Alabama representatives reacted to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Speech. The president spoke Tuesday night, March 1, on several key issues, including Ukraine, education, taxes, border security, firearms regulations, abortion, and jobs. He took credit for the record number of jobs added following the original COVID-19 fallout and voiced his support for the transgender community. Biden also said we need to "fund the police" and provide them with resources needed to fight crime.
Several lawmakers responded.
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) released the following statement:
“The State of the Union was the perfect opportunity for President Biden to assert leadership that has been sorely lacking since he took office. Families across the nation were watching and waiting for the President to address the issues keeping them up at night. Americans deserve a plan to combat rising prices and secure our borders. They deserve answers about the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Americans who were stranded there. And they deserve a commitment to regain America’s energy independence after it was completely undermined by the president’s embrace of far-Left climate policies.
“Tonight, these real-world problems were willingly overlooked by President Biden, who instead focused on ways to pull our country farther Left. For example, he touted an infrastructure package that will spend more on his radical climate agenda than on repairing our roads and bridges. This moment required strong leadership and accountability. President Biden failed to deliver.”
Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06) released the following statement:
“Tonight, we heard a speech that is entirely disconnected from reality and out of touch with the struggles that American people are facing. The truth is that President Biden has led the United States into crisis and disarray within just one year in office,” Palmer said. “Inflation is the highest it’s been in 40 years. Families across the country have been struggling to buy food and medicine and pay basic bills. Gas prices are soaring. People are illegally crossing our southern border in droves.
“And amidst all of this, the Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress have also held onto the political theater surrounding COVID for almost two years,” Palmer continued. “Children have been forced to wear masks in school long after we knew it was not only ineffective against COVID, but harmful to learning and social development. Vaccine mandates have forced many frontline workers and members of our military to choose between their livelihoods or service to our country and a shot they did not want.
“And, interestingly, COVID regulations in many Democrat-run cities and even on U.S. Capitol grounds have now been dropped, just in time for the State of the Union address. The ‘science’ hasn’t changed – the politics have. President Biden and Democrats in Congress are already trying to pretend they didn’t just spend two years championing shutdowns and masks and vaccine mandates, but we certainly won’t forget how these measures destroyed lives and livelihoods."
Palmer added, “In addition to the domestic challenges we face, we now watch as Vladimir Putin’s forces destroy Ukraine. The sanctions imposed by Biden on Russia thus far will not deter Putin. He has dealt with sanctions before and factored that in before he launched the invasion. The people of Ukraine are fighting desperately to save their country and they need more than sanctions. They need weapons and they need the Biden Administration to unleash the full power of American energy production. In this battle to save Ukraine, perhaps the most powerful weapons in our arsenal of democracy are vast energy resources. At this point, this is a powerful weapon against Putin that will significantly reduce the revenues Putin needs to fund this war."
Palmer concluded, “I spent time this past weekend in direct contact with Ukrainian leaders, including a member of their Parliament who has taken up a weapon and joined the resistance. He asked me to tell the Biden Administration and members of Congress that they will not give up. He asked that we send weapons and that America increase our energy production to supply Europe and deny those markets to Russia so Putin can’t fund this invasion. He then asked me to share this message with every member of Congress and the Biden Administration. He said, ‘Every barrel of Russian oil and every cubic meter of Russian gas is stained with the blood of Ukraine.’
Following President Biden’s State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress tonight, Congressman Robert Aderholt (AL-04) sent this on his Twitter account:
“I fully support our efforts to help the people of Ukraine. But I'm disappointed the President did not address our own defense needs with increased spending to address the new threats from Russia and China."
Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl issued the following statement:
“Once again, President Biden continued on his path of ’too little, too late’ when it comes to addressing the issues we are facing at home and abroad. His out of control spending policies caused inflation to reach this level, and his only solution seems to be spending even more money by pushing his already rejected Build Back Better program. Increasing government spending and our national deficit will only increase inflation. Add to that his foreign policy failures – first his botched Afghanistan withdrawal, and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine where he failed to act swiftly. Sticking your head in the sand is not a response. It is hard to see how the President can claim any successes.”
Jerry Carl represents Alabama’s First Congressional District. He issued the following statement after the address:
“Americans across the country are frustrated and disappointed with President Biden’s performance for the past year, so it’s not surprising his approval ratings have completely tanked,” Carl said. “Despite President Biden pretending he has done a good job for the past year, the truth couldn’t be clearer: He has failed to secure our border and protect the safety of American citizens, he completely botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan, he has made us dependent on foreign oil, he has imposed unconstitutional COVID-19 mandates, he has done nothing about the explosion of violent crime across the country, and he has driven inflation to levels we haven’t seen in over 40 years.”
Richard Shelby is the senior Senator from the state of Alabama. His statement read:
“For over a year now, President Biden has proved that the many promises he made to the American people are empty,” Shelby said. “Given the state of our country and the world, one would hope this administration would be willing to reach across the aisle to find ways to work together. President Biden has instead continued to prioritize the far left’s social agenda, despite an evenly-divided Senate. The American people are feeling the repercussions
“This evening during President Biden’s first State of the Union address, he spoke of unity and bipartisan cooperation,” Shelby continued. “However, I have yet to see Democrats attempt to pass sensible legislation that’s palatable to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Instead of focusing on a failing economic agenda and the expansion of big-government programs, we should be funding our nation’s defense capabilities. Our adversaries need to know that our military remains the best trained, best prepared, and best-equipped fighting force in the world. Russia and China are watching how the United States handles matters of national security. Now is the time for President Biden to prioritize the safety of our country.
“Currently, Americans are experiencing record-high inflation rates triggered by Democrats’ reckless spending, as well as a drastic increase in violent crime and illegal immigration,” Shelby concluded. “Our economy has grown more and more fragile since this administration has been at the helm. Something must change. It is my hope that President Biden will fulfill his promise to be a president for all Americans and work with Republicans to improve our country. His administration must stand firm in the face of Russia and China, ditch partisan policies, and find real solutions to the problems facing our nation.”
Ashley Hilburn is the Co-Chair of Patriots First Alabama. She released the following statement:
“As I sat and listened to Joe Biden's speech tonight, I was reminded why having secure elections is so very important. This man stands up there and tells lie after lie and expects the American people to buy into those lies. He is weak and because he is weak, we are a laughingstock for the whole world. He should be standing up there apologizing for getting rid of our energy independence and closing the Keystone Pipeline and putting hard-working Americans out of work, but no, he is up there saying he wants to continue to kill babies and support all the different genders they have made up. It just makes me remember why election integrity is so important! They stole the election from Trump and now they want to legalize abortion, flood the borders and completely destroy our economy and our relationship with other countries as well. Not to mention add another DARPA type agency that would further invade the privacy of the American citizens.”
Republican Executive Committee member former State Rep. Perry O. Hooper Jr. (R-Montgomery) said:
"Joe Biden had his chance to make things right. He could have asked for forgiveness for his horrible performance in his first year in office. He could have promised to listen to the American people and what has caused him to be the most unpopular President in American history after only one year in office. He could have told us that beginning on Wednesday he was going to close the southern border. He could have promised a swift return to the Trump Administration’s policies that gave us energy independence and low gas prices. He could have shown the entire country that he was truly going to be a champion of Americans' rights of personal liberty by firing Anthony Fauci on national tv. What did he do instead? He doubled down on his disastrous socialist policies that are destroying our economy and our way of life. Biden blames Putin for his problems, as if his complete incompetence has nothing to do with Putin’s actions. Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if President Trump was still Commander-in-Chief, you can take that to the bank. Not once during the entire speech did he tell the world, who was looking for his leadership, one thing he was going to do to help the brave Ukrainian people defend their homeland.
“When he talked about the economy it was his same old tired tax, spend and regulate failed policies. Cutting taxes helps industry grow not government handouts and Biden’s Voodoo economics. Biden has created inflation. Cutting taxes helps a business grow and expand and create new jobs with higher wages. Socialist welfare programs that Biden and the left espouses just create dependence on the Swamp. I find it very humorous for Biden to tell everyone to buy American when he bought 500 million COVID tests from China at premium prices. Some 250 million of these tests are not being used. Nancy Pelosi was handing out masks made in China to be worn in the House Chamber. China, which is responsible for this pandemic, is laughing all the way to the bank. Biden has succeeded in one critical area: uniting Americans around his own ineptitude and divisiveness.”
Congressman Brooks said, “Joe Biden’s State of the Union address was high on rhetoric and wishful thinking but low on viable solutions and substance. In short:
Biden claims he will fix rampaging inflation yet failed to satisfactorily address any of the fundamental underlying causes: trillion-dollar deficits (Biden’s spending wish lists require money America does not have and has to borrow to get, thereby undermining the value of the dollar), the federal government paying people not to work (disrupting supply chains and triggering higher prices), and higher oil and gas costs (caused largely by the Biden Administration's and Socialist Democrats’ war on oil and gas production; less oil and gas production forces higher prices).
Biden briefly gave the border crises a passing glance yet offered no hope of finishing the wall, deporting illegal aliens, or doing anything else to stop the tsunami of illegal aliens who cause the deaths of roughly 2,000 Americans each year, undermine jobs and incomes of American families, and cost Americans annual net tax losses well in excess of $100 billion/year.
Biden offered nothing to combat the rise of amoral values and the shocking erosion of moral values (moral values are THE compass that guides America to do the right thing with our power while also guiding and giving hope to individual Americans in their daily lives).
Biden says he will, once again, tap into America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, thereby further risking America’s national security while doing nothing to replenish the petroleum Biden has already taken from our national reserves. Over the long haul, Biden’s strategy makes the cost of gasoline at the pump go up, not down, while simultaneously making America even more dangerously reliant on foreign oil and gas producers.
Biden falsely extols a so-called booming economy while failing to confess that it is a mirage. The economic data is irrefutable. In 2021, Bidenflation caused Americans’ real income to decline, eroding Americans’ buying power at one of the worst rates in history."
Brooks continued, “Joe Biden did at least one thing right. By presiding over a 'no masks required' State of the Union, Biden tacitly and finally admitted that, for more than a year and a half, Socialist Democrat politics have betrayed actual COVID-19 science, all for partisan, political gain. So wasteful. So fear-mongering. So tragic.
“In sum, Joe Biden looked like a stage magician attempting sleight of hand as he sought to trick the American people into thinking America is on track. Well, the American people aren’t falling for it. They have learned the hard way that Biden’s track is a dangerous and destructive dead end. If Joe Biden thinks that he can get away with ignoring his administration’s failures he’s wrong. Biden may wear rose-tinted glasses over all that makeup, but the American people don’t have the luxury of ignoring the harsh realities of Biden’s disastrous policies. The American people have to live with it, and, quite frankly, we’re sick of it.”
This story has been updated to include comments from Rep. Mo Brooks.
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