Biden makes economic pitch to North Carolina amid rising inflation, low approval numbers
Amid high gas prices, a low approval rating and an upcoming midterm election, President Joe Biden made his economic pitch to a crowd in Greensboro on Thursday.
Biden asked the crowd at N.C. A&T State University to think of the future as he spoke before a backdrop of an American flag and banners for the nation’s largest historically Black university. The president said his platform of funding HBCUs and supporting American-based manufacturing would help fulfill failed promises from previous administrations to support economic growth at home.
Biden spoke from the Alumni-Foundation Event Center, a small auditorium on the southern part of campus. About half the space was reserved for media representatives. The rest was populated by legislators, university donors and a small group of students.
Biden’s remarks come as his administration encounters challenges emerging from the pandemic. One of the president’s primary messages — that his administration is to thank for many of the state’s economic accomplishments over the past two years — also is contested by North Carolina lawmakers.
Inflation remains among the biggest hurdles and is top of mind for many voters.
The U.S. Department of Labor said this week that the annual rate of inflation reached 8.5% last month, a 41-year high, according to The New York Times. That means higher prices for milks, eggs, gasoline and more. It’s undoubtedly impacted his national approval rating, which sits at 39%, according to a CNN compilation of recent polling.
Biden briefly addressed the problem Thursday, saying, “We need to address these high prices, and urgently.” He blamed Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine for 70% of recent inflation, saying rising gas prices caused by the war can account for most of it.
Rather than focus on inflation, Biden spent most of his speech touting positive economic outcomes during his presidency. He pointed to a low unemployment rate, particularly among Black and Hispanic Americans, recent corporate investments in North Carolina, and funding for clean energy programs such as electronic charging stations.
“There’s not a thing, not a single thing, America cannot do,” he said.
Biden’s economic claims — in context
The president emphasized his administration’s response to America’s economic woes, claiming to have introduced more jobs than any previous president. Blue-collar industries added 350,000 jobs in 2021, Biden said, making it “the best year in U.S. manufacturing in the last 30 years.”
While Biden’s figures were accurate, they lacked context. Manufacturing also lost hundreds of thousands of workers during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent employment surge largely reflects the nation’s returning workforce, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.
North Carolina, though, will introduce several thousand new jobs in the next few years if recent economic announcements materialize. Significant among them: Toyota announced in December it would build a multibillion-dollar electric vehicle battery plant in Liberty, a small town near Greensboro, by 2025. The site will employ at least 1,750 workers. To attract Toyota’s interest, North Carolina and Randolph County approved an incentive package worth $438.7 million.
Two months later, Boom Supersonic, a fledgling aviation startup with plans to revive supersonic passenger travel, announced it would build a $500 million “flagship” facility at Greensboro’s Piedmont Triad International Airport, also by 2025. The company received an incentive package worth $121.5 million from the state of North Carolina and Guilford County.
Biden has taken credit for creating an economic landscape hospitable to companies such as Boom and Toyota. In his speech Thursday and in previous comments, the president touted his administration’s friendliness toward modern manufacturing and its legislative prioritization of electric vehicle production. When VinFast, a Vietnamese automaker, announced last month it would build its first North American production site in Chatham County, Biden claimed a victory for his administration’s policies; he called it “the latest example of my economic agenda at work.”
It also received $1.2 billion in incentives from the state and Chatham County.
North Carolina’s Republican legislators bristled at the suggestion and repudiated Biden’s claim.
“This has nothing to do with President Biden’s economic strategy,” GOP Senate leader Phil Berger’s office said in a tweet responding to Biden. “It has everything to do with the Republican-led reforms that resulted in unprecedented economic growth.”
Biden’s economic policies may have encouraged some of North Carolina’s growth, but Gov. Roy Cooper can claim credit by championing, for example, hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives for companies that promise to create jobs here. Republican lawmakers can also claim credit for lowering the corporate tax rate and passing pro-business laws.
No mention of midterm elections
Biden focused on the economic efforts of his administration and avoided the upcoming midterm elections.
Congressional candidates and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, the Democratic front-runner in the U.S. Senate race, are among the people running for office this year.
If Beasley wins, she’ll face a Republican for the open U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated by Sen. Richard Burr. Leading candidates on the Republican side include Rep. Ted Budd, who has former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, and former Gov. Pat McCrory.
Midterm elections — those between presidential elections — are often influenced by the approval rating of the current president. Part of Biden’s pitch — that his administration is helping grow the economy and set it up for the future — could indirectly give Democrats like Beasley a boost.
Cooper, who won reelection in 2020, and Rep. Kathy Manning, who represents the Triad, spoke before Biden’s address. Manning is seeking reelection in District 6.
‘It’s amazing.’ Students react to Biden’s NC visit
Taylor Gray, a 21-year-old junior at N.C. A&T, smiled as she walked into the lobby after Biden’s speech.
“It’s amazing,” she said.
Gray is in Army ROTC and plans to graduate as a second lieutenant. She said she appreciated Biden’s focus on future economic growth and on HBCUs, saying students are “college students now, but we’re going to graduate and be employees.”
Gray said she doesn’t fault the Biden administration for economic problems such as inflation, which Biden said he hoped to combat during his remarks on Thursday.
“His administration is doing his best,” she said.
Jayden Seay, an elementary education freshman, said students were thrilled that Biden made the visit. On Biden’s pitch about the economy, Seay said he believes the president is including Black Americans in a bigger way than many previous administrations.
“It’s people like me who get left behind,” he said.
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 6:19 PM.
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