Sept. 3 (UPI) — President Joe Biden and others affirmed the success of his administration’s “Investing in America” infrastructure platform during the first of several planned presentations on the topic Tuesday afternoon.
Former Columbia, S.C., mayor and current Biden adviser Stephen Benjamin hosted the event at 2 p.m. EDT and introduced Biden and each of four guests who made virtual appearances to share their insights into how the President’s Investing in America platform has helped them and their local communities.
“Four years ago, when I came into office, the pandemic was raging and our economy was reeling,” Biden said while seated at a desk for the taped presentation. “Four years later, we still have more to do.
“We had one of the most extraordinary periods of progress in the history our country,” Biden said of his time in office. “COVID no longer controls our lives [and] we’ve gone from an economic crisis to the strongest economy in the world.”
He said his Investing in America platform set several records, including 16 million new jobs, small business growth and stock market and 401(k) values.
“Wages are up [and] inflation is down — way down and continuing to come down,” Biden said, adding that the racial wealth gap is the smallest in 20 years.
He said cities and town throughout the United States “are seeing the great American comeback.”
Roads and bridges are being built, lead [water] pipes are being removed and seniors are saving money on prescription drugs, Biden added.
“We’re on the cusp of incredible progress and prosperity for the decade to come,” Biden said. “We’re the only nation in the world that’s come out of every crisis we faced stronger than when we entered that crisis.”
Benjamin then introduce the first of four guests — Birmingham, Ala., Mayor Randall Woodfin, who said Biden’s Investment in America agenda has helped the city qualify as a tech hub that is attracting new businesses and training workers.
Woodfin said the city has experienced “growth innovative industries and opportunity” and expansion of small businesses.
The city has created an Office of Business Growth and Diversity that focuses on creating economic opportunities for minorities and women, Woodfin added.
Jackie Trapp of Muskego, Wis., spoke of her diagnosis of the incurable cancer multi-myeloma and how she needs to take the blood thinner Xarelto for the rest of her life.
Trapp said she had to pay between $15,000 and more than $21,000 annually for the drug, but the Inflation Reduction Act greatly lowered her out-of-pocket cost through Medicare.
She now pays a maximum of $2,000 annually as determined by new Medicare price control for the drug.
“I had a run-in with Big Pharma for a long time,” Biden said, adding that the $2,000 maximum for Xarelto has “got to be a life-changer” for her and her family.
Philadelphia resident Cecilia Moy Yet is a resident of Philadelphia’s Chinatown and said the federal government built a freeway that divided the Chinatown neighborhood five decades ago.
The expressway was built “through the heart of Chinatown,” which, along with other development projects, forced many of neighbors out of their houses and made air quality worse, Moy Yet said.
It also made it more dangerous to walk from one part of the neighborhood to another.
“After 50 years of organizing, the community is finally getting the support needed to reconnect Chinatown,” she said. “People will be safe going to school and work.”
Biden cited a $159 million allocation toward the local “China Stitch” program in Philadelphia’s Chinatown neighborhood as enabling the community to reconnect and enjoy more green space by the end of 2031.
Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores said the sovereign tribe needed a new well and a better way to send clean and safe water to 1,857 homes and businesses on the reservation.
The bipartisan infrastructure law signed by Biden in November 2021 enabled the tribe to fix a broken well and install several more to provide clean water for existing homes and businesses and up to 1,000 new ones.
Flores said the new wells and water-delivery system helps support the tribe’s status as a sovereign state while enabling more families to live together on tribal land.
“Many families leave to find work but want to return decades later,” Flores said, “but housing and infrastructure haven’t been available.”
The federal support means the tribe “will have cleaner and safer water and the infrastructure needed to build more homes and keep families in the reservation,” she said.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes’ reservation is located in Parker, Ariz., about 150 miles northwest of Phoenix.
“Peace of mind, clean and safe water, roads and bridges that connect communities instead of dividing them,” Biden said. “All Americans deserve a future worthy of their dreams.
“Turning setbacks into comebacks, that’s what America does. We can do anything in America.”
But, he said, the “super-wealthy need to pay their fair share” of taxes to make it happen.