President Joe Biden made a stop in the safe blue territory of New York to tout jobs created by the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law in August.
Biden toured and then spoke from an IBM facility in Poughkeepsie, New York, about 80 miles north of New York City, saying the bill would help the United States stay competitive in computer chip manufacturing.
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“This factory and the factories of other companies across America are where America’s future is literally being built,” Biden said. “Just since we’ve been elected, we’ve created 678,000 new manufacturing jobs.”
Biden spoke from a warehouse with pallets and stacks of boxes visible in the background, a familiar industrial setting similar to that of many previous speeches. He was joined by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and praised her work during the speech.
However, with one month to go before the midterm elections, many have publicly questioned why the president hasn’t visited more competitive states. New York is a reliably blue stronghold, as is New Jersey, where Biden will stop by the home of Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) later in the day.
Instead, Biden appears to be focusing on his accomplishments in office, which include a number of bills passed over the last six months.
“Where is it written that we can’t lead manufacturing in the world?” he said, adding that the U.S. will be the future of quantum computing. “Guess what? The supply chain is going to start here and end here in the United States.”
Biden, who has heavily promoted manufacturing throughout his time in the White House, again called himself the most pro-union president in history and leaned into the microphone as he promised the legislation would deliver union jobs.
“Folks, we need to make these chips in America, to bring down costs and create good-paying American jobs,” he said. “You’re going to have people who usually wear blue collars making $127,000 a year.”
Many of those jobs won’t require college degrees, he added, though Biden did not mention his $500 billion student debt transfer during the speech.
Despite Biden’s claims, conservatives hold that the economy recovered despite his efforts rather than because of them.
“President Biden’s policies haven’t created a single job,” said Alfredo Ortiz, CEO of the Job Creators Network. “The job growth he keeps touting is a function of the economy gradually recovering from the pandemic and the 23 million jobs we lost at its peak. Pre-pandemic, the unemployment rate was at a half-century low and inflation was negligible. Now inflation is at a four-decade high, thanks to Biden’s record spending spree.”
Biden did mention several projects, including a $4 billion Qualcomm investment, a $5 billion factory in North Carolina that will make electric vehicles, and a Lockheed Martin plant in Alabama that manufactures Javelin missiles. He called out Republicans for opposing the CHIPS and Science bill.
“Unfortunately, we produce 0% of these advanced [semiconductor] chips today. China is trying to move ahead of us on manufacturing them,” he said. “The Chinese Communist Party actively lobbied against the bill in Congress. … Unfortunately, some of our friends on the other team bought it.”
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He closed by saying the bill would raise American investments in research and development and force more products to be made in the U.S.
“This is about economic security,” Biden said. “It’s about national security. It’s about good-paying jobs you can raise a family on. There’s nothing the U.S. is unable to do if we set our minds to it.”
Biden will visit New Jersey next, and then finish his day at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser at the home of James and Kathryn Murdoch in New York City.
