Washington, (EFE).- The president of the United States, Joe Biden, gave his annual address on the State of the Union, in which he called for police reform, talked about China, called for citizenship for “dreamers”, and was blunt when referring to the war in Ukraine: which he compared to the images of “death” and “destruction” that Europe suffered in World War II.
In his speech, Biden recalled how a year ago he gave his annual address to Congress just a few days after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his “brutal war” against Ukraine, which will be one year old on February 24.
If China threatens US sovereignty, we will act to protect ourselves
Biden warned at night that if China threatens the sovereignty of his country, it will act as it has already done, in a clear allusion to the shooting down of the Chinese spy balloon that flew over US territory last week.
“I am committed to working with China on what can advance American interests and benefit the world. But make no mistake: as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And so we did,” he said in his State of the Union address.
Biden assured that in his meeting with the president of China, Xi Jinping, held in Bali last November in parallel to the G20 summit, he told him that what they should look for among themselves is “competition, not conflict.”
And he said that he does not intend to apologize for betting on that competition and “investing to make America strong” and betting on innovation, on industries that will define the future and that China tries to dominate.
Reform the police and end assault weapons
Biden asked Congress to legislate to develop a reform to prevent police abuse and another to prohibit the use of assault weapons.
“We have an obligation to make sure that all of our people are safe and public safety depends on public trust, but too often that trust is violated,” the president said in his State of the Union address, which they attended. victims of the most publicized violent events in recent months.
Among them, the mother and stepfather of Tire Nichols, the young African-American who died in early January in Memphis (Tennessee) after being beaten by several policemen, which was recorded on video and who today were sitting in the box at the first lady, Jill Biden.
“There are no words to describe the anguish and pain of losing a child, but imagine what it is like to lose a child at the hands of the law,” said Biden, who recounted what he spoke with the mother of the deceased.
Veto attempts to repeal his inflation law
The US president has warned that he will veto attempts to repeal his inflation-reducing law, especially if they seek to prevent drug price cuts.
“Some members (of Congress) are threatening to withdraw the inflation reduction law. Make no mistake, if you try to do something to increase the cost of drugs, I will veto it,” he warned in his State of the Union address.
In an intervention plagued with messages to the Republican bench with the same request, “let’s finish the job”, on numerous issues, Biden called for joint work, but warned the opposition party that it will not accept all its premises.
And he recalled some of the plans of the Republicans, who “instead of making the richest pay their fair share, they want to put clauses to review plans like Medicare or Social Security every five years and they want” the United States to drown in its own debt for the first time in its history. I won’t let it happen.”
Federal buildings will be made with “made in the USA” material
Joe Biden announced that the steel, cement and other materials used to build federal government buildings must be manufactured in the United States, in a protectionist message.
“Tonight I am announcing new standards to call for all construction materials used for federal infrastructure to be made in America,” Biden said in his State of the Union address to both houses of Congress.
The measure will not affect all the constructions that are carried out in the United States, but only those that depend on the federal government.
However, the federal Executive spends a substantial amount of its funds on construction and the standards it sets can serve as a guide for other construction projects both by local entities and private entities.
Conflict gets us nowhere
US President Joe Biden called for dialogue between Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress, since, he warned, “the conflict leads nowhere.”
“Fighting to fight, the conflict for the sake of the conflict, does not get us anywhere,” said the president in his speech on the State of the Union to the representatives of the two chambers, to whom he gave a clear message: “yes we were able to work together at the last Congress, there is no reason why we cannot work together on this one and find consensus.”
The president began his speech precisely by greeting the new president of the Lower House, Republican Kevin McCarthy, and the first sentences were directed at the conservatives.
Throughout the speech, Biden referred to one of the issues that has raised the most blisters in recent weeks: the debt ceiling.
Quadruple the tax on the repurchase of corporate shares
The US president proposed quadrupling the tax on the repurchase of corporate shares to encourage long-term investment.
“They will continue to have considerable benefits. Let’s finish the job and close the avenues that allow the very rich to avoid paying their fees,” he said, adding that no one earning “less than $400,000 a year” will see their taxes raised “by not one penny.”
In his opinion, large corporations are not only benefiting from the tax code, but also from the American consumer.
Biden recalled that the big oil companies have posted record profits. Last year, according to his figures, those profits were $200 billion “in the midst of a global energy crisis.”
Facilitating the pathway to citizenship for “dreamers”
Biden asked Congress that, if it does not approve his immigration reform, at least provide a path to citizenship for the so-called “dreamers”, the undocumented young people who came to the United States as children.
“America’s problems at the border will not be solved until Congress acts,” he told both houses of parliament in his State of the Union address, the second since he took office in January 2021.
Biden asked lawmakers to “at least” approve his plan to provide equipment and agents to protect the border. And a path to citizenship for ‘dreamers,’ those with temporary status, farmers and essential workers.”
“It is our duty to protect the rights and freedoms of the people,” he said, recalling that there is currently a “record” number of personnel and that 8,000 human traffickers have been arrested in recent months.
Law to restrict data collected by technology companies
The US president called on Congress to legislate to make laws that would allow stricter limits to be imposed on the personal data that technology companies collect about citizens.
“It’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to prevent Big Tech from collecting personal data from children and teens online, ban advertising directed at children, and place stricter limits on the personal data these companies collect about all of us,” said the president. president in his State of the Union address.
Before the congressmen of the two chambers, that of Representatives (low) and the Senate (high), Biden assured that it is time to “hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they are carrying out with our children for profit.”
A consortium of 17 US media revealed Facebook’s secrets in 2021, especially to what extent the company put its profits before security on the network, the lack of control over misinformation or how it ignored the harmful effects of its products on adolescents.
If Congress passes an abortion ban, I’ll veto it.
The US president, Joe Biden, defended this Tuesday the right of women to choose and warned today before the cameras that, if Congress approves a national ban on abortion, it will veto it.
“If Congress approves a national ban on abortion, I will veto it,” said the president, who recalled in his State of the Union address that “here at the Casa del Pueblo, it is our duty to protect all the rights and freedoms of people”.
It should be noted that this is the first State of the Union address that the president has given since the Supreme Court struck down the ‘Roe v. Wade’ ruling that had protected the right to abortion in the United States since 1973.
Since then, the decision has been in the hands of each state, so that 18 of the 50 states in the country have prohibited abortion or have severely restricted it, and in 13 of them access to this service is practically impossible, although there are exceptions, according to the count of Planned Parenthood, the largest network of reproductive services clinics in the US.