On March 7th, 2024, President Joe Biden delivered his third annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. This speech, which comes days after Super Tuesday and ahead of the president’s reelection campaign, was largely centered around what he’s done in his first term, what he plans to campaign on, and what a second term would look like. The overarching themes of this speech were freedom and democracy, economic empowerment, and safety at home and abroad.
The speech began with a mention of the war in Ukraine and Biden asking for more aid to the country while it’s at war with Russia. The president also promised no Americans troops would be deployed into Ukraine, but pressed Congress for more aid to help them defeat Russia in the third year of the conflict. Biden also pointed to Sweden’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), noting that the Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, was present in the chamber. He then tied the war in Ukraine to the insurrection in the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, noting it as another example in which the “former president” is presenting a danger to the idea of democracy as he, Donald Trump, is also supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Biden then pivoted to economic and domestic issues, beginning with the debate over in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision to ban it in the state. He promised to not only protect IVF but to restore abortion protections to what they were in Roe v. Wadedecision. The president goes into the improvements of the American economy under his tenure, noting that during his presidency over 800,000 manufacturing jobs have been created, inflation dropped from 9% to 3%, unemployment is at a 50-year low, and many other measures of the economy that have improved. Biden cites his infrastructure law, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act as reasons for the economic improvement, and notes that he wants to continue this progress when it comes to things like cutting corporate taxes, enacting a wealth tax, and increasing protections for unions.
The president then goes into his healthcare policy, noting that due to legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, medicare is now allowed to negotiate drug prices. Biden then announced he wants to cap the cost of insulin to $35 a month, pledges to protect social security and medicare, cap the costs of all prescription drugs to $2,000 per year for everyone, expand the child tax credit, and put more funding towards women’s health research, among other proposals.
Biden moved on to a section on safety at home and abroad. He outlined his plan for immigration and border security, urging Congress to pass the bipartisan border deal that was negotiated earlier this year, noting that it has wide support across both parties, the Chamber of Commerce, the Border Patrol Union, and others. Biden also pledged not to separate families or ban people due to their faith. He then moved on to gun control, pointing to one of his guests–the sister of one of the victims of the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Biden then urged Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons and universal background checks while also touting his record on gun control–the first gun control measure passed in 30 years and the creation of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the White House.
The president then concluded with a discussion of the war in Gaza, expressing his support for a two-state solution in the Middle East while also saying Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas and can go after them in retaliation for the attack on October 7th. Additionally, he mourned the loss of over 30,000 Palestinian civilians in the conflict and the displacement of another 2 million. He concluded by pledging more humanitarian assistance to Gaza and announced the construction of a pier in the Mediterranean to more efficiently deliver aid. Biden finished his speech noting that he believes in the promise of America, and will always be a president to all Americans. In his words, the “state of our union is strong and getting stronger.”
Every year, the party not occupying the White House chooses an elected official to deliver a response to the State of the Union. This year, it was delivered by Senator Katie Britt of Alabama. Currently the youngest serving woman in the Senate, and recently elected in 2022 as the youngest woman ever elected to the chamber, Senator Britt delivered her response from her kitchen.
Much of her response was rebutting claims in Biden’s address. She started with the border and immigration, noting that while Biden inherited “the most secure border of all time,” his actions to suspend deportations, halt the border wall, and issuing up to 94 executive actions all related to immigration and border security that she says has made America less safe. As a consequence of being less safe, Britt uses the death of Laken Riley as an example. Riley was a nursing student who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant last month.
Britt then moved on to the economy. In her words, “Bidenonomics” is not working. Costs continue to go up, retired Americans have to come back to work to make ends meet, credit card debt is at its highest in history. She says that Biden, who doesn’t drive a car or get his own groceries, wouldn’t understand the problems everyday Americans face.
Like Biden’s address, Senator Britt’s moves from the economy to public safety. According to her, Biden has not done anything to decrease the rate of crime. Additionally, he has harmed our standing on the world stage by citing the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Putin’s “brutal aggression has put our allies on the brink,” Iran has slaughtered Israelis and Americans, and the Chinese Communist Party has bought up American farmland and spread propaganda via Tik-Tok.
She concludes her address with a call to action for not just Republicans, but also for Americans who feel fed up with the Biden Administration. Senator Britt talks about all of the great things Americans have been able to do together, like liberating an oppressed Europe and putting a man on the moon. It starts around kitchen tables like hers, with families like hers. In her words, “despite the current State of our Union, our best days are still ahead.”
To read previous State of the Union addresses, click here, where we have summaries of the 2023 and 2022 addresses and Republican responses.
This post was written by Nick Israel
Nick Israel (he/him/his) has been at Vote Smart since January 2022 and researched candidate issue positions before becoming Director of Elections Research last December. Prior to working at the organization, he studied political science and history at the University of Washington and American government at Georgetown University. In his free time, he likes to read political history.