Biden touts job gains in push for proposals
Procedural vote set for Wednesday
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden took some credit Monday for the country’s expanding economy and urged support for his two long-term infrastructure proposals, which hang in Congress’ balance this week as lawmakers battle over the details.
A day short of the sixmonth mark for his presidency, Mr. Biden touted the uptick in monthly job growth in that time, which included his signing a $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief law, and sought to reassure Americans an increase in inflation would be temporary. Now, he said, both parties should support his proposed investments in the nation’s infrastructure and social safety net.
“The investments I’m proposing are the investments the American people want and the investments our country needs,” Mr. Biden said during remarks from the White House’s State Dining Room.
He called the roughly $4.5 trillion in proposed spending over the decade “the best strategy to create millions of jobs and lift up middle class families and grow wages and keep prices affordable for the long term.”
Mr. Biden argued upgraded infrastructure would boost the economy broadly and reduce inflation over time. Expanding the temporary child tax credit that was part of his COVID-19 relief package and subsidizing preschool and community college educations, he continued, also would make the economy stronger, more equitable and more competitive globally. “Simply put, we can’t afford not to make these investments,” the president said.
Mr. Biden separately expressed support for Democrats who want to include a provision establishing a pathway to citizenship for some groups of immigrants, including “Dreamers” brought to the U.S. as children. But he said the Senate parliamentarian would have to decide whether the proposal could be incorporated into the spending bill.
With the August recess looming, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, is determined the Senate begin advancing a bipartisan infrastructure package, although it has yet to evolve into actual legislation from the framework 10 senators, five from each party, agreed to.
Republicans have balked at Mr. Schumer’s scheduling of an initial procedural vote on Wednesday, given the particulars — namely, how to pay for roughly $1 trillion in spending on roads, bridges, rail lines, electric vehicle charging stations and more — are still being worked out.