U.S. President Joe Biden speaks alongside Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on June 6, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
President Joe Biden’s Cabinet will wrap up a whirlwind tour Thursday after a two-week absence, touting the administration’s economic achievements ahead of the Democratic incumbent’s first debate against former President Donald Trump.
In the 10 days leading up to Thursday’s debate, the White House organized 29 public events attended by more than a dozen senior administration officials to promote Biden’s economic agenda, a White House official said in a memo announcing the action .
The events spanned 15 states, including key battlegrounds such as Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined the roadshow along with 15 other Cabinet members and senior administration officials.
On Wednesday, domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden announced a new plan to temporarily lower out-of-pocket costs for some prescription drugs for seniors by penalizing pharmaceutical companies that raise drug prices faster than the rate of inflation.
“Executives were completely exposed to Big Pharma’s price increases. Not anymore,” White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden said in the press release.
Earlier this week, Yellen visited Minnesota to announce a new $100 million affordable housing fund.
“Thanks to President Biden’s economic plan, the American economy is strong and resilient, with robust economic growth in recent quarters,” she said in a speech Monday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tours Ford Motor Company’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, which builds the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning, with vehicle chief engineer Linda Zhang (R) before delivering a business speech in Dearborn, Michigan September 8 2022.
Jeff Kowalsky | AFP | Getty Images
“The labor market is remarkably healthy, with low unemployment, rising real wages, and a larger share of working-age Americans in the labor force than before the pandemic.”
During the tour, administration officials further laid out the economic arguments that both Biden and his campaign have made in recent months and are likely to come up again at Thursday’s debate.
“The president has urged large corporations to pass savings on to consumers, pushed through a historic cost-cutting law, directed his Cabinet to use every means to cut costs, and eliminated hidden junk fees in nearly every area of the family budget,” Brainard said at a Urban Institute event.
Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard listens to a question during an interview in Washington, DC, U.S., Monday, November 14, 2022.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The White House’s push to bolster voters’ economic pessimism and counter Republicans’ narrative on inflation – a persistent weakness for Biden in the polls – is consistent with the Biden campaign’s own efforts.
But they differ in one key way: While White House officials share the positive news and developments they attribute to Biden’s economic policies, they are careful not to mention Donald Trump or other Republican candidates by name.
The task of reminding voters how Biden differs from Trump is left to the campaign, which released a new ad on Wednesday contrasting their “dueling economic visions” and accusing the Republican former president of falling short a plan to “help working families.”
The goal of the tour is for officials to “present” Biden’s economic agenda “as they have done throughout the administration,” White House spokesman Jeremy Edwards told CNBC.
Edwards compared the last two weeks to all other economic stimulus measures the administration has launched during Biden’s first term.
“Since President Biden took office, the administration has continued to meet people where they are to highlight the work we are doing on behalf of the American people,” Edwards said in a statement to CNBC.
In fact, Biden’s Cabinet members launched a very similar two-week roadshow in March following his State of the Union address.
Recent attempts to exaggerate Biden’s economic gains come on the heels of a decline in consumer confidence this month, according to nonprofit business research group The Conference Board. The June index reading released on Tuesday fell slightly to 100.4 from 101.3 in May, suggesting that household sentiment is slightly worse this month than last month.
The Labor Department is poised to release its weekly initial jobless claims data on Thursday, just hours before the debate. While the numbers are limited to just one week, they could provide a last-minute boost to either Trump or Biden, depending on where they fall. An updated estimate of US gross domestic product will also be released on Thursday.
The candidates’ competing claims about the economy will be further tested Friday morning when the Federal Reserve releases May data from the central bank’s preferred measure of inflation: the Personal Consumptions Expenditure (PCE) index.
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2024-06-26 22:29:30
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