei told the Review-Journal.

Biden’s speech also drew a response from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, shrugged off by centrists who face headwinds going into midterm elections that could shift the balance of power in the House and Senate.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., outlined a “working families majority” agenda, with items such as affordable housing, better wages and fighting climate change.

But most Democrats were united in their praise for the progress in Biden’s first year, if not somewhat frustrated by the lack of cohesion within their own party to advance legislation to accomplish promises they made to voters in the last election.

Biden took credit for a pandemic stimulus package that received bipartisan support.

The $2 trillion American Rescue Plan provided unemployment benefits, small business assistance and a tax credit for working families that helped lift children out of poverty, said Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev.

“The president has a lot to brag about,” Titus said. “Nevada is recovering at the fastest rate of any state in the country and Las Vegas experienced the highest employment gain in 2021 in the country among major metro areas.”

Victory lap

Biden announced new measures to crack down on waste and fraud in relief programs passed during the pandemic, including a chief prosecutor in the Justice Department who will pursue those cases. And he also claimed credit for bipartisan support for his plan to inject federal investment into job-creating infrastructure projects — a goal his predecessor failed to accomplish. “We’re done talking about infrastructure weeks,” Biden said. “We’re going to have an infrastructure decade.”

Biden and first lady Jill Biden will take a victory lap Wednesday on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law, traveling to Wisconsin to highlight the increase in high-paying jobs created by programs to build, repair and expand roads, bridges, water systems and broadband internet.

Nevada Democrats praised the bipartisan infrastructure law as a boon to the state, with water projects, wildfire prevention funding, rural and low-income access to the internet, and money to update schools.

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., helped write the law to expand high-speed internet to underserved communities to help Nevadans access telehealth and education programs through accessibility and financial assistance.

Wildfire prevention and funds for battling blazes that have scorched Western states was tucked in by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who along with Rep. Susie Lee, got a massive water system improvement project in Southern Nevada.

Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, championed the child tax credits that he said have been crucial for low-income and minority families dealing with the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Titus, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was instrumental in funding for airports, rail and other projects throughout the state.

As for Amodei, “the jury’s still out on what it means for Nevada,” he said of the infrastructure law.

Biden’s push for clean energy, at the expense of fossil fuels, is driving costs up in Nevada where trucking is relied upon for goods, services and manufacturing of new homes in a state rapidly growing, he said.

The price to purchase new homes has skyrocketed, Amodei said.

Still pushing big package

Biden made his pitch for Congress to pass his proposed package of social program spending that would be paid for by tax hikes on the corporations and the nation’s wealthiest income earners.

It’s stalled in the Senate due to GOP opposition, bolstered by Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia that denies Democrats in the evenly divided Senate a majority vote that could be broken by Vice President Kamala Harris.

And Manchin also voted with Republicans to defeat a Senate measure this week to codify abortion rights, currently under review by the Supreme Court with challenges to Roe v Wade.

But Biden needs Manchin’s vote to confirm U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Katanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, whom Biden praised during his speech.

Biden listed a long-shot list of priorities, from immigration reform, LGBQT rights, gun control, voting rights, and a plan to lower prescription drug costs. But he also announced a unity agenda with items such as fighting the opioid epidemic, providing mental health care, supporting veterans and ending cancer.

“We can do these things. It’s within our power,” Biden said. “And I don’t see a partisan edge to any one of them.”

Political polarization is still high; Biden delivered the address under heightened security at the Capitol, with security fences erected outside as a precaution.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.