Biden touts working economy in battleground Wisconsin
President Biden touted his economic plan in a new op-ed Sunday, claiming so-called Bidenomics are working in Wisconsin, one of the few remaining battleground states.
“More than 13 million jobs, including 800,000 in manufacturing,” Biden wrote in an op-ed marking Labor Day in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Unemployment below 4 percent for the longest stretch in 50 years. More working-age Americans are employed than at any time in the past 20 years.”
The White House has spent the last few weeks lauding its “Bidenomics” agenda in the wake of the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a sweeping economic legislation package that aimed to tackle inflation, increase jobs and decrease unemployment levels.
In Sunday’s op-ed, Biden pointed to increasing wages, rising job satisfaction and restored union pensions and claimed inflation is “near its lowest point in over two years.”
Echoing his previous opposition of “trickle-down economics,” which was part of former President Reagan’s “Reaganomics,” Biden said his economic plan is bringing jobs and factories back to America.
Stubborn inflation over the past two years and increasing interest rates from the Federal Reserve have prompted criticism of the Biden administration’s economic policies, as national polls show voters still feel little relief at home.
Biden pointed to his focus on clean energy factories, one of which he visited in Milwaukee last month ahead of the one-year anniversary of the IRA.
“We’ve attracted over $500 billion in private investment to make clean energy technology, semiconductors and other innovations here at home — creating good-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree,” Biden wrote.
Biden described meeting with an IBEW electrician last month at a clean energy factory in Milwaukee whom he said “embodies the spirit of Labor Day,” which “honors the dignity of the American worker and recognizes that Wall Street didn’t build America, the middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.”
The president called the American worker the “real hero” and pushed for a proposed Labor Department rule which would extend overtime pay for as many as 3.6 million workers.
“An honest day’s work should get a fair day’s of pay,” Biden wrote. “A mom in Wisconsin who makes 37,500 a year and has sometimes worked 60-hour weeks could now be eligible to earn time and a half for all the time she works in a week over 40 hours.”
Arguing Congressional Republicans are blocking increased minimum wages and “attacking unions,” Biden pledged to continue to fight for increased wages, union rights and clean energy policies.
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