He plowed through the clap lines to keep up his pace. He sparred with Republicans in the House chamber over tinkering with Social Security and Medicare, drawing heckling and catcalls from some — and a “liar” from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) — As he created a contradiction between his agenda. And what he said was his. Rarely has a State of the Union address featured such give-and-take so prominently.
The president cast himself as a populist with ideas to help blue-collar workers and restore America’s manufacturing power. He went after big drug companies and big energy companies. More than once he threatened to veto potential Republican measures and declared that he would not hold the economy hostage to raising the debt ceiling.
“Let’s get things done,” he repeated over and over again as he ticked off the achievements of his first two years in office and offered new proposals. If not a re-election campaign, this was as close as the state of the union could get to that kick-off.
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