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Biden Headed to Wisconsin After SOTU 02/08 06:16
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden on Wednesday was headed to Wisconsin,
a battleground state he won by the slimmest of margins in 2020, to press his
economic message and other themes from his State of the Union address in the
window before his next big speech: announcing a possible reelection bid.
Biden was set to promote his economic plan at a training center run by the
Laborers' International Union of North America in Deforest, Wisconsin, near
Madison, the White House said.
Addressing the nation Tuesday night, Biden said his plan had helped create
800,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs across the country since 2021, when he
took office.
"Where is it written that America can't lead the world in manufacturing
again?" he said.
At the union center, the Democratic president will meet with workers and
apprentices who are learning how to do the jobs that are being created as a
result of several pieces of major legislation, some of them passed with
Republican support, that Biden signed into law.
The measures include trillions of dollars of spending on pandemic relief,
rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure, jump-starting the
semiconductor chip industry in the United States, and on climate change and
health care initiatives.
He also was expected to discuss how Wisconsin was benefiting from the
federal largesse.
Biden's trip, one of two stops he has planned this week, is part of a
traditional post-State of the Union blitz to at least 20 states by the
president, Vice President Kamala Harris and members of the Cabinet to promote
his policies and themes from the speech.
Biden was scheduled to visit Tampa, Florida, on Thursday, to discuss
proposals to safeguard Social Security and Medicare, and lower the cost of
health care.
In the 2020 election, Biden edged Republican incumbent Donald Trump in
Wisconsin by a margin of less than 1 percentage point.
Biden has said he intends to run for a second term in 2024. A formal
announcement is expected in the coming months. A majority of Democrats now
think one term is plenty for him, according to a new poll from The Associated
Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
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