WASHINGTON (AP) — President Biden is heading to South Carolina on Thursday to make the case that financial measures he pushed by way of Congress regardless of stiff Republican opposition are serving to to maintain the deep pink state — and others that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 — buzzing.
Ahead of Biden‘s go to to a state that he misplaced by practically 12 share factors in 2020, White House officers argued that if Republicans had their means, South Carolina, like many different Republican-controlled states, would have misplaced out on billions of {dollars} in investments and hundreds of jobs.
Biden will use his go to to showcase a brand new clear vitality manufacturing partnership between photo voltaic agency Enphase Energy and producer Flex Ltd. that’s projected to create 600 jobs within the state and 1,200 extra all through the nation.
Enphase, which is making a $60 million funding to open up six new manufacturing traces, together with two in South Carolina, is benefitting from tax incentives included in Biden‘s $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act that handed final August.
The White House on Wednesday castigated Republicans for voting towards the laws and subsequent efforts to claw again tax incentives included within the invoice.
“Republicans in Congress, including every Republican representative from South Carolina, want to threaten these investments, jobs and economic opportunities by repealing – repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, which actually helps the American people,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated. “But as the president said in his first inauguration, he’s the president for all Americans. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a red state or a blue state.”
Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, who represents an space that may profit from Enphase’s new funding, took to Twitter after the regulation was authorized on a party-line vote to say it handed to “the detriment of American families,” calling it a “waste” of cash. Wilson additionally voted in April to overturn the clear vitality tax credit within the laws that incentivized the Enphase funding.
The White House additionally took word of one other South Carolina Republican, Rep. Nancy Mace, congratulating the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority for successful practically $26 million to construct and restore clear vitality transportation tasks underneath the $1 trillion infrastructure laws. She voted towards the invoice.
Sen. Tim Scott, who’s operating for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, additionally voted towards the infrastructure invoice, saying it included “reckless spending on unrelated pet projects.”
The go to to South Carolina – a state that hasn’t supported a Democrat in a common presidential election since Jimmy Carter’s 1976 win – comes lower than per week after Trump, the main contender for the 2024 Republican nomination, visited the small city of Pickens for a rally that drew tens of hundreds of individuals.
“By showing up in a red state and making the case for how even those who aren’t going to vote for him have benefitted from his policies, Biden is starting to make clear the real choice for that small universe of swing voters,” stated Josh Freed, who heads the local weather and vitality program on the center-left group Third Way.
The White House is making an enormous push to indicate progress underneath “Bidenomics” as hovering inflation eases, unemployment stays close to historic lows and Biden‘s battle for reelection heats up.
Biden has seen his public approval ranking – and public sentiment about his dealing with of the financial system — dragged down by cussed inflation that hit a 40-year excessive final summer season.
“What is ‘Bidenomics’? It is the inflationary Washington spending, costly regulations, and regressive taxes touted by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, wrote in a memo on Wednesday. “These policies are making everyday essentials more expensive, hollowing out family savings and driving interest rates higher.”
Still, White House officers are embracing possession of the financial system, arguing that legislative motion in the course of the first two years of the Democratic administration has stored the financial system sturdy within the face of headwinds brought on by the battle in Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic. Biden additionally argues his legislative wins have set the scene for additional progress if voters give him 4 extra years.
Private firms have dedicated greater than $500 billion in funding in manufacturing all through the nation since Biden took workplace. South Carolina, which has a 3.1% unemployment price, has seen $11 billion in new funding in manufacturing and clear vitality for the reason that begin of the Biden administration, in response to a White House tally.
South Carolina has solely a single Democrat — Rep. Jim Clyburn — in its congressional delegation and no Democrats in statewide-elected workplace in additional than a decade.
But the state has lengthy been a spot of non-public and political significance to Biden: Kiawah Island, close to Charleston, has been the positioning of household holidays, in addition to decision-making within the run-up to his presidential campaigns.
South Carolina Democrats additionally gave a pivotal win to then-candidate Biden’s struggling 2020 effort. An endorsement from Clyburn, then the highest-ranking Black member of the House, helped enhance Biden to a decisive main win that revived a flagging marketing campaign and construct the momentum that propelled him by way of a collection of Super Tuesday wins.
The get together’s nationwide prominence has risen — most lately when the Democratic National Committee made South Carolina the primary voting state on its 2024 presidential main calendar.
South Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Christale Spain stated that Biden, by making his pitch within the state, is making good on his pledge to be a president for all Americans, not simply those that supported his marketing campaign.
“The president has always made South Carolina a priority, and we’re here to support him and we’re excited about mobilizing voters for his reelection,” Spain stated throughout a convention name with reporters.
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Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C.
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