President Joe Biden is using his address to Congress Tuesday night to urge Republicans to work with him to “finish the job” of rebuilding the economy and uniting the nation as he seeks to overcome national pessimism and overcome political divisions in Washington. .

The annual speech comes as the nation struggles to make sense of confusing countercurrents at home and abroad — economic uncertainty, a debilitating war in Ukraine, rising tensions with China, and more — and is wary of Biden’s suitability for a likely bid. for re-election. The president offers a hopeful assessment of the state of the country, rather than putting forward catchy political proposals.

“America’s history is one of progress and resilience,” Biden says, according to excerpts released by the White House. He highlights that a record number of jobs have been created during his tenure as the country emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic. And he says that two years after the January 6, 2021 uprising in the Capitol, democracy in the country is “unbending and unbroken.”

With Republicans now in control of the House of Representatives, Biden points to areas of bipartisan progress in his first two years in office, including in vital state infrastructure and high-tech manufacturing. And he says, “There’s no reason why we can’t work together in this new Congress.”

“People sent us a clear signal. Fighting for the sake of fighting, strength for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict will get us nowhere,” Biden said. “And that has always been my vision for the country: to restore the soul of the nation, to restore the backbone of America – the middle class – to unite the country.”

“We were sent here to finish the job!”

According to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, the president is sitting in the House of Representatives at a time when only a quarter of US adults believe that things are moving in the right direction in the country. About three quarters say that everything is going the wrong way. And most Democrats don’t want Biden to run for another term.

He strongly opposes these sentiments, aides say.

“You’re wondering if there’s even a way for you and your kids to move forward without swerving, I get it,” Biden says. “That’s why we’re building an economy where no one is left behind. Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back because of the choices we’ve made over the past two years.”

The setting for Biden’s speech is markedly different from what it was a year ago, when Nancy Pelosi, a die-hard Democrat, sat behind him as Speaker of the House. She was replaced by Republican Kevin McCarthy, and it was unclear how the Democratic president would be received by restive Republicans in the House.

McCarthy on Monday vowed to be “respectful” during his speech and, in turn, asked Biden to refrain from using the phrase “extreme MAGA Republicans,” which the president used during the 2022 presidential campaign.

“I won’t cut speeches, I won’t play games,” McCarthy told reporters, referring to Pelosi’s dramatic actions since President Donald Trump’s latest State of the Union address.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who gained national clout as Trump’s press secretary, was due to come up with a Republican response to Biden’s speech.

Now that COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, the White House and lawmakers from both parties have invited guests to bring political messages to the floor of the House of Representatives. The parents of Tyre Nichols, who was brutally beaten by police in Memphis and later died, are expected to sit next to US First Lady Jill Biden. Biden’s other guests include rock star and humanitarian Bono and the 26-year-old man who disarmed a gunman during a shooting in Monterey Park, California last month.

Members of the Black Caucus in Congress invited family members of those involved in police incidents as they sought to demand police reform action after Nichols’ death.

Biden is changing his mind after spending the first two years pushing through big bills like the bipartisan infrastructure package, the high-tech manufacturing promotion bill and climate action. With Republicans now in control of the House of Representatives, Biden has focused on implementing these sweeping laws and getting voters to trust him for improvements.

The refusal to advertise fresh initiatives is largely driven by necessity. Biden is facing a newly empowered Republican Party that is eager to undo many of his achievements and vows to do a plethora of investigations, including examining recent discoveries of classified documents from his time as vice president at his home and former office.

At the same time, Biden will need to find a way to work across the aisle to keep the government funded by raising the federal debt ceiling by this summer. Biden insisted that he would not negotiate to meet the country’s debt obligations; Republicans were just as adamant that Biden should make concessions on spending.

On the eve of President McCarthy’s speech, he urged Biden to sit down at the negotiating table with Republicans in the House of Representatives to cut spending as part of a deal to raise the national debt ceiling.

While hopes for large-scale bipartisan cooperation are low, Biden has reissued his 2022 call to Congress to support its “unity agenda” of action against the opioid epidemic, mental health, veterans’ health and cancer control. He was to announce new executive initiatives and call on legislators to take action to support new measures to support cancer research, address housing issues and prevent suicide among veterans, increase access to mental health care, and take further action to combat the lethal fentanyl trafficking.

The White House said the president will call for a new $35 per month insulin price cap for people receiving medical care to be extended to all residents of the country. He will also push for Congress to quadruple the one percent tax on corporate share buybacks that was enacted by the Democrats’ climate and health bill passed last year, known as the Inflation Reduction Act.

The speech comes days after Biden ordered the military to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that brazenly flew over the country, captivating the nation and serving as a reminder of tensions between the two world powers.

Last year’s address came just days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, and just as many in the West doubted Kyiv’s ability to withstand the onslaught. Over the past year, the United States and other allies have sent tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid to bolster Ukraine’s defenses. Now Biden must justify – both at home and abroad – support for this coalition while the war drags on.

“The President will really want to build on the significant achievement that has already been made and then emphasize how much more remains to be done, how committed we are to this, and how we will bipartisanly address the US Congress. join us in this work,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.

While COVID-19 has weakened at home, Biden is turning his attention to other national woes, including a deadly opioid epidemic, gun violence and police abuse. A White House fact sheet before the speech combined police reform with a reduction in violence, suggesting that providing the police with better training tools could lead to a reduction in crime across the country.

The president spent most of Monday’s weekend reviewing speech drafts with aides at the presidential residence at Camp David in Maryland.

McCarthy urged Biden to support Republican efforts to put the country’s finances on a balanced budget path, which would require deep and politically unpopular federal spending cuts that Biden and Democrats have fiercely resisted.

“We must move towards a balanced budget and insist on being truly accountable for every dollar we spend,” McCarthy said.

The White House accused Republicans of “threatening to actively throw our economy into a tailspin due to default” by imposing conditions on the debt limit.