MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tennessee’s Republican senators reacted to Wednesday night’s speech to Congress by President Joe Biden, in which he outlined a $1.8 trillion investment in children, families and education to help rebuild an economy devastated by the virus and compete with rising global competitors.
“This is a President who— in a matter of three months— has propped our border open and kept our schools shut, put in place polices that destroy jobs and our energy independence, and demonized many Americans instead of bringing us together,” Sen. Bill Hagerty said in a statement.
“Tennesseans want to put this pandemic in our rearview mirror, rebuild our economy, reopen our schools, and see wages rising again. Instead, President Biden has proposed the largest tax hike on Americans in a generation, which will not only kill jobs it will destroy any economic recovery we have seen thus far,” he said.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn said on Twitter that Biden “just proposed the largest government takeover we’ve seen in modern history.”
Biden declared Wednesday night in his first address to a joint session of Congress that “America is rising anew,” and pointed optimistically to the nation’s emergence from the pandemic as a vital moment to rebuild the U.S. economy and fundamentally transform government roles in American life.
Congressman Steve Cohen, a Memphis Democrat, praised the president’s speech.
“President Biden emphasizes helping the people most affected, and those most in need, during these difficult economic times. I’m pleased to be working with him on the front lines of this pandemic, where we are far ahead of his ambitious goals to get people vaccinated and repair the damage done to our economy,” Cohen said.
