By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will once again contrast his economic plan with Republicans’ on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to convince voters Democrats are better equipped to battle high inflation and grow the economy, less than two weeks away from midterm elections.
Biden will visit Syracuse, New York, where Micron Technology plans to invest up to $100 billion in computer chip manufacturing, part of tens of billions in new factory spending announced after Biden signed the CHIPS Act subsidizing the industry in August.
In Syracuse, Biden will lay out his efforts to rebuild the American middle class and bring manufacturing jobs back to upstate New York, and contrast them with what he has called Republicans’ “mega MAGA trickle down agenda.”
Senior administration officials said Wednesday he will say the Republican economic plans will benefit the super wealthy and increase inflation. Earlier this week, Biden warned Republicans would cause ‘chaos’ in the world’s largest economy.
Some Republicans have pledged to use the debt ceiling to force cuts to federal spending, extend Trump tax cuts, repeal provisions in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act that lower prescription drug prices and block Biden’s student debt relief plan.
“Tomorrow you will hear him (Biden) lay out in stark relief the specific ways in which congressional Republicans want to take the country backwards and undo the progress we have made in lowering prescription drug costs, lowering energy costs, lessening the impact of student debt on middle class families,” a senior administration official said.
Biden’s trip comes at a time when the White House optimism that Democrats could buck history and retain control of one or both houses of Congress has waned. Any shift will shape the final two years of Biden’s term, and Democrats could lose control of both chambers of Congress.
Democrats in some crucial races have chosen to campaign without Biden, pushing the White House to significantly scale back their planned presence in competitive areas around the country in the weeks leading up to the race.
Syracuse’s surrounding Onondaga County voted nearly 60% for Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons and Lincoln Feast)
