A freshman Democratic representative from Illinois, the first Latina to represent the state in Congress, called on Joe Biden to remember what he ran on during her response to the State of the Union address for the progressive Working Families Party on Tuesday.
Rep Delia Ramirez spoke in a 20-minute virtual address that touched on issues that many Democrats likely consider out of reach now, including aspects of the president’s signature Build Back Better plan that did not make it into law when that bill died in the Senate in 2021.
In her address, Ms Ramirez strongly condemned Republican efforts to oppose the Biden legislative agenda, but offered little in the way of a plan for getting that agenda passed through the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, now in the hands of Kevin McCarthy after a marathon Speaker vote last month. Instead, she called on Democrats to make the case to the American people that Mr Biden’s agenda — particularly the parts opposed by conservatives in his party — was popular, and would help working families.
“Let’s make it plain. Republicans want to slash healthcare for working people, so their donors can get another tax cut. We’re going to fight like hell to ensure that in the richest country in the history of the world, everyone has good health care. Republicans and their fossil fuel industry backers are furious that Americans are taking climate change seriously. We will keep fighting for clean air, clean water, lower utility bills, good jobs and a livable planet,” Ms Ramirez said.
She added, addressing the State of the Union response delivered that evening by Arkansas Gov Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “Republicans want to divide people, make us afraid of each other. [Donald] Trump did everything in his power to spread deadly hate and lies to the American people and to the world, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders helped. Trump and Republicans are terrified of us – of working people – standing together for what we all have in common.”
Much of progressives’ hope for a Biden presidency that makes substantive gains on issues of policy now rests on retaking the House in 2024, as Ms Ramirez went on to note in her speech.
“When Democrats controlled the House, we passed President Biden’s full Build Back Better plan. That included funding to make child care and elder care and community college more affordable. House Democrats voted to extend the child tax credit, putting $300/month in the pockets of working parents. Every Republican was opposed. And just enough corporate Democrats joined them to block that bill,” she said.
“What I want to say to President Biden and all my fellow Democrats in Congress is that we have two jobs. We must stand up to the extremism of the MAGA Republicans. We have to show working people what Democrats will deliver for working families if they put us in control.”
Another representative for the Working Families Party who spoke to The Independent on Tuesday argued that Democrats missed an opportunity to run on Mr Biden’s agenda in 2022.
Speaking ahead of Mr Biden’s speech, the group’s director of federal affairs Natalia Salgado said:“We're going to need him to be able to articulate what has been done in his first term and how when we were in charge of we had the majority and we were in charge of the House and the Senate, what we were able to accomplish.”
“I don't know that we were necessarily able to get that job done in the midterms,” Ms Salgado argued. “And so here we have another shot.”
Mr Biden heads into 2023 with an expanded Democratic majority in the Senate while the House is now in Republican hands, albeit only by a single-digit margin. As a result, any chance for major legislation passing through Congress is likely dead before 2024.
The president has not yet formally announced plans to run for reelection, though former President Donald Trump has already launched his next bid for the presidency.
