President Joe Biden will face no small task on Tuesday night, when he delivers his State of the Union speech after a little more than two years in office. Biden looks poised to tackle the debt-limit standoff, recession worries and acts of violence at home and abroad in his remarks.
At the same time, American presidents “can’t really alter the political environment fundamentally when they speak,” said Julia Azari, a professor of political science at Marquette University. “But Biden can signal to his political coalition what his priorities will be,” Azari told MarketWatch in an email. “The other framing is what issues might Biden think will give him a political advantage over Republican opponents,” she also said. Below are five challenges that Biden is facing ahead of his primetime address before a joint session of Congress, along with how he could tackle them. The speech comes as the 46th U.S. commander-in-chief appears set to announce in early spring that he’ll run for president again in 2024.Debt limit “The debt limit is certain to be the president’s top issue,” said Jonathan Bydlak, director of the governance program at the R Street Institute, a right-leaning think tank. Bydlak said he expects Biden in his speech will continue asserting that he won’t negotiate over raising the ceiling for federal borrowing with the Republican-run House of Representatives, where lawmakers want spending cuts in exchange for the hike. The standoff threatens to …