President Joe Biden visits Milwaukee to talk about the positive impacts of Bidenomics (Photo by Milwaukee Independent)
By Karen Stokes
President Joe Biden on Tuesday, Aug. 15 traveled to Wisconsin to highlight his economic policies in a state critical to his reelection.
His arrival in Milwaukee came on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, a major piece of economic legislation he signed into law with great ceremony but polls show that most people know little about it or what it does.
President Biden began his speech discussing the devastating wildfires in Hawaii.
“I immediately approved the governor’s request for an expedited major disaster declaration. That’s a fancy way of saying, “Whatever you need, you’re going to get.” And that will get aid into the hands of people who desperately need it who have lost their loved ones; who have lost their homes, their livelihoods; who have been damaged and destroyed,” he said.
The president spent about two hours at Ingeteam, a clean energy manufacturer of onshore wind turbine generators in Milwaukee. It was part of a larger discussion of investment in manufacturing, clean energy, and jobs.
“But today, I came to Milwaukee to talk about what we’re doing to bring manufacturing back home. It’s about our progress building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. You know, when we — it’s that trickle-down economics. Not a hell of a lot landed on my dad’s kitchen table. But when the middle works and the bottom has a shot up, the wealthy do very well,” The President said.
“It’s really kind of basic: we just decided to invest in America again,” Biden said Tuesday. “That’s what it’s all about.”
According to Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, Biden’s economic plan is leading to a boom in manufacturing and manufacturing investment.
President Joe Biden in Milwaukee speaking with children. (Photo by Milwaukee Independent)
There have been 150,000 new jobs in the state of Wisconsin. Nearly 800,000 new manufacturing jobs nationwide. More than 20,000 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin, from Green Bay to Verona to Pleasant Prairie.
“More jobs in two years than any president has in American history in a four-year term. More in two than any has done in four,” Biden said. “Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is just 2.5 percent. That’s lower than it was every single month in the prior administration.”
Biden said that his ideas are in opposition to “the conservative Republican view, the so-called MAGA view, which is focused on corporate profits. He called out Republican Senator Ron Johnson saying that Johnson believes outsourcing manufacturing jobs is a great thing. The president touched on the investment put back into U.S. manufacturing through the Chips and Science Act, bipartisan Infrastructure Law, American Rescue Plan, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). But polls show most people do not know much about it or what it does.
“You know, we have more to do with inflation, though. It’s just about 3 percent now, and it’s predicted to go lower than that. We’re near the lowest point in over 2 years,” he said.
And at the same time, the pay for low-wage workers has grown at the fastest rate in two decades. Wages are growing faster than inflation. “Folks, that’s Bidenomics. It’s about growing an economy by strengthening the middle class and making things in America again. Well, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’ve already announced 37,000 projects, 4,500 communities across America, including hundreds of projects, as the governor referenced, right here in Wisconsin.”
The President gave examples of current projects.
“We’re investing $80 million to replace the interstate bridge over the Wisconsin River in Columbia County. That’s a major route connecting people to Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago. Since I took office, I’ve seen more than $3 billion in private investment in clean energy manufacturing, all across Wisconsin. That’s Bidenomics. That’s investing in America.” “It’s time to build American products in America,” he said.