US President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union address tonight to a Congress where Republicans hold a majority in the House and attention is already turning to the 2024 presidential election.
Biden has not yet clarified whether he will run for re-election, but analysts say that doubt should be dispelled in the coming weeks, making the State of the Union address, which is due to be delivered at 9:00 p.m. local time in Washington). , 2:00 am on Wednesday – fair in mainland Portugal), a privileged opportunity for the leader to explain his political priorities, in this or a possible second term.
Traditionally, the State of the Union address serves for the President to present his agenda and differ from the ideas of the opposition, and it is expected that Biden will take the opportunity to once again criticize the Republican Party’s strategy to try to avoid the increase in the US debt, with the risk of blocking government action.
But, with less than two years to go before new presidential elections and a few months before the midterm elections, leaders also tend to take the opportunity to define strategic campaign lines, giving clues about their own political future.
One of the points of interest in Biden’s speech will be how he will refer to the new leader of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, with whom the president will have to reach an agreement in the coming months if he wants to avoid permanent confrontations between the White House and Congress.
McCarthy was only elected after a long sequence of ballots, with successive failed attempts to achieve an absolute majority, leaving the leadership of the Republican caucus hostage to a group of radical members close to former President Donald Trump.
In domestic politics, Biden should take the opportunity to talk about the post-Covid-19 times – now that the White House announced the end of the state of emergency next May – and the fight against inflation, which has shown signs of slowing down. .
The Democratic president is also expected to tackle his ambitious infrastructure investment plan, which Republicans are determined to chill now that they have a majority in the House of Representatives.
In foreign policy, Biden must insist on supporting kyiv to resist the Russian invasion, through successive packages of financial and military aid, as well as the challenges posed by the country that was recently considered the main threat to the world economic leadership of USA. : the China.
The recent episode of the alleged Chinese spy balloon, shot down this weekend after crossing US territory, could help Biden to explain how he intends to deal with Beijing, with whom he has several negotiation fronts, from the military to the commercial sphere. war.
Source: TSF
