president biden s first state of the union address is less than two weeks away, and it comes as he s facing crises on multiple fronts. a russian invasion in ukraine could soon become a major foreign policy challenge for the white house while inflation and culture wars threaten to overshadow biden s accomplishments here at home. my next guest says the president still has plenty of positives to sell record job growth, vaccine progress, and a landmark infrastructure bill. former obama political strategist and former cnn political commentator david axelrod joins me now. so the new york times you write the biden the state of the union is stressed without fully acknowledging the hard road we have traveled and the distance we have to go would seem off-key
screaming. that s how this works. they got to pass the bill to negotiate on the bill. i will say democrats are looking for a reason to be positive. people are being critical for this process. they re looking for a reason to be critical. they ll pass a landmark infrastructure bill that s bipartisan. that s going to be huge. it s going to be huge for joe biden and democrats and the republicans that voted for it. it s going to be good for america. then this other bill that s controversial. what s going to happen is, it s schoolhouse rock time, willie. that bill is going to be debated in the house and the senate and they re going to come back together in committee and try to line it up so both sides can vote for it. this is regular order and people should not be melting like snow
together to pass a landmark infrastructure bill while paving the way for a biden-defining budge 9th. we ll also have a better sense whether the u.s. could default on its debt for the first time in our history. so, yeah, some days matter more than others. and this is as big as it gets on capitol hill. yes, joe biden s democrats have a razor-thin manager anyone congress. but here s what s really frustrating. we re as close as we have been in a half century to major infrastructure investment and closer than ever to a debt default. for all our divisions, these should be areas that unite us as americans. they have been broad areas of consensus for both parties. forget all the jokes about infrastructure week because this has been a big goal going back decades. this bill, which i look forward to signing, will speed the repair of our aging roads, bridges and transit systems. the philosophy of this administration to invest in the future, to create new jobs and new opportunities for sustaine
referred to as a human infrastructure plan? what are you saying to convince some of your colleagues to get onboard? well, jim, president biden met in person with senator cinema and manchin. he s been actively engaged in helping members of congress who are more progressive understand and embrace his agenda to reduce the costs for working families, to reduce the cost of health care, of day care, of higher education, of workforce training and to make the investments we need to make over the coming decade to make sure that we re in a position to grow and grow quickly. i was thrilled in august when we passed on a bipartisan basis, a landmark infrastructure bill, and now we are working in the democratic caucus to pass the follow-on investment that s badly needed to make it possible for americans to get back to work by providing more affordable access to high quality preschool and day care,