WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, unveiling a $1.8 trillion plan that features significant investments in childcare, paid family leave and education.
The address arrives as the 46th president and former senator rings in his first 100 days in office, a time that has largely been consumed by the administration’s push to inoculate as many Americans as possible to end the spread of the novel coronavirus. Since the Covid-19 pandemic began last year, the virus has killed over 575,000 in the United States and infected over 32 million people.
“Now --- after just 100 days --- I can report to the nation: America is on the move again... Turning peril into possibility. Crisis into opportunity. Setback into strength," Biden remarked to the nation and to a group of roughly 200 masked lawmakers who attended the socially distanced speech delivered from the floor of the House of Representatives.
A far cry from the over 1,000 guests that typically file into the Capitol for the joint address --- a tradition that began in 1789 --- the affair was much smaller this year with a select group of officials appearing. Notably looking on Wednesday night were First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
And unlike years prior, no designated survivor was selected by the White House. Typically, the White House chooses a high ranking official to sit out big events like the joint address. That person will stay at a secure location in the event of a disaster.
Disaster has been a common theme in the United States but the president called on Congress to meet historic challenges head on and restore some semblance of the bipartisan collaboration necessary to legislate.
In that vein, the president also called on lawmakers to work on lowering prescription drug prices and grant Medicare the authority to negotiate its own prices, an about-face from the existing law. Prescription drugs through Medicare actually flow through private insurance companies and as it stands, Medicare is not permitted to negotiate on its own.
“That won’t just help people on Medicare, it will lower prescription drug costs for everyone. The money we save can go to strengthen the Affordable Care Act --- expand Medicare coverage and benefits --- without costing taxpayers one additional penny,” Biden said. “Let’s get it done this year. This is all about a simple premise: Health care should be a right, not a privilege in America."
But the prospects of altering Medicare are dim. Republicans have long opposed giving that authority to Medicare and pulling it away from the hands of private insurers. Opposition to most of the president's relief plans have broken this way with sharp rejection from the right.
"We have to prove democracy still works," Biden said. "That our government still works and can deliver for the people."
The Biden administration has worked overtime to prove the government can still function following the chaos that came with the pandemic's start over a year ago. The Biden White House moved at a breakneck pace to administer vaccines to over 200 million American adults. While former President Donald Trump’s administration facilitated the development of the vaccine itself, it is the Biden White House that rolled out a winning strategy delivering vaccines across the country’s many, and often convoluted, health systems. As of this month, the U.S. is administering an average of roughly three million shots daily.
In addition to commemorating the solemn achievements reached during this deadly pandemic, the president outlined his administration’s latest proposal: the American Families Plan, a $1.8 trillion package meant to reinvigorate the nation’s economy while promoting greater equity for families and people of color.