For more than a century following the American Revolution, the Constitution’s provision that presidents regularly “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union,” was carried out by submitting written reports. Over the past 100 years, the two contending capitalist parties have turned that responsibility into a partisan spectacle where the chief executive touts their party’s program and tries to do damage to their rival.
This Feb. 7, President Joseph Biden’s speech showcased the fractious divisions between Democrats and Republicans, with each sharply focused on positioning themselves for the 2024 presidential campaign. Gridlock in Congress largely precludes passage of any major legislation.
Biden’s speech came as Republicans were using their razor-thin majority in the House to launch partisan hearings into Hunter Biden, the president’s son, and other Democrats. The Democrats, on the other hand, continue to prosecute their seven-year assault against former President Donald Trump, seeking to block him from running in 2024. Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed an array of Trump campaign fund contributors, as well as former Vice President Michael Pence. Smith’s “investigation” into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot continues.
As they conduct this assault, Democrats are doing damage to constitutional protections working people fought for and need. Both parties are working hard to pretty up the FBI, the capitalist rulers’ political police, to use as a partisan weapon.
Biden’s address repeatedly referred to “fellow Americans,” glossing over the irreconcilable class differences between the ruling capitalist families and the millions of working people. The Commerce Department says corporate profits have surged more than 80% in the last two years. At the same time, working people face falling birth rates; having to work two or three jobs to provide for families; rising drug and gambling addiction; and declining life expectancy.
“For too long, workers have been getting stiffed. Not anymore. We’re beginning to restore the dignity to work,” Biden proclaimed. This is a sham. Biden showed his true colors when he led a bipartisan Congress to ban rail workers from striking and forced a contract they had rejected down their throats.
Rail workers continue to look for ways to resist the bosses’ drive to cut jobs, impose grueling schedules, unsafe conditions and harsh attendance policies, and to fight for control over their jobs.
Biden also claimed his administration is responsible for an “unemployment rate at 3.4%, a 50-year low,” and that “inflation has fallen every month for the last six months while take home pay has gone up.” Both figures cover up the real impact of the capitalist economic crisis on workers, farmers and other exploited producers.
According to the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, real wages declined last year. There are some 5.5 million workers who would like a job today, but after years of struggle have given up looking. Rents and food costs are soaring across the country. On top of this, the bosses are on the offensive, pushing speedup, two-tier wages, ever-more inferior health coverage and more.
“This has prompted a series of strikes and labor protests, which need the support of all working people and our unions,” Ilona Gersh, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Chicago, told the Militant. “The low point of labor resistance is behind us. Support for unions is growing.
“To protect our living standards, our unions need to organize workers to fight for cost-of-living clauses in all contracts and all government programs like Social Security — so every time prices rise, wages automatically go up to match,” she said.
Biden’s speech featured long-time Democratic proposals that he knows have no chance of passing a divided Congress. This includes tax reform, gun control and abortion, all of which are aimed at boosting his campaign for re-election.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave the Republicans’ rebuttal. She focused on criticizing Democrats’ “woke” anti-woman policies on gender and promotion of “critical race theory” — policies that are detested by millions of workers. She claimed “Biden’s weakness puts our nation at risk” in the face of mounting competition and conflicts with Moscow and Beijing.
During his speech Biden taunted Republicans, saying that some in their party want to cut Social Security. Several Republican representatives shouted out he was lying.
Won as a by-product of the rise of working-class struggles and the industrial union movement in the 1930s, Social Security today is relied on by millions for retirement.
When the capitalist parties first passed these measures into law, they never intended to pay much out. In 1935, the year the Social Security Act was adopted, life expectancy was below 62, and just below 60 for men, but you weren’t eligible for the program until you reached 65! This meant most workers were dead before they saw a dime.
Today, as workers live longer, more are getting benefits. But this only returns a token of what our lifetime of labor produces.
‘Union-led fight for jobs’
“Central today is a union-led fight for jobs,” Gersh said. “We call for a government-funded massive public works program to provide jobs for millions at union-scale pay, building the houses, hospitals, child care centers and other things working people need. We need a shorter workweek with no cut in pay, with regular schedules, to prevent any layoffs.
“Many working people need a government-guaranteed supplemental income for their families to maintain steady employment, as the labor movement fights for universal child care and medical care,” she said.
“This is the opposite of ‘means-tested’ welfare programs that shame and stigmatize recipients, block people from holding a job and foster dependence on the government dole,” Gersh said.
There is nothing for working people in the political demagogy and endless partisan battles between the bosses’ twin parties.
“We need to build and expand our unions, to defend our class interests and fight for political power, for a workers and farmers government,” Gersh said.