President Biden doesn't have the oratorical skills of Franklin Roosevelt or Barack Obama, but he has something just as important -- the ability to empathize and understand what other people are going through. He doesn't talk down to people or over their heads. He talks straight to them.

That's what he did on Wednesday night. He communicated a sensitivity to the problems Americans are currently facing, and then went further by telling them how he would solve those problems. That made it a great speech in my opinion, and it was exactly the speech Americans needed to hear right now.

Here is the transcript of that speech:

While the setting tonight is familiar, this gathering is very different – a reminder of the extraordinary times we are in.  

Throughout our history, Presidents have come to this chamber to speak to the Congress, to the nation, and to the world. 

To declare war. To celebrate peace. To announce new plans and possibilities. 

Tonight, I come to talk about crisis — and opportunity.  

About rebuilding our nation — and revitalizing our democracy. 

And winning the future for America. 

As I stand here tonight — just one day shy of the 100^th day of my administration. 

100 days since I took the oath of office, lifted my hand off our family Bible, and inherited a nation in crisis. 

The worst pandemic in a century. 

The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. 

The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. 

Now, after just 100 days, I can report to the nation: America is on the move again.  

Turning peril into possibility. Crisis into opportunity. Setback into strength. 

Life can knock us down. 

But in America, we never stay down. 

In America, we always get up. 

And today, that’s what we’re doing: America is rising anew. 

Choosing hope over fear. Truth over lies. Light over darkness. 

After 100 Days of rescue and renewal, America is ready for takeoff. 

We are working again. Dreaming again. Discovering again. Leading the world again. 

We have shown each other and the world: There is no quit in America. 

100 days ago, America’s house was on fire.  

We had to act.  

And thanks to the extraordinary leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer – and with the overwhelming support of the American people – Democrats, Independents, and Republicans – we did act.  

Together — we passed the American Rescue Plan.  

One of the most consequential rescue packages in American history. 

We’re already seeing the results. 

After I promised 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots in 100 days – we will have provided over 220 million COVID shots in 100 days.  

We’re marshalling every federal resource. We’ve gotten the vaccine to nearly 40,000 pharmacies and over 700 community health centers. 

We’re setting up community vaccination sites, and are deploying mobile units into hard-to-reach areas. 

Today, 90% of Americans now live within 5 miles of a vaccination site. 

Everyone over the age of 16, everyone – is now eligible and can get vaccinated right away. 

So get vaccinated now. 

When I was sworn in, less than 1% of seniors were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 

100 days later, nearly 70% of seniors are fully protected.  

Senior deaths from COVID-19 are down 80% since January. Down 80%.  

And, more than half of all adults in America have gotten at least one shot. 

At a mass vaccination center in Glendale, Arizona, I asked a nurse what it’s like. 

She looked and said every shot feels like a dose of hope. 

A dose of hope for the educator in Florida who has a child who suffers from an auto-immune disease.  

She wrote to me that she was worried about bringing the virus home.  

When she got vaccinated, she sat in her car and just cried. 

Cried out of joy, cried out of relief. 

Parents are seeing smiles on their kids’ faces as they go back to school because teachers and school bus drivers, cafeteria workers have been vaccinated. 

Grandparents hugging their children and grandchildren instead of pressing their hands against a window to say goodbye  

It means everything to both of them. 

There’s still more work to do to beat this virus. We can’t let our guard down now.  

But tonight, I can say because of you — the American people – our progress these past 100 days against one of the worst pandemics in history is one of the greatest logistical achievements our country has ever seen. 

What else have we done these first 100 days? 

We kept our commitment and we are sending $1,400 rescue checks to 85% of all American households. 

We’ve already sent more than 160 million checks out the door. 

It’s making a difference.  

For many people, it’s making all the difference in the world. 

A single mom in Texas wrote to me. 

She said when she couldn’t work, this relief check put food on the table  

and saved her and her son from eviction. 

A grandmother in Virginia told me she immediately took her granddaughter to the eye doctor — something she put off for months because she didn’t have the money.  

One of the defining images of this crisis has been cars lined up for miles waiting for a box of food to be put in the trunk. 

Did you ever think you’d see that in America? 

That’s why the American Rescue Plan is delivering food and nutrition assistance to millions of Americans facing hunger – and hunger is down sharply already.  

We’re also providing: 

Rental assistance to keep people from being evicted from their homes. Providing loans to keep small businesses open and their employees on the Job. 

During these 100 days, an additional 800,000 Americans enrolled in the Affordable Care Act because I established a special sign up period to do that.  

We’re making one of the largest one-time investments ever in improving health care for veterans. 

Critical investments to address the opioid crisis. 

And, maybe most importantly, thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we are on track to cut child poverty in America in half this year.  

In the process, the economy created more than 1.3 million new jobs in 100 days.  

More new jobs in the first 100 days than any president on record. 

The International Monetary Fund is now estimating our economy will grow at a rate of more than 6% this year. 

That will be the fastest pace of economic growth in this country in nearly four decades. 

America is moving. Moving forward. And we can’t stop now. 

We’re in a competition with China and other countries to win the 21^st Century. 

We have to do more than just build back. We have to build back better. 

Throughout our history, public investments and infrastructure have transformed America.  

The transcontinental railroad and interstate highways united two oceans and brought us into a totally new age of progress. 

Universal public school and college aid opened wide the doors of opportunity. 

Scientific breakthroughs took us to the Moon and now to Mars, discovered vaccines, and gave us the Internet and so much more. 

These are the investments we make together, as one country, and that only government can make.  
 

Time and again, they propel us into the future.  

That’s why I proposed The American Jobs Plan — a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself. 

The largest jobs plan since World War II. 

It creates jobs to upgrade our transportation infrastructure. Jobs modernizing roads, bridges and highways. Jobs building ports and airports, rail corridors and transit lines. It’s clean water.  

Today, up to 10 million homes and more than 400,000 schools and child care centers have pipes with lead in them, including for drinking water. 

 A clear and present danger to our children’s health. 

The American Jobs Plan creates jobs replacing 100% of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines so every American, so every child – can turn on the faucet and be certain to drink clean water. 

It creates jobs connecting every American with high-speed internet, including 35% of rural Americans who still don’t have it.  

This will help our kids and businesses succeed in a 21^st Century economy. 

 
And I am asking the Vice President to help lead this effort. 

It creates jobs by building a modern power grid. 

Our grids are vulnerable to storms, hacks, and catastrophic failures – with tragic results as we saw in Texas and elsewhere during winter storms. 

The American Jobs Plan will create jobs to lay thousands of miles of transmission lines needed to build a resilient and fully clean grid. 

The American Jobs Plan will help millions of people get back to their jobs and their careers.  

2 million women have dropped out of the workforce during this pandemic, too often because they couldn’t get the care they need for their family, their children.  

800,000 families are on a Medicaid waiting list right now to get homecare for their aging parent or loved one with a disability. 

This plan will help these families and create jobs for our caregivers with better wages and better benefits. 

For too long, we have failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis. 

Jobs. Jobs. 

For me, when I think about climate change, I think jobs. 

The American Jobs Plan will put engineers and construction workers to work building more energy efficient buildings and homes. 

Electrical workers installing 500,000 charging stations along our highways. 

Farmers planting cover crops, so they can reduce carbon dioxide in the air and get paid for doing it. 

There’s no reason the blades for wind turbines can’t be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing.  

No reason why American workers can’t lead the world in the production of electric vehicles and batteries. 

The American Jobs Plan will create millions of good paying jobs – jobs Americans can raise their families on. 

And all the investments in the American Jobs Plan will be guided by one principle: “Buy American.” 

American tax dollars are going to be used to buy American products made in America that create American jobs. 

The way it should be. 

Now – I know some of you at home are wondering whether these jobs are for you. 

You feel left behind and forgotten in an economy that’s rapidly changing. 

Let me speak directly to you. 

Independent experts estimate the American Jobs Plan will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in economic growth for years to come. 

These are good-paying jobs that can’t be outsourced. 

Nearly 90% of the infrastructure jobs created in the American Jobs Plan do not require a college degree. 

75% do not require an associate’s degree. 

The American Jobs Plan is a blue-collar blueprint to build America. 

And, it recognizes something I’ve always said. 

Wall Street didn’t build this country. The middle class built this country. And unions build the middle class. 

And that’s why I’m calling on Congress to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act – the PRO Act — and send it to my desk to support the right to unionize. 

By the way – let’s also pass the $15 minimum wage. 

No one should work 40 hours a week and still live below the poverty line. 

And we need to ensure greater equity and opportunity for women. 

Let’s get the Paycheck Fairness Act to my desk for equal pay. 

It’s long past time. 

Finally, the American Jobs Plan will be the biggest increase in non-defense research and development on record.  

We will see more technological change in the next 10 years – than we saw in the last 50 years. 

And we’re falling behind in that competition. 

Decades ago we used to invest 2% of our GDP on research and development.  

Today, we spend less than 1%. 

China and other countries are closing in fast. 

We have to develop and dominate the products and technologies of the future: advanced batteries, biotechnology, computer chips, and clean energy. 

The Defense Department has an agency called DARPA – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – that’s there to develop breakthroughs to enhance our national security – which led to the internet and GPS and so much more. 

The National Institutes of Health, the NIH – should create a similar Advanced Research Projects Agency for health.  

 
To develop breakthroughs – to prevent, detect, and treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancer. 

This is personal to so many of us. 

I can think of no more worthy investment. And I know of nothing that is more bipartisan. 

Let’s end cancer as we know it. It’s within our power 

Investments in jobs and infrastructure like the ones we’re talking about have often had bipartisan support.  

Vice President Harris and I meet regularly in the Oval Office with Democrats and Republicans to discuss the American Jobs Plan.  

And I applaud a group of Republican Senators who just put forward their proposal. 

So, let’s get to work. 
 
 

We welcome ideas. 

But, the rest of the world isn’t waiting for us. Doing nothing is not an option. 

We can’t be so busy competing with each other that we forget the competition is with the rest of the world to win the 21^st Century. 
 

To win that competition for the future, we also need to make a once-in-a-generation investment in our families – in our children. 

That’s why I’m introducing the American Families Plan tonight, which addresses four of the biggest challenges facing American families today. 

First, access to a good education. 

When this nation made 12 years of public education universal in the last century, it made us the best-educated and best-prepared nation in the world. 

But the world is catching up. They are not waiting. 

12 years is no longer enough today to compete in the 21^st Century.  

That’s why the American Families Plan guarantees four additional years of public education for every person in America – starting as early as we can. 

We add two years of universal high-quality pre-school for every 3- and 4- year-old in America.  

The research shows that when a young child goes to school—not day care—they are far more likely to graduate from high school and go on to college.  

And then we add two years of free community college. 

And we will increase Pell Grants and investment in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal colleges, and minority-serving institutions. 

Jill is a community college professor who teaches today as First Lady. 

She has long said any country that out-educates us is going to outcompete us – and she’ll be leading this effort.