Consumer confidence has increased. The fear of a recession is decreasing. The economy is growing. And a corroded bridge in Wisconsin is getting more funding.
It’s a wintry mix of positive news for President Biden, who traveled to the shores of a bay near Lake Superior on Thursday to stand at the foot of the Blatnik Bridge, a structure his administration said was built without $1 billion by 2030 would have failed infusion through the bipartisan infrastructure bill that Mr. Biden has championed.
The president was there to talk about infrastructure and the economy and to compare his performance with that of his predecessor and likely general election challenger, former President Donald J. Trump.
“Economic growth is stronger than it was during the Trump administration,” Mr. Biden said, dressed in a casual sweater as he addressed Wisconsin residents gathered at Earth Rider Brewery in Superior, Wisconsin. “We obviously have more work to do, but we are making real progress.”
As the president spoke, Mr. Trump was taking the stand in a defamation trial in New York and delivered a striking split-screen comparison that the Biden campaign welcomed.
Mr. Biden and his advisers believe that projects like Blatnik, taking place in Americans’ backyards in battleground states like Wisconsin, could be enough to boost optimism and overcome pervasive skepticism about the state of the economy.
At his event, Mr. Biden talked about the $6.1 billion invested in Wisconsin and the $5.7 billion in Minnesota, which lies just across the bridge and supports the agriculture, shipping and forestry industries in the upper Midwest supported. The Blatnik, which spans St. Louis Bay and connects the ports of Superior and Duluth, Minn., was corroded and blocked by construction and diversions.
“There has been talk about replacing this bridge for decades, but it has never been done,” Mr. Biden said. “Til today.”
Bipartisan legislation or not, no Republican lawmaker has gathered to greet Mr. Biden. (“I’m sorry to say that the vast majority voted against it,” said Mr. Biden, a number that includes Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican who represents the district where the bridge is located .)
The Democratic governors of Wisconsin and Minnesota were in attendance. “Without Biden, this wouldn’t have happened,” Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin told attendees.
Several other Democrats, including Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota and Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, accompanied the president as he watched the bridge and later met with people in a taproom next to the brewery. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota sipped a glass of beer as she mingled next to Mr Biden.
Even without the no-show Republicans quickly rallying around Mr. Trump, there are still other headwinds to overcome.
Mr. Biden faced low approval ratings on the economy. And he has faced criticism from other Democrats over whether it was wise of him to adopt Bidenomics as a name-caller to gain credit for an economy that Americans have repeatedly signaled they are not enthusiastic about.
On Thursday, Mr. Biden appeared to have no concerns. At the brewery, he stood in front of a pole bearing the letters “Bidenomics” and lambasted Mr. Trump for “hollowing out communities, closing factories and leaving Americans behind.”
Mr. Trump, for his part, has attacked Mr. Biden on almost everything, but has also falsely claimed that low employment numbers under the Biden administration are not real.
Elsewhere in the Midwest, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen took rare aim at Mr. Trump during a speech in Chicago.
“Our country’s infrastructure has been deteriorating for decades,” Ms. Yellen said Thursday. “In the Trump administration, the idea of doing everything to fix the problem was a punchline.”
There was truth to her comment. During Mr. Trump’s presidency, he often deviated from speeches on infrastructure to attack his enemies. At his first Infrastructure Week event in 2017, he accused James B. Comey, whom he fired as FBI director, of perjury and leaking it to the news media. He later proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure package, without specifying how he would get the money. The term “Infrastructure Week” became a running joke in Washington.
In November 2021, Mr. Biden signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
“Instead of an infrastructure week, America is having an infrastructure decade,” Mr. Biden said on Thursday, referring to the work his administration has done.
To show how important Wisconsin will be ahead of the November election, Mr. Biden traveled there just three days after Vice President Kamala Harris began a national reproductive rights tour at an event outside Milwaukee. Wisconsin is a battleground state where his campaign is focused on courting black voters, young voters and any voters who could help him wrest the state’s 10 electoral votes from Mr. Trump.
Even though Mr. Trump was in court, the Republican National Committee released a statement criticizing Mr. Biden for the trip and blaming Bidenomics for economic woes.
“With soaring inflation and negative economic growth, Wisconsin residents are feeling the brunt of Joe Biden’s failures,” the group’s chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, said in a statement. “No matter how hard he tries, it’s too little, too late to impress workers and families who are living paycheck to paycheck thanks to Bidenomics.”
Alan Rappeport contributed reporting from Washington.
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2024-01-25 23:12:59
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