Biden: Infrastructure, spending bills ‘are not about left versus right’
On Tuesday, President Biden traveled to Howell, Mich., to rally support for the bipartisan infrastructure bill as well as what he calls the human infrastructure bill, part of his Build Back Better agenda. In his remarks he said both bills aren’t about pitting Americans against one another but rather to regain momentum America has lost on the world stage.
Video Transcript
JOE BIDEN: Of all the industrial nations in the world, the instinct Americans would say if you asked them 25 years ago, they'd we're number one. We are not. There's only two industrial nations that are lower than us. All those investments have fueled the strong economy. We've taken our foot off the gas. I don't know what's happened. The world has taken notice, by the way, including our adversaries. And now they're closing the gap in a big way.
So it's essential that we regain the momentum that we've lost and, you know, the work of our time, it seems to me, those of us who hold public office, is to prepare ourselves to be more competitive and to win the fast-changing 21st century in the global economy. Things are changing incredibly quickly. That's why I proposed two critical pieces of legislation being debated back in Washington right now.
The first, a bill to invest in our physical infrastructure. And the second is a bill to invest in our human infrastructure. I'll talk about both these bills in just a moment. But first, I want to set one thing straight. These bills are not about left versus right, or moderate versus progressive, or anything that pits Americans against one another. These bills are about competitiveness versus complacency. They're about opportunity versus decay. They're about leading the world or continue to let the world pass us by, which is literally happening.
To support these investments is to create a rising America. America is moving. To oppose these investments is to be complicit in America's decline. To support these bills is to pursue a broader vision of our nation and oppose them is to accept a very cramped view of our future.
