Biden Misses the Moment in His State of the Union Address He had supportive words for Ukraine against Russia, but he offered no domestic or defense policy reset.
President Biden is no Olaf Scholz. The new Chancellor upended decades of center-left German defense and energy policy this week after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and Mr. Biden had a similar opportunity in his State of the Union address Tuesday. He missed the moment. The President remained on the same policy course of his first year, albeit dressed up in new anti-inflation packaging.
More defense spending to meet the threats from autocrats? No. A new appreciation for the contribution of fossil fuels to American and European security? Not a word. A note that government spending contributed to the highest inflation in 40 years? Nope. A word of praise for the private Pharma innovation that developed Covid therapies and vaccines? He proposed government price controls instead.
Mr. Biden did offer stirring support for Ukraine and its fight for freedom, which received bipartisan applause. His Administration deserves credit for helping to rally Europe and other nations to impose sanctions and provide more military aid. He was properly condemning of Mr. Putin.
But his self-congratulation ignored the failure to deter the Russian autocrat. “We were ready” if Mr. Putin invaded, Mr. Biden said. But if the U.S. had been ready, Mr. Putin wouldn’t have invaded. The Russian invaded because he thought the West would do little. And Mr. Putin finds himself in a struggle now because of the bravery of 41 million Ukrainians, not the strength of Europe or the United States.
What we also didn’t hear was a vow that Russia will not be allowed to conquer and hold Ukraine. There was no warning to Mr. Putin not to launch missiles into residential neighborhoods or surround and starve cities into submission like a medieval siege. This was not Harry Truman at the dawn of the Cold War calling the world to meet a new danger.
On his domestic agenda, Mr. Biden acknowledged inflation, as he had to given the polls. But he blamed rising prices on the pandemic and greedy businesses, and his solutions are to unleash prosecutors and antitrust cops, and to spend even more money on social welfare and entitlements. His most other-worldly line was that his program would “cut energy costs for families an average of $500 a year by combating climate change.”
The entire point of his climate agenda is to raise the price of energy for Americans by reducing the supply and increasing the cost of coal, oil and natural gas. His regulators are working to do that every day in every way. It was as if the horror of the last week, which exposed the folly of Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas, had never happened. The climate left still has a choke hold on this Presidency.
An anxious world is looking for American leadership in a dangerous new era. Instead Mr. Biden offered a rehash of his first-year domestic agenda that has brought him to his low political ebb. It’s dispiriting that a White House facing so many daunting challenges could come up with so little. The President really does need to fire some people and get better advice.
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Appeared in the March 2, 2022, print edition as ‘Biden Misses the Moment.’
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