“Look, (when) we came to office — we knew we were facing a once in a century pandemic and a once in a generation economic crisis. We knew this wouldn’t be a sprint. It’d be a marathon,” Biden said Friday after the jobs report was released. “We never thought after the first 60 days that everything would be fine. Today there’s more evidence that our economy is moving in the right direction. But it’s clear we have a long way to go.”
As Biden has embarked on his tour to make the case for roughly $4 trillion in new spending through the American Families Plan and the American Jobs Plan, his opponents have often centered their pushback — not just on the cost of those plans — but also the notion that the economy is already recovering and that additional aid in the form of Biden agenda items like boosting the salaries of home health care workers is unnecessary when the recovery is moving at a rapid clip.
Biden refuted that argument Friday as he made the case that his plans would help blue collar workers who have been left behind in the economic gains of the last decade: “Let’s not let up. We’re still digging our way out of a very deep hole we were put in. No one should underestimate how tough this battle is,” he said.
Friday’s jobs report, showing the US economy added 266,000 jobs in April instead of the 1 million economists were expecting, handed Biden a new tool in his arsenal as he tries to circumvent Republican opposition by directly persuading Americans to back the next phase of his plans.
White House officials were clearly surprised by the new job numbers Friday, especially given the expectations.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters that her best guess would have been higher, but that she’s watched data long enough to know it’s “extremely volatile.”
“There are often surprises and temporary factors, and one should never take one month’s data as an underlying trend,” she said. Yellen predicted that the US economy would reach full employment next year, but added, the “road back is going to be somewhat bumpy.”
Biden will confront GOP arguments against his plans next week when he meets a cadre of Republican senators led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. Many Republicans have outright rejected Biden’s call to raise the corporate income tax rate to 28%, although he suggested this week he was open to a rate of between 25% and 28%, to pay for his proposals.
In addition to Capito, Biden will meet with Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey and Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker. A White House official said the President “appreciates their engagement,” adding that the “ongoing dialogue” on the jobs plan is “high priority.”
During a gaggle Friday, members of the President’s “jobs Cabinet” — a group that is trying to persuade lawmakers to support the plans — said they were hopeful about the opportunity for compromise. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said there is “optimism that there will be a (bipartisan) agreement in large chunks,” while Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo emphasized that Biden has “been clear since the beginning that he’s open to compromise.”
Distracting divisions in the GOP
While attempting to stay unified in their economic message, House Republicans appeared to be moving ahead with replacing Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, as conference chair to punish her for rejecting Trump’s “big lie” that the election was stolen from the former President. The shakeup inside the conference has subsumed all other news in Washington this week, making it difficult for the GOP to stay focused on their opposition to Biden’s plans.