(Durham) Joe Biden on Tuesday launched a series of trips across the United States to tout his investments in the manufacturing industry, foreshadowing a possible campaign theme.
“I am determined that we produce again in this country,” said the American president from a factory of the semiconductor manufacturer Wolfspeed in Durham, North Carolina (southeast).
This industrial group recently announced an investment of $5 billion there, a welcome decision from the point of view of the Biden administration, which has made the return of the production of electronic chips in the United States a priority.
The president’s visit on Tuesday kicks off a three-week “Invest in America” tour, where senior White House officials will visit some 20 states to promote industrial job creation, including in the electronics sector, largely subsidized by the federal state.
According to the American executive, more than $435 billion in new investments have been announced in the United States since the start of Joe Biden’s mandate, half in energy transition and electric cars, the other in semi- drivers.
“If we invest in the United States, we can change the future of this country,” said the Democrat, who has still not formally announced his candidacy for the presidency of 2024, but has indicated his intention to run again. .
The Republican opposition accuses him in return of being responsible for the high inflation. “Biden is out of touch,” party leader Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.
Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy also wrote a letter to Biden on Tuesday about the US budget and raising the US debt ceiling, accusing him of “refusing to negotiate on significant changes. concerning state spending, which is out of control”.
Many Republican heavyweights are calling on Joe Biden, as a precondition for raising that cap, to cut federal government spending.
In his response, the American president urged Mr. McCarthy to publish a detailed proposal for the budget wanted by the Republicans, while again calling on the opposition party to approve the raising of the debt ceiling so that the States The US does not find itself in default in June, which economists say could send the global economy reeling.
The budget conversation “must be separate from prompt action by Congress to fulfill its basic obligation to pay the nation’s bills and avert economic catastrophe,” Joe Biden stressed in his letter, published Tuesday evening on his twitter account.
“They are putting our economy at risk by refusing to pay the country’s bills,” the president also said earlier in the day in North Carolina.