Biden takes on Trump in speech outlining vision for economy recovery
By: Molly Nagle (ABC News)
President Joe is doubling down on everything that has gotten the country into this mess. Joe Biden plans to spend taxpayer money on the same old hash of trade deals, infrastructure, technology, and another 'buy American' campaign. Renewing the band aids slapped on in the past isn't going to revitalize the United States.
Taxpayer support for American distributors of foreign made goods won't revitalize the manufacturing infrastructure of the United States. Electric vehicles assembled from foreign made components won't revitalize manufacturing. Erecting fields of solar panels and wind turbines using components produced offshore won't revitalize manufacturing. More taxpayer dollars spent on medical research won't enhance the ability of the United States to produce masks, swabs, glass vials, or ventilators.
President Joe isn't promising taxpayer support for building factories, applied engineering, or increasing the resilience of the United States. Joe Biden is only promising to throw more taxpayer money at increasing consumption. Biden is promoting the rather stupid notion that the United States can buy its way to prosperity.
President Joe demonstrates that he hasn't learned anything from his 44 years service in elected Federal positions. Repeating the mistakes of the past isn't genius. And ignoring the mistakes of the past isn't honesty.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Former Vice President Joe Biden tore into President Donald Trump Thursday on the incumbent's signature issue, the economy, seeking to cast him as a divisive and incompetent leader while unveiling the first major plank of his economic recovery plan.
"Donald Trump may believe that pitting Americans against Americans will benefit him. I don't," Biden said, arguing that Trump has demonstrated an inability to manage the raft of crises that have engulfed his presidency in the months leading up to the November election.
"We have a health crisis, an economic crisis, a racial justice crisis, a climate crisis. We need to come together to solve these crises, to solve them as Americans. This is our moment to imagine and to build a new American economy for our families and for our communities," the presumptive Democratic nominee said in a speech after touring a metal works factory in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, just outside of his hometown of Scranton.
The remarks came in concert with the release of the first part of Biden's "Build Back Better" economy plan, which focuses on a domestic manufacturing and innovation strategy that the campaign says will create 5 million new jobs, in addition to the jobs lost due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"The Biden plan to ensure the future is 'made in all of America' by all of America's workers" will look to counter steps taken by Trump in office, including the Trump tax cuts, which the campaign argues has led to an increase in foreign investments over domestic investments, and Trump's highly touted trade agreement with China.
Biden also took aim at Trump's 2016 campaign promises in the remarks, questioning what results the president had to show for issues including jobs, health care and manufacturing.
"Donald Trump loves to talk and talk and talk, but after three and a half years of big promises, what do the American people have to show for all the talk?" Biden asked.
"He promised to bring back jobs and manufacturing. It was in recession even before COVID-19. He promised to buy American, then he let federal contractors double the rate of offshoring jobs in his first 18 months. I'm going to change that," the former vice president continued.
Biden blasted what he characterized as the Trump administration's "incompetence" in dealing with the virus, arguing that Trump has "simply given up" the fight against stopping it's spread, and is instead solely focused on the fortunes of the stock market and their effect on his reelection prospects.
"When it comes to COVID-19, after months of doing nothing, other than predicting the virus would disappear or maybe, if you drank bleach, you may be okay, Trump has simply given up," Biden said.
"The truth is throughout this crisis, Donald Trump has been almost singularly focused on the stock market, the Dow and NASDAQ. Not you. Not your families," he added.
Biden's pivot to the economy, which has entered a recession spurred by the coronavirus crisis, comes as recent polling still shows Trump with a slight advantage over his Democratic rival when it comes to voters' attitudes on the topic. In a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in mid-June, Trump retained a 5-point advantage over Biden when voters were asked who would do a better job handling the economy.
The campaign says Biden's new plan includes a "Buy American" aspect, based on the premise that "when we spend taxpayer money, we should buy American products and support American jobs," and is meant to be a comprehensive "manufacturing and innovation strategy [that] will marshall the resources of the federal government in ways that we have not seen since World War II."
The plan, the campaign says, is not just a response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has decimated parts of the American economy, but is also a broader roadmap to a more equitable economy.
The manufacturing aspect of the plan includes a $400 billion "procurement investment" that, together with the former vice president's clean energy and infrastructure plan, will "power new demand for American products, materials and services and ensure that they are shipped on U.S.-flagged cargo carriers," according to the Biden campaign.
The procurement portion of Biden's policy is designed to support small businesses, particularly those owned by people of color and women, according to the policy release, and will also require businesses receiving funds from the investment to commit to a $15 minimum wage, paid leave and the guaranteed option to join a union.
Biden will also seek to work with allies to "modernize international trade rules and associated domestic regulations regarding government procurement," according to the policy proposal.
Biden is also proposing an additional $300 billion in research and development spending on "breakthrough technologies," like electric vehicles, lightweight materials, 5G and artificial intelligence. A portion of the proposed investment will also go directly to federal funding for research through entities like the National Institutes of Health.
The campaign did not give specific guidance on how the policy will be paid for, but said that recurring costs of the plan over 10 years would be paid in full, with a payment plan that will be rolled out with other portions of the larger policy. However, it left open the possibility of additional one-time stimulus investments that may not be covered in the proposed plan.
The campaign argues that the current economic situation calls for a "robust jobs agenda," that will off-set the precipitous decrease in demand and growth caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Today's elevated unemployment will mean lower demand, which will mean lower growth for our economy (which relies on consumption). A robust jobs agenda will increase demand," the campaign argued, saying broad investments now are necessary to improve both the long and short-term health of the economy.
Biden's trip to Pennsylvania on Thursday was his fifth to the critical swing state since the COVID-19 pandemic largely brought in-person campaigning to a halt, and marked Biden's first trip near his hometown of Scranton since October 2019.
The native Pennsylvanian also made a stop at his childhood home while in town, saying he "couldn't come to Scranton without coming by the old house."
In addition to the specific pillar Biden laid out, the campaign also previewed the other three pillars that together make up his plan, which includes mobilization plans across a number of different policy areas, including infrastructure, technological innovation, a "caregiving and education workforce" and racial equality that will be announced in the coming weeks.
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Joe Biden promising 'more of the same' isn't about change. In fact, President Joe is promising to avoid changing anything. Joe Biden is smearing lipstick on the same pet pig that he has groomed since being first elected in 1973.
Joe's gonna FIX IT ALL ....... This time.
Wonder when Joe's gonna stop stealing others words and using them as if it's his own great idea ?
President Joe is touting public investment of taxpayer money to influence what is produced. But that isn't what is needed.
The consumer marketplace is actually pretty good at determining what should be produced. We don't need the government to fix something that is already working pretty well. We don't need to boost domestic consumption; we have an adequate retail and distribution infrastructure.
What the United States lacks is an adequate manufacturing infrastructure. The pandemic has highlighted the United States lack of ability to produce what is needed when it is needed. There is plenty of demand in the United States economy. What the United States needs is the domestic capability and capacity to supply that demand.
If President Joe really wants to create jobs then the biggest opportunity is in revitalizing manufacturing and production.
I don't think people realize just how big manufacturing is in this country. In 2015, China produced $2.01T, we were a close second at $1.87T. What we really need to do is to stop transferring the wealth produced by this engine to a tiny percentage of the population. Before Reagan, 62% of the wealth earned went to labor, that has declined to only 43%. You can’t continuously shuffle the efforts of laborers to the wealthy and expect to have a functioning economy because the wealthy buy very little. If we had the same ratio as in the 70s, the wealthy would still be very rich, but labor would have 40% more income to spend and the economy would be flying.
An unfortunate fact is that transferring the fruits of labor to capital (the wealthy) is what Republicans do. Their tax cuts and anti-labor policies like right-to-work benefit the wealthy. Money is used to give the wealthy an outsized voice in policy. There are half as many people in unions now as in the 70s.
Biden's plan can be summed up simply. He is going to break out his knee pads and suck China off so hard the US economy will have no choice but to rebound.
Shit can any new fair trade deal with China, or any other country. Forget protection of US information, technology, and intellectual property. He will ensure that China will not be held accountable for lying about Covid-19, and failing to stop it from turning into a pandemic.
Joe's plan is China; and blaming Trump when that fails. His plan does nothing to solve the nations current problems for the next pandemic.
40+ years in government and NOW he's going to do something? And NYC is going to offer free housing to anybody who wants it.