US President Donald Trump will deliver his first speech to the Republican-majority Congress today.
Like his predecessors, Trump will address Congress at 21:00 pm local time (04:00 am Wednesday, Greek time) from the House of Representatives semicircle, which will also be attended by senators, ministers, and Supreme Court justices. and other high-ranking officials.
This is not really a speech on the "State of the Union", but its purpose will be similar. Trump will use the talk show, which will be aired on television, to present his administration's political and legislative work next year, to justify its defense spending priority, and to promote its social and economic reforms.
But there is disagreement on the horizon, especially with regard to health. In their constituencies, Republican lawmakers are coming under pressure from their constituents, who are worried about the announcement of the abolition of the insurance and health care system enacted by former US President Barack Obama, also known as Obamacare.
The US president and Republicans have pledged to scrap Obamacare, which has allowed 20 million Americans to get medical coverage and insurance, but have not said what they will replace it with.
There is division between the more liberal Republicans who want to curb state intervention and the pragmatists who are reluctant to abolish a system that, despite its problems, has helped millions of voters.
Tensions between Trump and Republican lawmakers could escalate when negotiations on the 2018 budget begin.
The US president wants to increase the country's military spending by 9% and reduce the budget of other ministries.
This worries many former high-ranking US officials - including retired General David Petraeus, a former CIA director - who have asked Trump not to sacrifice his diplomacy and international aid spending in a letter to Kosovo and the White House.
For their part, Democrats are not waiting for today's speech to denounce the president's hypocrisy, and have vowed to rally around to delay or block some of the reforms Trump is planning if there are leaks from Republicans.
Source: newsbeast.gr