President Joe Biden gave his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. The roughly hour-long speech started a little after 9 p.m.
Biden spoke about several of his administration’s domestic priorities such as voting rights, combatting rising inflation, the electrification of the transportation system to fight climate change and other challenges facing the nation.
He also addressed Russia’s ongoing invasion into Ukraine.
Here’s a transcript of Biden’s speech:
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Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President, our First Lady and Second Gentleman. Members of Congress and the Cabinet. Justices of the Supreme Court. My fellow Americans.
Last year COVID-19 kept us apart. This year we’re finally together again.
Tonight, we meet as Democrats, Republicans, Independents. But most importantly as Americans. With a duty to one another, to America, to the American people to the Constitution and with an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny.
Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundations of the free world thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But he badly miscalculated.
He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead, he met with a wall of strength he never anticipated or imagined.
He met the Ukrainian people.
From President Zelenskyy to every Ukrainian, their fearlessness, their courage, their determination, literally inspires the world.
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Groups of citizens blocking tanks with their bodies. Everyone from students to retirees to teachers turned soldiers defending their homeland.
And in this struggle, President Zelenskyy said in his speech to the European Parliament “Light will win over darkness.” The Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States (Oksana Markarova) is here tonight sitting with the first lady.
Let each of us, if you’re able to stand, stand and send an unmistakable signal to the world. To Ukraine.
We, the United States of America stand with the Ukrainian people. Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson – when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos. They keep moving.
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And the cost, the threats to the America, and America, to the world keeps rising.
That’s why the NATO Alliance was created, to secure peace and stability in Europe after World War 2.
The United States is a member along with 29 other nations. It matters. American diplomacy matters. American resolve matters.
Putin’s latest attack on Ukraine was premeditated and totally unprovoked. He rejected repeated – repeated – efforts at diplomacy. He thought the West and NATO wouldn’t respond. And he thought he could divide us at home, in this chamber and this nation. He thought he could divide us in Europe as well. But Putin was wrong. We are ready. We are united, and that’s what we did. We stayed united.
We prepared extensively and carefully.
We spent months building coalitions of other freedom-loving nations in Europe and the Americas, from the Americas to Asia and African continents to confront Putin.
Like many of you, I spent countless hours unifying our European allies. We shared with the world in advance what we knew Putin was planning and precisely how he would try to falsify and justify his aggression.
We countered Russia’s lies with the truth, and now that he has acted, the free world is holding him accountable, along with twenty-seven members of the European Union including France, Germany, Italy, as well as countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and many others – even Switzerland –are inflicting pain on Russia and supporting the people of Ukraine. Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been.
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Together, along with our allies, we are right now enforcing powerful economic sanctions. We’re cutting off Russia’s largest banks from the international financial system. Preventing Russia’s central bank from defending the Russian Ruble, making Putin’s $630 Billion “war fund” worthless.
We’re choking Russia’s access, we’re choking Russia’s access to technology that will sap its economic strength and weaken its military for years to come.
Tonight I say to the Russian oligarchs and the corrupt leaders who bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime no more. I mean it.
The United States Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of the Russian oligarchs.
We are joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets. We’re coming for your ill-begotten gains.
And tonight I’m announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American air space to all Russian flights – further isolating Russia – and adding an additional squeeze on their economy. He has no idea what’s coming.
The Ruble has already lost 30% of its value. The Russian stock market has lost 40% of its value, and trading remains suspended. The Russian economy is reeling, and Putin alone is the one to blame.
Together with our allies, we’re providing support to the Ukrainians in their fight for freedom. Military assistance, economic assistance, humanitarian assistance. We’re giving more than $1 billion in direct assistance to Ukraine, and we’ll continue to aid the Ukrainian people as they defend their country and help ease their suffering.
But let me be clear. Our forces are not engaged and will not engage in a conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine. Our forces are not going to Europe to fight Ukraine, but to defend our NATO Allies in the event that Putin decides to keep moving west.
For that purpose, we’ve mobilized American ground forces, air squadrons, ship deployments to protect NATO countries including Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
And as I’ve made crystal clear, the United States and our Allies will defend every inch of territory that is NATO territory with the full force of our collective power, every single inch.
And we’re clear-eyed. Ukrainians are fighting back with pure courage. But the next few days, weeks and months will be hard on them. Putin has unleashed violence and chaos. But while he may make gains on the battlefield – he will pay a continuing high price over the long run.
And a pound of Ukrainian people, a proud, proud people, pound for pound ready to fight with every inch of energy they have. They’ve known 30 years of independence, have repeatedly shown that they will not tolerate anyone who tries to take their country backwards.
To all Americans, I will be honest with you, as I’ve always promised I would be. A Russian dictator, invading a foreign country, has costs around the world.
And I’m taking robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at Russian economy. And that we use every tool at our disposal to protect American businesses and consumers.
Tonight, I can announce the United States has worked with 30 other countries to release 60 million barrels of oil from reserves around the world.
America will lead that effort, releasing 30 million barrels from our own Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And we stand ready to do more if necessary, united with our allies.
These steps will help blunt gas prices here at home, but I know news about what’s happening can seem alarming to all Americans.
But I want you to know we’re going to be okay. We’re going to be okay.
When the history of this era is written Putin’s war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger.
While it shouldn’t have taken something so terrible for people around the world to see what’s at stake now everyone sees it clearly.
We see the unity among leaders of nations, a more unified Europe, a more unified West. We see unity among the people who are gathering in cities, in large crowds around the world, even in Russia, to demonstrate their support for the people of Ukraine.
In the battle between democracy and autocracies, democracies are rising to the moment, and the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security.
This is the real test. It’s going to take time. So let us continue to draw inspiration from the iron will of the Ukrainian people. To our fellow Ukrainian Americans who forged a deep bond that connects our two nations, we stand with you. We stand with you.
Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he’ll never gain the hearts and souls of the Ukrainian people.
He’ll never extinguish their love of freedom, and he will never – never – weaken the resolve of the free world.
We meet tonight in an America that has lived through two of the hardest years this nation has ever faced. The pandemic has been punishing. And so many families are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to keep up with the rising cost of food, gas, housing and so much more.
I understand. Like many of you did, my Dad had to leave his home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to find work. So, like many of you, I grew up in a family when, if the price of food went up, it was felt throughout the family. It had an impact.
That’s why one of the first things I did as president was fight to pass the American Rescue Plan.
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Because people were hurting, we needed to act, and we did. Few pieces of legislation have done more at a critical moment in our history to lift us out of crisis.
It fueled our efforts to vaccinate the nation and combat COVID-19. It delivered immediate economic relief to tens of millions of Americans. It helped put food on the table. Remember those long lines of cars waiting for hours just to get a box of food put in their trunk.
It cut the cost of health care insurance and, as my Dad used to say, it gave people just a little bit of breathing room.
Unlike the $2 trillion tax cut passed in the previous administration that benefitted the top 1% of Americans, the American Rescue Plan helped working people — and left no one behind.
And it worked. It worked. It created jobs. Lots of jobs. In fact, our economy created over 6.5 million new jobs just last year, more jobs in one year than ever before in the history of the United States of America.
The economy grew at a rate of 5.7% last year, the strongest growth rate in 40 years, and the first step in bringing fundamental change to our economy that hasn’t worked for working people in this nation for too long.
For the past 40 years, we were told that tax breaks for those at the top and benefits would trickle down and everyone would benefit. But that trickle-down theory led to a weaker economic growth, lower wages, bigger deficits and a widening gap between the top and everyone else in nearly a century.
Look, Vice President Harris and I ran for office, and I realize we have fundamental disagreements on this, but ran for office with a new economic vision for America.
Invest in America. Educate Americans. Grow the workforce. Build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down. Because we know when the middle class grows, when the middle class grows, the poor have a way up and the wealthy do very well.
America used to have the best roads, bridges and airports on Earth, and now our infrastructure is ranked 13th in the world. We won’t be able to compete for the jobs of the 21st Century if we don’t fix it.
That’s why it was so important to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and I thank my Republican friends, who joined to invest and rebuild America. The single biggest investment in history.
It was a bipartisan effort, and I want to thank the members of both parties who worked to make it happen. We’re done talking about infrastructure weeks. We’re now talking about an infrastructure decade.
Look, it’s going to transform America, to put us on a path to win the economic competition of the 21st Century that we face with the rest of the world – particularly China.
I’ve told (China President) Xi Jinping, it’s never been a good bet to bet against the American people. We’ll create good jobs for millions of Americans, modernizing roads, airports, ports, waterways all across America.
And we’ll do it all to withstand the devastating effects of climate change and promote environmental justice. We’ll build a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, begin to replace the poisonous lead pipes so every child, every American, has clean water to drink at home and at school. We’re going to provide affordable high-speed internet for every American, rural, suburban, urban and tribal communities. Four thousand projects have already been announced. Many of you have announced them in your districts.
And tonight, I’m announcing that this year we will start fixing over 65,000 miles of highway and 1,500 bridges in disrepair.
When we use taxpayers’ dollars to rebuild America – we’re going to do it by buying American: buy American products, support American jobs.
The federal government spends about $600 billion a year to keep the country safe and secure. There’s been a law on the books for almost a century to make sure taxpayers’ dollars support American jobs and businesses. Every administration, Democrat or Republican, says they’ll do it, but we’re actually doing it.
We’ll buy American to make sure everything from the deck of an aircraft carrier to the steel on highway guardrails is made in America from beginning to end. All of it. All of it.
But folks, to compete for the jobs of the future, we also need a level playing field with China and other competitors.
That’s why it’s so important to pass the Bipartisan Innovation Act sitting in Congress that will make record investments in emerging technologies and American manufacturing.
We used to invest almost 2% of our GDP in research and development. We don’t now. China is.
Let me give you one example why it’s so important to pass.
If you travel 20 miles east of Columbus, Ohio, you’ll find 1,000 empty acres of land.
It won’t look like much, but if you stop and look closely, you’ll see a “Field of Dreams,” the ground on which America’s future will be built.
That’s where Intel, the American company that helped build Silicon Valley, is going to build a $20 billion semiconductor “mega site.”
Up to eight state-of-the-art factories in one place. Ten-thousand new jobs. In those factories, the average job about $135,000 a year.
Some of the most sophisticated manufacturing in the world to make computer chips the size of a fingertip that power the world and everyday lives, from smartphones, technology, the internet, technology that has yet to be invented.
But that’s just the beginning. Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger, who is here tonight… Pat came to see me, and he told me they are ready to increase their investment from $20 billion to $100 billion. That would be the biggest investment in manufacturing in American history.
And all they’re waiting for is for you to pass this bill. So let’s not wait any longer. Send it to my desk. I’ll sign it, and we’ll really take off in a big way. And folks, Intel is not alone. There’s something happening in America. Just look around and you’ll see an amazing story. The rebirth of pride that comes from stamping products “Made In America.” The revitalization of American manufacturing. Companies are choosing to build new factories here, when just a few years ago, they would have gone overseas.
That’s what’s happening. Ford is investing $11 billion in electric vehicles, creating 11,000 jobs across the country. GM is making the largest investment in its history – $7 billion to build electric vehicles, creating 4,000 jobs in Michigan.
All told, 369,000 new manufacturing jobs were created in America last year alone. Powered by people I’ve met like JoJo Burgess, from generations of union steelworkers from Pittsburgh, who’s here with us tonight.
As Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown says, ‘It’s time to bury the label ‘Rust Belt.’ It’s time to see what used to be called the Rust Belt become the home of significant resurgence of manufacturing.
And with all the bright spots in our economy, record job growth, higher wages, too many families are struggling to keep up with the bills. Inflation is robbing them of the gains they thought otherwise they would be able to feel.
I get it. That’s why my top priority is getting prices under control. Look, our economy roared back faster than almost anyone predicted, but the pandemic meant that businesses had a hard time hiring enough people because of the pandemic to keep up production in their factories. You didn’t have people making those beams that went into buildings because they were out. The factory was closed.
The pandemic also disrupted the global supply chain. Factories close. When that happens it takes longer to make goods and get them to the warehouses, to the stores, and prices go up.
Look at cars last year. One-third of all the inflation was because of automobile sales. There weren’t enough semiconductors to make all the cars that people wanted to buy. And guess what, prices of automobiles went way up, especially used vehicles as well. And so we have a choice. One way to fight inflation is to drive down wages and make Americans poorer.
I think I have a better idea to fight inflation: lower your costs, not your wages. That means make more cars and semiconductors in America, more infrastructure and innovation in America. More goods moving faster and cheaper in America. More jobs where you can earn a good living in America. And instead of relying on foreign supply chains, let’s make it in America.
Look, economists call this “increasing the productive capacity of our economy.”
I call it building a better America. My plan to fight inflation will lower your costs and lower the deficit.
Seventeen Nobel laureates in economics said my plan will ease long-term inflationary pressures. Top business leaders and I believe most Americans support the plan.
And here’s the plan:
First – cut the cost of prescription drugs. We pay more for the same drug produced by the same company in America than any other country in the world. Just look at insulin. One in ten Americans has diabetes. In Virginia, I met a 13-year-old boy, the handsome young man standing up there, Joshua Davis.
He and his Dad both have Type 1 diabetes, which means they need insulin every single day. Insulin costs about $10 a vial to make. That’s what it costs the pharmaceutical company.
But drug companies charge families like Joshua and his Dad up to 30 times that amount. I spoke with Joshua’s mom.
Imagine what it’s like to look at your child who needs insulin to stay healthy and have no idea how in God’s name you’re going to be able to pay for it.
What it does to your family, what it does to your dignity, your ability to look your child in the eye, to be the parent you expect yourself to be. I really mean it, think about that. That’s what I think about.
Joshua is here tonight, but yesterday was his birthday. Happy birthday, buddy, by the way.
For Joshua, and 200,000 other young people with Type 1 diabetes, let’s cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month so everyone can afford it.
And drug companies will do very, very well, their profit margin. And while we’re at it, I know we have great disagreements on this floor with this, let’s let Medicare negotiate the price of prescription drugs. They already set the price for VA drugs.
Look, the American Rescue Plan is helping millions of families with Affordable Care Act plans to save $2,400 a year on their health care premiums. Let’s close the coverage gap and make these savings permanent.
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