The U.S. Constitution mandates that from time to time the president informs Congress about the state of the union.

And in modern times, presidents do so with a speech before members of both the House and Senate.

Mr. Speaker, Madam Vice President, our First Lady and Second Gentlemen, good to see you guys up there.

Members of Congress.

You know the trail. The president speaks about the highs and the lows of the past year and often includes some lines that the White House is pretty sure everyone can agree on.

The story of America, the story of progress and resilience, of always moving forward, of never ever giving up.

President Biden's state of the union address on Tuesday night was no exception. Like other presidents before him, Biden outlined his agenda and used the speech to score political points.

At one particular point though, things went a bit off script.

Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share of some Republicans, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset, I'm not saying it's a majority.

Those booze came from Republican lawmakers, one of whom called the president a liar.

Anybody who doubts it, contact my office, I'll give you a copy. I'll give you a copy of the proposal.

Consider this. President Biden's state of the union was delivered to a very narrowly divided Congress, one where both parties could find it hard to get anything done unless they worked together.

We ask two lawmakers, both House Freshman, one Republican, the other Democrat, what they took away from the speech and how they see the state of the union.

From NPR, I'm Wanda Summers. It's Wednesday, February 8th.

Support for NPR and the following message come from Capital One, the 2023 lead sponsor of NPR Music.

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It's consider this from NPR. As President Biden addressed a divided Congress last night, he repeatedly appealed to lawmakers to finish the job on his wide-ranging agenda.

Let's finish the job and get more families access to affordable quality housing. Let's come together to finish the job on police reform.

Let's finish the job and ban these assault weapons. Let's finish the job this time. Let's cap the cost of violence for everybody at $35.

However unlikely some of those priorities are now with the Republican-controlled House, the President urged his GOP counterparts to identify areas for compromise.

If we could work together in the last Congress, there's no reason we can't work together and find consensus on important things in this Congress as well.

That line got a head nod and a polite hand clap from Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

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