Biden’s Populist Barn Burner

The president pounded kitchen table issues at his State of the Union address—and delighted in baiting Republicans.

Jacqueline Martin/Pool/Zuma

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Sounding a note of unremitting economic populism, President Biden put unleashing domestic economic might at the heart of his third State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Heralding several of his administration’s landmark legislative wins as “blue-collar blueprint” for American growth, Biden detailed an agenda that included going after the tax-evading rich, pandemic profiteers, and social media companies, while promising to enshrine workers’ rights and create a clean-energy future.

“Where is it written that America can’t lead the world in manufacturing?” he said, to a rare moment of bipartisan applause. “Now, thanks to all we’ve done, we’re exporting American products and creating American jobs.”

It wasn’t just hip-pocket issues. By turns relaxed, jovial, and combat-ready, Biden wove together a story of a nation emerging from a set of devastating events with promises of economic revitalization centered on job creation. “We’re building an economy where no one is left behind,” he said. “Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back, because of the choices we made in the last two years.”

Biden noted that inflation is finally falling, that unemployment is at a 50-year-low of 3.4 percent, and that bipartisan laws like the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act passed during his presidency have the potential to create thousands of American jobs. Biden also touted a cap for insulin for people on Medicare and urged Congress to expand that cap to all Americans. A repeated refrain was, “Let’s finish the job.”

But the conviviality was short-lived.

Biden was met with boos and jeers from Republicans when he said, “Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) appeared to yell, “You lie!”

“Anybody who doubts it, contact my office, I’ll give you a copy of the proposal,” Biden quipped to even more guffaws, before turning the incident on its head. “So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? We’ve got unanimity!”

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If one thing came out of the StateoftheUnion—it’s this! #joebiden #medicare #socialsecurity #politics

♬ Headin’ North – Warriors to Dust

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has proposed sunsetting all federal legislation, including Social Security and Medicare, every five years. Other Republicans have called for raising the retirement ages for Social Security and Medicare benefits and increasing many older adults’ health care premiums.

Watch the full address below:

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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