WASHINGTON (`) — On a show of pre-emptive counter-programming, President Joe Biden travels to Wisconsin on Tuesday to highlight his economic policies in a state crucial to his re-election a week earlier Republicans swoop in on Milwaukee for the party’s first presidential debate.
His trip takes place on the eve of the anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act. important economic laws which he signed with great ceremony, but surveys show that most people know little about it or what it does.
Wisconsin is among the few critical states where Biden has to convince voters that his policies are having a positive impact on their lives, and he’s expected to stop by frequently to make his points.
Biden plans to visit Ingeteam, a clean energy manufacturer for onshore wind turbines in Milwaukee, to discuss the terms of the law, which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to boost domestic manufacturing and clean energy, cut health care costs and crack down Rich tax evaders. According to the White House, with funds from the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Ingeteam will hire 100 workers to begin domestic production of electric vehicle charging stations.
Coinciding with Biden’s trip, multinational technology company Siemens will announce that it will begin producing solar inverters in Kenosha County, taking advantage of IRA tax incentives.
Government officials say the trip is intended to acknowledge the impact of the law passed by Congress on party voting.
“The President and his team look forward to delivering this message to the American people later this week,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.
Critics of the law say the law’s provisions could eventually increase inflation. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said during a virtual event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics in July that while he supports the IRA, the Biden administration’s macroeconomic agenda is becoming “increasingly dangerous.”
“I am deeply concerned by the doctrine of production-centric economic nationalism, which is increasingly being advanced as a general principle to guide policy,” Summers said.
Vice President Kamala Harris and senior cabinet officials will travel across the country this week to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act and its provisions. Biden has scheduled an anniversary event at the White House for Wednesday.
The President’s visit to Wisconsin comes just before Republicans hold their first presidential primary debate on August 23 in Milwaukee. Former President Donald Trump — previously the leading Republican nominee in polls — has not yet said he will boycott or withhold a competing event.
Charles Franklin, director of polling at Marquette Law School, said the trip could help Biden garner support from independents, who make up about 10% of voters in the state.
“What he really needs to do is get the independents in the state to like him a little bit more,” Franklin said. “To come and talk about his accomplishments, about factories that work with American workplaces — all of that is good reason to talk to the non-partisan folks in the state.”
“Because the Democrats are already behind him,” Franklin said, and “the Republicans are almost certainly not going to switch.”
Democratic electoral victories helped decide a critical state Supreme Court race this spring, which saw Wisconsin’s highest court come under Liberal control for the first time in 15 years.
However, Republicans in the state will compete aggressively and choose Milwaukee as the site for the 2024 national nominating convention.
The 2020 Democratic Convention was also scheduled to be held in Milwaukee, but was held mostly virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden is among a number of government officials stopping in the United States this week to promote the law’s anniversary.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke Monday at a union hall of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Las Vegas on “the first results of bold federal action by the IRA” and the government’s climate agenda.
“The IRA drives economic growth, expands economic opportunity and strengthens our resilience,” she said.
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Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.
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