As Democrats stare down the barrel of November’s midterm elections, President Joe Biden is hopscotching the country to sell his trillion-dollar “roads and bridges” spending plan and rouse voter support.
In remarks at an Air National Guard base in Portland, Oregon, Biden placed the trillion-dollar bill in historic terms.
“Thanks to the infrastructure law, we’re making the most significant investment to modernize roads and bridges … since Eisenhower’s interstate highway system,” he said Thursday. To reinforce how important he believed the bill to be, Biden quipped that he “wrote the original one with my own paw.”
The president ticked through a list of local projects, explaining how the $1.2 trillion law would help shore up Oregon’s needs.
“Because of the infrastructure law, we’re going to see a modernized baggage claim area, improved taxiways, and, yes, better escalators,” Biden said. “All across Oregon, we’re sending the message, ‘These ports and airports are open for more business.’”
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Biden’s visit to the Pacific Northwest, his first since taking office, is the latest in a string of stops outside Washington to tout the bipartisan bill as the president looks for opportunities to hammer home his achievements to voters preoccupied with surging prices.
In Portland, Biden stressed the sharp decline in unemployment since he came into office and called on lawmakers in Washington to boost U.S. manufacturing and ease supply chains by passing the Bipartisan Innovation Act. He also pressed for energy independence, blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for the spike in gas prices eating into American pocketbooks.
And he implored Americans to look ahead. “Stop feeling sorry for yourselves, get the hell up, and take this country back,” Biden said to cheers from the assembled crowd.
But whether Biden and his top aides will succeed in countering voter ambivalence about the massive public spending is unclear. A March Gallup poll shows that more people are worried about inflation than any other issue, closely followed by concerns over the economy and crime.
The high cost of living is eating away at people’s incomes, with inflation this month reaching a four-decade high. Surging prices for goods and services, including gas and groceries, are weighing on families across the country, surveys show.
Voters are also worried about crime. In downtown Portland, buildings and businesses were badly damaged during riots that erupted in 2020 as people took to the streets to protest the murder of George Floyd.
With midterm elections on the horizon, some Democratic advisers are raising concerns publicly about the party’s waning hold on voters. Democrats’ slim majorities in the House and Senate could quickly evaporate if the current conditions hold.
Biden’s pollster said Democrats have had difficulty convincing the public that they were making strides for them, telling Politico in an interview that the party needs to assess “how not to get our ass kicked” in elections this year.
“I think what we’re missing right now is that voters are very much in ‘What have you done for me lately?’” John Anzalone said. “They always are. And they don’t feel Democrats can get their s*** together and get things done.”
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Biden will make two back-to-back fundraising stops during his overnight swing — the first at the Portland Yacht Club and the second at a lakefront Seattle home hosted by Microsoft President Brad Smith. En route to the first Democratic National Committee fundraiser, bystanders waved anti-Biden and pro-Trump flags, including one that simply said, “Trump Won.”
