Zach Crawford
“The future of America is in our hands.” Joe Biden is spurring a divided Congress asking to support his more than $ 4 trillion plan to re-launch the country (“the largest since World War II”) and to take definitive action to reform police, launch effective tightening of firearms, and work on comprehensive immigration reform.
“I inherited a country in crisis, and now America is on its way again,” the US president jubilantly said, claiming above all the success of the vaccination campaign by giving 220 million doses in 100 days. His first speech as a White House tenant before the House and Senate in the plenary session cannot be different from Donald Trump’s last speech in January of last year, when an angry Nancy Pelosi dared to tear up the text of the resolution. President’s speech in front of the cameras. Today, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, together with Vice President Kamala Harris, made history: for the first time two women, the second and the third in charge of state, sat in the House of Representatives behind the Commander in Chief. “Madam Vice President …” Biden praised Harris: “No president has uttered these words from this stage. The time has come …”, he added to the applause of the few attendees for the tough anti-COVID measures. .
Then, learning that the road was uphill, Biden called on Democrats and Republicans to support his $ 2.3 billion infrastructure plan and $ 1.8 billion for families, defending his intention to increase taxes on 1% of the population. “I will not impose any increase on people whose income is less than $ 400,000. Rather, it is time for the big and wealthier American companies to pay their fair share. Just what is right,” he said. “Data shows that 55% of the largest companies paid zero federal income taxes in the past year on more than 40 billion in profits. Many companies – he added – have evaded taxes through tax havens, from Switzerland to Bermuda to the Cayman Islands. this is not true”.
The president then stressed, “The epidemic has made things worse, because while 20 million Americans have lost their jobs, 650 billionaires in America have seen their wealth increase by more than a trillion dollars. It is time to do it. Something.”
Returning to the Floyd case, Biden requested the release of the police reform, named after the African American who was killed by an agent in Minneapolis, next month, on the occasion of the murder: “We have seen the knee of injustice on the neck of African-American America.
Now we have to turn the page, it is the country that wants it. “
Biden also sent a message to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. He stressed, “We do not want conflict or escalation,” stressing, however, how “democracy is the essence of America and that the autocrats will not win.”
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Laurence Malcom
