MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-07-09 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Biden switching sides..
|
Biden Looks to Curb Covid-19 Economic Damage With ‘Buy American’ Plan
Sabrina Siddiqui and Jacob M. Schlesinger
6-8 minutes
WASHINGTON—Former Vice President Joe Biden is expected Thursday to
outline a plan that his campaign says is aimed at reviving the U.S.
economy with an America-centric approach to job creation and
manufacturing, issuing a direct challenge to President Trump as they
compete for working-class voters less than four months before the
presidential election.
Mr. Biden is poised to unveil his agenda while campaigning in Dunmore,
Pa., where the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee will tour a
metalworks plant before making his economic pitch to an American public
still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Biden’s remarks in the
November battleground state will coincide with a visit from Vice
President Mike Pence, who is slated to make several campaign stops in
eastern Pennsylvania on the same day.
Mr. Biden’s campaign previewed his remarks on a conference call with
reporters Wednesday. The campaign said his proposals are designed to
reduce America’s reliance on foreign countries after the pandemic
exposed the vulnerabilities of the U.S., and other countries, in relying
on foreign producers such as China for critical medical supplies and
equipment.
Mr. Biden has repeatedly criticized Mr. Trump’s response to the pandemic
as a failure, accusing his opponent of “doing next to nothing” as the
U.S. death toll surpassed 130,000. Under his own coronavirus response
plan, Mr. Biden would seek to boost U.S. production of personal
protective equipment, pharmaceuticals and other medical devices, tapping
into a movement that has rapidly gained bipartisan support in Congress.
Hospitals across the country have reported shortages in supplies while
grappling with the coronavirus.
Mr. Biden is expected to lay out a plan that calls for aggressively
ramping up “Buy American” provisions covering U.S. government spending
that, under his platform, would account for a larger part of the U.S.
economy. The “Buy American” initiative would require that some portion
of federal funds be set aside for domestic producers. Such provisions
can be a source of international commercial tension, frequently
prompting complaints from other countries that they run afoul of global
trade rules designed to ensure fair access to markets for companies from
all over the world.
The Biden speech, a campaign adviser said, will serve notice to American
trading partners that, even if Mr. Trump loses in November, allies
shouldn’t expect Washington to return to the embrace of economic
globalization that had defined the policies of the Obama-Biden
administration and two decades of Republican and Democratic presidents
who preceded it.
The campaigns of President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden
agree that the coronavirus will be a major driver in the fall election.
WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains how both sides plan to tackle the issue
differently. Photo: Shutterstock/AP
A senior Biden campaign adviser said Wednesday that, in implementing any
such policies, the vice president “will not be ignoring World Trade
Organization rules.” But he said that those rules are outdated and added
that Germany and France—two countries that have tried to defend the
global trading system against Mr. Trump’s criticisms—were themselves
similarly rushing to curb dependence on imports for critical medical
supplies.
The adviser also said Mr. Biden won’t make a priority of entering new
free-trade agreements or reviving the 12-nation Trans-Pacific
Partnership that President Obama negotiated at the end of his term and
that Mr. Trump pulled out of at the beginning of his.
Mr. Biden won’t consider “entering new trade deals before the work is
done at home to make investments in American job creation,” the adviser
said.
The plan signals that Mr. Biden will continue the government stimulus
spending that has been approved to cope with the pandemic’s economic
damage. Before this week, Mr. Biden had proposed about $6.7 trillion in
new spending over the next 10 years, according to Cornerstone Macro, an
investment research firm, or about triple what Hillary Clinton had
proposed in 2016. On Thursday, he will add $700 billion in spending to
that, according to a senior adviser.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pence will embark on a bus tour from Lancaster to
Philadelphia, where he will meet with police officers at their union
hall in the wake of nationwide protests over racism and police
brutality. He will also hold a roundtable on reopening the economy.
In 2016, Mr. Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to
carry Pennsylvania since 1988. But recent polls show the president
trailing Mr. Biden both in the Keystone State and nationally. A
RealClearPolitics average of recent polls shows Mr. Biden with roughly a
6.5-point lead over Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Biden, who was born in Scranton, has often highlighted his personal
ties to the state. He launched his presidential bid from Pittsburgh last
year and based his campaign headquarters in Philadelphia.
Share Your Thoughts
In which ways do you think the pandemic will affect how voters view Joe
Biden’s economic recovery plan? Join the conversation below.
This week Mr. Biden took additional steps to strengthen his Pennsylvania
operation by hiring two top Democratic Party strategists for senior
roles in the state.
“If I’m going to be able to beat Donald Trump in 2020, it’s going to
happen here,” Mr. Biden has said.
Write to Sabrina Siddiqui at Sabrina.Siddiqui-at-wsj.com and Jacob M.
Schlesinger at jacob.schlesinger-at-wsj.com
--
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that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
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