Three months after the insurrection, President Joe Biden championed America’s progress made since he took office and the work to come in his addressed joint session of Congress.

Kelly Shaw, associate teaching professor in political science, said Biden has an optimistic tone, differing from the politic environment of the last year and a half, but from a policy perspective Shaw’s response was:

“Oh boy, where do we start.”

Biden tackled a number of domestic issues including infrastructure, jobs, education and social justice while trying to unite both sides so America remains a preponderant power.

Biden drove home the importance of creating jobs in America through infrastructure and as a means to combat the climate crisis. The economy created more than 1.3 million jobs in the first hundred days, this is more than any president on record.

“America is moving, moving forward but we can’t stop now,” Biden said. “We are in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century. We are at a great infliction point in history.” 

Biden said jobs come building railroads, interstate and transit lines and modernizing while working to ensure every American has clean drinking water. Up to 10 million homes in America have pipes with lead in them, including drinking water, which Biden said is a clear and present danger to children’s health. The American Jobs Plan will create jobs replacing the nation’s lead pipes and service lines. 

Biden addressed the need to create a modern power grid and upgrading rural America with high-speed internet. Through these developments, Biden said the American Jobs Plan will help millions of people get back to their jobs. 

Shaw said infrastructure is one of the areas Biden could build nonpartisan bridges.

“Both sides can agree on a lot of those issues because the fact that they do pour a lot of money into various state economies and provide for a fairly quick shovel-ready approach to creating jobs and also by securing an infrastructure that has been badly damaged over time,” Shaw said. 

The American Families Plan was also introduced Wednesday, which addresses four challenges facing American families, including access to education.

“When this nation made 12 years of public education universal it made us the best educated, the best prepared nation in the world,” Biden said. “It’s, I believe, the number one reason in the world that propelled us to where we got in the 20th century but the world has caught up.”

Biden proposed four additional years of public education for every American, two additional years of preschool and an associate’s degree.

As an educator, Shaw said he supports increased access to education but he has concerns for externalities that could follow for smaller private universities.

“It is all well and good, all these programs would cost an additional $6 trillion, which that is a lot, a lot of coin,” Shaw said. “Particularly given the fact we just had three and maybe four rounds of stimulus in terms of getting us back on our feet.”

Prior to Biden’s address, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) gave a rebuttal to Biden’s address. Scott attempted to remind Americans of the GOP legacy the Biden administration is riding off of that Democrats are using infrastructure as a Trojan horse for partisan wishes. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley referred Scott as a Republican who has a common sense approach and smart vision for America.  

“It is their job to be confrontational, I think you will continue to see some attempts at cooperation because Republicans are not in a good place in terms of being able to call the shots right now,” Shaw said. 

A large part of funding would come through tax reform, targeting the upper 1 percent. Shaw said while this is something even some Republicans may see as fair, special interest groups always have their ways.

“At the same time these corporations are really well-organized,” Shaw said. “They have really strong interest and really strong lobbyist and they have deep pockets in terms of influencing policy.”

Biden demanded Americans and Congress to come together to find a consensus to move out of the pandemic. Within his first 100 days, Biden reported there were over 220 million vaccines in the arms of Americans, beating his original goal of 100 million. 

“There is still more work to do to beat this virus,” Biden said. “We can’t let our guard down but tonight I can say because of you, the American people, our progress in the past 100 days in one of the worst pandemics in history has been one of the greatest logistical achievements this country has ever seen.”

While members in chamber remained socially scattered throughout the chamber, Biden reminded both sides of the aisle how they came together to keep roofs over the heads of American families by granting them $1,400. 

“There is certainly as we have seen opportunities for the honeymoon period to address policies that both sides desire to have done,” Shaw said.

Biden called on the Senate to support legislation such as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Even though both parties have put forth legislation to address the racial inequalities embedded in America, the cleavage remains to be the needed systemic change.

Shaw said policing is more of a state issue and when federal government does intervene it doesn’t tend to go well.

“I’m confident federal laws can continue to promote civil rights but I am not as confident that the federal government can do anything with this either perceived or real police problem we have,” Shaw said.

Shaw said even though this speech was clearly about domestic issues, Biden still addressed foreign relations with Russia and China, with intentions of getting troops out of Afghanistan.

“The speech did what it was supposed to do in terms of setting the tone but now the politics and policy is about to start,” Shaw said.