President Joe Biden is traveling to Cleveland, Ohio to deliver a speech on his economic efforts since taking office earlier this year.
At his address at Cuyahoga Community College, Biden is expected to claim the solution to the country’s economic setback is his massive “infrastructure” plan — dubbed the “American Jobs Plan” — and the coronavirus “relief” bill passed earlier this year.
“He’ll talk about how far we’ve come as a country because of the actions we’ve taken over the last four months,” Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
However, many economists worry Biden’s previous actions and future proposals will instead hurt the fragile economy as it attempts to rebound from the COVID-19 induced crash.
One specific economic concern over Biden’s policies is inflation. Even an economist who worked with President Barack Obama, whom Biden served under, warned about negative consequences of Biden’s economic proposals — specifically leading to inflation.
Republican Senator Rob Portman seeks answers from President Biden. He said, “We are just dumping so much more federal money into the system, and wanting to pay for it by tax increases that will make us less competitive in the global economy.”
Additionally, many worry about the continued stagnant unemployment rates. Last month, projections indicated that the U.S. economy should have added close to 1 million jobs. Instead, the country added a concerning 266,000 — dramatically missing the goal. Republicans have pointed to extra, federal weekly unemployment benefits as incentives for Americans to not go back to work.
Portman said he hopes Biden will address this in his speech. “We have unemployment under five percent in Ohio and it can be a lot lower if the government was helpful in getting people back to work,” he said.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for the Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
