Pitching a vision for the American economy rebuilt “from the bottom up,” President Joe Biden pushed back on criticism of his sweeping economic agenda, swiping at Republican lawmakers and arguing the proposals are essential to forging the country’s future.
Biden pointed to GOP lawmakers who didn’t vote for his coronavirus package but later touted it back home.
“I’m not going to embarrass any one of them, but I have here a list,” Biden said in remarks at Cuyahoga Community College in Ohio on Thursday, flipping through a stack of papers before holding up a page. “I mean, some people have no shame.”
Biden said about his latest proposals, which total $2.5 trillion, “Of course there are critics out there who want to stand still.”
“By the way, some of those critics are the same people who said that money was no object when it came to that $2 trillion tax cut that went to the wealthiest 1% in America.”
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Asked to spend on roads and water systems, or child and eldercare, all measures proposed by the White House, Biden said: “They think that’s a bridge too far.”
“These are generational investments,” Biden said of the proposed plans.
A 36-year senator from Delaware, home to many financial corporations, before becoming vice president, Biden stressed his corporate bonafides.
“I come from the corporate capital of the world,” he said, before offering a critique of modern capitalism and offering, as one solution, a corporate tax hike to 28%. He also urged Congress to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
“I’m a capitalist. But here’s the deal,” Biden said, “productivity has grown four times faster than pay has grown. The basic bargain in this countries is broken.”
He added, “My sole measure of economic success is our working families, whether they have jobs to live with dignity.”
Still, Biden sought to reassure voters who fear that his administration is wading into uncomfortable territory under pressure from the left wing of his party.
The turnaround from COVID-19 wasn’t “luck,” he said, ticking off a series of markers and pointing to vaccination upticks across the country.
Recent concerns over labor market data have spooked some analysts and stoked criticism that the White House’s spending efforts could overheat the economy. A recent jobs report saw significantly slower growth than was predicted.
Biden appeared to acknowledge this, warning that “there’s going to be ups-and-downs in jobs and economic reports.”
He added, “There’s going to be supply change price distortions on the way back to stable and steady growth in the coming weeks.”
A memo drafted by Biden senior adviser Mike Donilon, shared with reporters Thursday, argued that the country is now at “an inflection point” as it leaves the pandemic behind.
“The American people understand that the economy we had before the pandemic left far too many people behind. … They know we can’t afford to simply turn the clock back to where we were,” Donilon wrote, adding that voters “are sending a clear message, the question now is whether Congressional Republicans will listen.”
Negotiations for Biden’s $2.25 trillion jobs and infrastructure plan are underway, with the two sides inching closer.
Still, Republicans have pushed back against Biden’s total.
Democrats are proposing to spend “more than we’ve spent in adjusted inflation dollars to win WW2,” McConnell said during an interview on CNBC. “Now they seem to want to double down and do more.”
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On Thursday, GOP lawmakers delivered a nearly $1 trillion counteroffer to the White House proposal.
Asked if this latest offer by Republicans was final, McConnell said it was not.
“No, we’re going to keep talking,” the Kentucky Republican said.
