President Joe Biden will travel to Cincinnati, Ohio on Wednesday to advance his economic agenda in one of the few Rust Belt states he lost in last year’s election.
It is the third visit of his presidency to Ohio, a state that has gotten redder and redder in the past decade. The trip also comes as a bipartisan infrastructure bill faces an uncertain future after a Senate vote to initiate the debate was blocked by Republicans.
The President will begin his visit to a union training center, the IBEW / NECA Electrical Training Center, to make comments on how his Build Back Better agenda will create high paying union jobs.
This agenda aims, among other things, to make higher education and universal preschools in Ohio and across the country more accessible, and to help working-class families make ends meet, according to a White House memo released Wednesday. The agenda also expands tax cuts for families and workers through the American Rescue Plan’s child tax credit.
“According to a new report from Moody’s this morning, the president’s bipartisan infrastructure framework and Build Back Better agenda will create nearly 2 million jobs a year on average for the full decade, while accelerating America’s journey to full employment and increasing labor force participation,” White said The House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a briefing en route to Ohio on Wednesday.
Biden will then head to Mount St. Joseph University at 8:00 p.m. ET to attend a town hall. The president is likely to delve into the implications of his $ 1.9 trillion Covid stimulus plan and the two legislative components of his broader economic agenda.
That agenda includes a $ 3.5 trillion reconciliation plan that Democrats intend to pass in a party vote this summer in the Senate to fund family programs, Medicare expansion, and clean energy development over the next decade.
And the $ 1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which adds $ 579 billion in new spending above the baseline already set by Congress. Although the bill failed a procedural vote on Wednesday, the Senate is likely to revisit the issue after further negotiations.
If it becomes law, the deal would fund nationwide updates to physical infrastructure, such as the dangerously outdated Brent Spence Bridge in Ohio.
Former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama made unsuccessful promises to repair the bridge that carries nearly 160,000 commuters and trucks between Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky.
The bridge is one of the buildings in Ohio that is in dire need of an update; According to the White House memo, the state received a grade C on its Infrastructure Report Card.
The memo names 1,377 bridges and over 4,925 miles of freeway in poor condition and the need to prepare infrastructure for the effects of climate change, cyberattacks and extreme weather events, among other things.
In promoting his economic plan, Biden hopes the Democrats can win back white workers voters in the state. Most Democrats, however, believe that the party’s future will increase turnout among black and Latin American voters in Ohio.
Many progressives point to the Democrats’ victories in the two Georgia runoff elections on January 5, which gave the party control of the Senate. Strong turnout from blacks, Latinos and other colored voters fueled the historic victories of Democrats Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
92% of black voters supported the Democratic Senate candidates, according to NBC Brexit polls, and Latin American and Asian American voters supported at rates of nearly 64% and nearly 61%, respectively.
Ohio was seen as a pioneer in determining which party would hold the presidency, but Biden managed to win last year’s election without the state.
Ohio has increasingly embraced Republicans after supporting former President Barack Obama in 2012.
Donald Trump won Ohio with 53.3% of the vote in the 2020 election. And in 2016, Trump won the state with 51.8% of the vote against his opponent Hillary Clinton.
However, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown claimed victory in the state despite Trump’s 2020 win.
Despite numerous GOP wins in Ohio, it is one of the states proposing changes to electoral law, according to the Associated Press. The Ohio House passed a bill in May that Democrats say will remove black voters from voting.
