Biden State of the Union speech: What lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to hear

Lawmakers in Washington and their staff have been under a serious level of stress the past year amid multiple national crises and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that stress is about to compound with President Biden’s planned State of the Union address.

Biden is slated to give his presidential address on the national outlook on Tuesday, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have a wish list of what the president will touch on in his speech.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Ralph Norman told Fox News Digital in a Monday phone interview that he wants to see Biden highlight the “heroism” exuded by the Ukrainian people in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

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Norman also said he thinks Biden’s actions going forward will speak louder than his words at the State of the Union.

“I mean, just let Americans open up their businesses again, let Americans continue to take their mask off, let Americans in our military who don’t want to sacrifice their medical freedoms not have to take a shot, let Americans be free,” Norman said. “Instead of putting handcuffs on us, he needs to free this country, get the gift, the shackles off of Americans.”

“I don’t want words,” he also said. “We want action.”

Meanwhile, South Dakota GOP Rep. Dusty Johnson said in a phone interview with Fox News Digital that he believes Biden’s “speech will be a failure if it doesn’t include the twin pillars of Ukraine and inflation.”

“The president needs to lay out a clear, cohesive and bipartisan strategy for dealing with both of those. I think the last few days has been very good on Ukraine. I think we have, although initially the action the president took, I think, was quite modest and underwhelming, I think in recent days we have been headed in the right direction,” Johnson said, highlighting the recent sanctions on Russia’s central bank.

“With regard to inflation, I hope the president doesn’t just step forward with some big government solutions,” he also said. “I mean, giving America deficit spending to put more money in Americans pockets to help them deal with inflation will move us in the wrong direction.”

Democrat Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine’s office pointed to an MSNBC interview answer the senator gave to a similar question with the Rev. Al Sharpton.

“If I were President Biden I would start with the candid acknowledgment that the last two years have been nearly the toughest two years in most Americans’ lives,” Kaine said. “The global pandemic, which has hit America hard… I think President Biden should say, ‘Let’s just be honest folks, the last two years have been among the toughest in modern American history,'” the senator continued. “However, COVID numbers are coming down, the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] is suggesting, because of vaccinations and other things, we can start to shed masks not only outdoors but indoors in much of the country.”

Kaine also said the president should highlight “strong economic trends, job growth, wage growth, GDP growth, and an economic challenge, inflation, that we have to get a hold of. But I believe, even in these tough times we can see a little bit of a sense of uplift as we get not past COVID, but we start to live more normally with COVID.”

A White House official told Fox News Digital in a statement that during the State of the Union address Tuesday, Biden “will make a strong case that the Biden-Harris economic strategy to rebuild the economy from the bottom up and the middle out is producing historic results, and he will lay out his plan for the work ahead.”

“He will underscore that during his first year in office, in large part due to the American Rescue Plan, entrepreneurship and business investment rebounded, and the economy achieved its fastest job growth in American history, the fastest economic growth in nearly 40 years, and a faster recovery than every other advanced economy in the G7,” the spokesperson said.

“During his first State of the Union Address, the president will also make clear that there is more work to do to rebuild the economy toward resilience, security and sustainability,” they continued. “Specifically, the president will lay out his plan to lower costs for American families while continuing an historically strong economic recovery.”

Biden’s State of the Union address comes amid several national crises, including the compounding situation at the southern border, an opioid overdose epidemic taking the lives of young Americans across the nation, and rampant inflation only made worse by what’s going on overseas.

Foreign policy appears to be the Achilles’ heel of the Biden administration, with the president’s speech also occurring amid the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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Republicans are expected to give their rebuttal to the State of the Union on Tuesday, highlighting the state of America under Biden’s policies.

In an odd move trying to undercut Biden, “Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., will also be giving a rebuttal speech for the progressives.