The Archive

IT’S THE ECONOMY

For good and ill, Biden leans into the economy

Two years into the job, President Joe Biden had a lot to say about the U.S. economy last night. To be fair, if we were president with a 3.4% unemployment rate, we’d probably talk a lot about that too.

Many of the themes tracked with what Biden has been touting since the start of his administration: The president wants to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, bolster union protections and facilitate the transition to a cleaner energy economy.

As we predicted, Biden trumpeted his administration’s performance on jobs – “12 million new jobs,” and “more jobs created in two years than any president created in four years,” Biden said.

On climate, Biden hailed the impact that the Inflation Reduction Act would have on green financing in the years to come. But he also tried to extend an olive branch to the oil and gas industry, telling Congress that the U.S. is “going to need oil for at least another decade.” That remark provoked a boisterous reaction from Republicans.

But Biden didn’t pull punches on the industry either, using the fossil fuel sector’s example to argue for another policy priority: upping the tax on stock buybacks from 1% to 4% – a significant increase.

Tax policy in general played a prominent role in Tuesday night’s speech. Biden called for Congress to pass a tax targeting billionaires, saying: “No billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate than a school teacher or firefighter.”

Biden also highlighted consumer-first policies pushed by his regulators. “Junk fees” got a particularly high billing, with Biden targeting airline fee practices, “exorbitant bank overdrafts” and credit card late fees, the latter of which we wrote about on Monday. Biden also flagged work done by the Federal Trade Commission on non-compete agreements.

The billionaire tax and stock buyback tax will get a lot of play in the business press over the next couple of days, but don’t hold your breath about their passage through a GOP-controlled House. Junk fees and non-compete reform, however, is solidly within the realm of Biden’s regulators.

Congressional Republicans will complain about these changes – mightily and often, we expect – but they won’t be able to do much to stop them without control of the White House. Also, good luck telling Americans that inexplicable fees are cool, actually.

– Brendan Pedersen

WHAT THE …

The three surprises from Biden’s speech

State of the Union speeches are, by their nature, high political theater. But there are often some surprising moments and focuses — or lack thereof — from the president.

We’re going to run down what we saw as the three big surprises from President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.

Debt ceiling dust-up: Biden’s speech had only a brief section devoted to the battle that’s going to consume Washington for the next six months — the debt ceiling and federal spending. But it turned into a fascinating back-and-forth between Biden and the GOP side of the chamber.

It almost felt like Biden was having a conversation with Republicans, especially after he said some GOP lawmakers want to sunset Social Security and Medicare every five years. This, of course, was a reference to Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) controversial plan that even had his fellow Senate Republicans squeamish. And it’s something the White House has used as a cudgel against Republicans.

Some House Republicans stood up and called Biden a “liar,” including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who tried to shout him down. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has said he won’t touch Medicare and Social Security in the debt ceiling talks, could be seen shaking his head.

Biden responded somewhat in jest: “Call my office. I’ll give you a copy of the proposal.”

The president said he “politely” wouldn’t name the individual who proposed the sunsets — Scott — and engaged in a rare back-and-forth from the podium with a few GOP objectors.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told us after the speech that it’s “the wrong idea” for Republicans to propose entitlement cuts, and he’s called for exempting those programs from the debt ceiling.

“Both sides play this game,” Hawley said. “Democrats want to use it as a scare tactic. And then some Republicans, frankly, want to use it as leverage.”

The jeers: It might not be a surprise anymore that members of Congress, particularly on the Republican side, have outbursts at a State of the Union address. But it’s worth harkening back to a time when these incidents were rare.

So rare that when Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) famously shouted “you lie” at former President Barack Obama during his major health care address in 2009, Wilson faced calls to resign and the House passed a resolution formally rebuking him.

Decorum in the House has deteriorated significantly since then, to the point where the heckling was frequent and loud last night. McCarthy was even seen shushing some members from behind the dais.

Light on foreign policy: The shoot-down of the Chinese spy balloon has dominated Washington and the world in recent days. The incident — and the broader struggle with China — was expected to get significant attention in Biden’s speech.

But the president barely discussed China, and he only made a passing reference to the balloon episode without directly mentioning it. Biden touted U.S. support for the war effort in Ukraine, but it was much less prominent than in last year’s address, which came at the onset of the conflict.

Some Democrats said they expected Biden to more forcefully defend his handling of the Chinese balloon, especially given the criticism he’s getting from Republicans and even some top Democrats. But Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a top Biden confidant, defended Biden’s approach.

“There has been a fascination with the minutiae with the incident here in the last week. I haven’t found that at home. Folks were just interested in knowing the outcome,” Coons said.

This will remain, however, a big issue in the Capitol as the Senate gears up for a classified briefing Thursday amid mounting questions about how Biden handled it.

— Andrew Desiderio

STRATEGY MEMO

What to watch during today’s Oversight hearing on Twitter

House Republicans are hauling former Twitter employees in front of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee today, marking the new majority’s first hearing on Hunter Biden.

Led by Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), the committee sees the hearing as the first step in a series on protecting speech from government interference and social media bias. Democrats say Republicans just want to score political points against the president and his family.

At issue is the censorship of the New York Post’s story on Hunter Biden’s laptop in October 2020. Twitter accounts that shared the story at the time were suspended until the tweets were deleted.

The GOP argument: Oversight Republicans will use the hearing as a way to fold the Biden investigation into their war against “Big Tech.”

“We’ve witnessed Big Tech autocrats wield their unchecked power to suppress the speech of Americans to promote their preferred political opinions,” Comer plans to say in his opening statement. “Twitter was once one of these platforms – until Elon Musk purchased the company a few months ago.”

Comer has long been insistent that the panel isn’t targeting Hunter Biden, but rather the president. An example: the Kentucky Republican will open by saying that “we owe it to the American people to provide answers about this collusion to censor information about Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s business schemes.”

The Democratic pushback: Democrats, of course, don’t buy that line. They’ll likely say that Republicans care more about Joe Biden’s family than working families across the country.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the panel, will squarely focus the hearing not on Hunter Biden, but on Jan. 6 and former President Donald Trump. Here’s a portion of Raskin’s opening statement:

Expect the Democratic witness — former Twitter employee and whistleblower Anika Collier Navaroli — to play heavily in the Democratic strategy. Navaroli, a content moderation official, testified during the Jan. 6 select committee hearings and was heavily critical of Twitter’s handling of Trump’s tweets.

Witnesses:

— Max Cohen

THE NEW WASHINGTON

Last night, we celebrated the beginning of the 118th Congress with The New Washington. We partnered with Arnold Ventures to bring together members of the Punchbowl News community for a memorable evening to toast the start of the new Congress. Kelli Rhee, president and CEO of Arnold Ventures, joined Punchbowl News Founder and CEO Anna Palmer for a fireside chat.

Raising a glass: Renice Armelin, Sebastian Johnson, and Sam Mar of Arnold Ventures, Holly Harris of The Network, Jeff Zubricki of Etsy, Marissa Mitrovich of the Fiber Broadband Association, Andre Barnett of Accenture, Dan Wilson and Jon Reinish of Mercury Public Affairs, Jonathan Kott and Lyndon Boozer of Capitol Counsel, Keenan Austin Reed of Alpine Group, Maia Hunt Estes of Invariant, Erin Billings of Global Strategy Group, Daniela Campos López of the Office of Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Haley Scott from Rep. Dan Goldman’s (D-N.Y.) office, Asad Ramzanali of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Pam Thiessen of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

MOMENTS

9:00 a.m.: President Joe Biden will get his daily intelligence briefing.

9:55 a.m.: Biden will leave the White House for Andrews, where he will fly to Madison, Wis. Karine Jean-Pierre will brief en route to Madison.

12:35 p.m.: Biden will arrive at Truax Field Air National Guard Base in Madison.

2 p.m.: Biden will speak about his economic plan “creating good-paying, union jobs and delivering real results for the American people” at LIUNA Training Center in DeForest, Wis.

6:05 p.m.: Biden will leave Wisconsin for Andrews. He’s due back at the White House at 8:05 p.m.