Politics

Biden: Putin must pay a price for his aggression or more chaos will result

Washington, Mar 1 (EFE).- President Joe Biden on Tuesday evening will deliver his annual State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress and will say that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, must “pay a price for (his) aggression” in Ukraine because if he does not then this will result in “more chaos” in the world.

The White House released extracts, as prepared for delivery, of the speech Biden will make at 9 pm to US assembled lawmakers during which he will speak about the war in Ukraine.

“Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson – when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos. They keep moving. And, the costs and threats to America and the world keep rising,” the president will say.

Biden will say that NATO and US diplomacy “matter,” and he will accuse Putin of “rejecting efforts at diplomacy” and launching a “premeditated and unprovoked” invasion of Ukraine, which is not a NATO member but wants to be, something that the Kremlin seems bent on preventing at all costs.

“He thought the West and NATO wouldn’t respond. And, he thought he could divide us here at home. Putin was wrong. We were ready,” Biden intends to say, according to the excerpts of his upcoming remarks.

It is expected that Biden’s speech also will have a marked economic character and, specifically, he will refer to inflation, which in January shot up to 7.5 percent annually, a situation that has caused the president’s approval rating to drop to about 40 percent.

Biden will tell Americans that his plan to combat inflation is to “lower your costs, not your wages,” and to “make more cars and semiconductors in America” and to achieve “more infrastructure and innovation in America” so that the country will have “more goods moving faster and cheaper in America.”

“Economists call it ‘increasing the productive capacity of our economy,'” the president will say, adding: “I call it building a better America. My plan to fight inflation will lower your costs and lower the deficit.”

Biden will insist on the need to make more products in the US instead of relying on foreign supply chains, where there have been many problems and bottlenecks over the past year mostly resulting from the coronavirus pandemic’s economic repercussions.

The White House said on Tuesday that during his speech, the president will list a number of practical measures that will reduce living costs for families “right now,” including the costs of medications, healthcare insurance premiums and the costs of energy and childcare.

The 535 members of the US Congress – 100 senators and 435 representatives – are always invited to attend a president’s yearly State of the Union Address, in which US leaders have traditionally provided an overview of their administrations’ management of the nation’s affairs during the previous year and sets forth objectives for the rest of their term.

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