Video ads feed back that some black voters think Biden is making the economy worse. Listen to why 02:56-Source: CNN CNN Biden plans to announce that Microsoft has invested .3 billion to build a new artificial intelligence facility in the same place. In 2018, then US President Trump broke ground on a landmark project that should have been during his administration: the electronics factory of Foxconn in Taiwan Province. The factory received billions of dollars in tax credits and promised to provide thousands of jobs.
These investments have basically failed to materialize. According to a White House official, Biden plans to directly blame Trump's failure in his speech on Wednesday.
Racine County, which lies between Chicago and Milwaukee, has been at the center of intense political debate in one seesaw election after another. Residents who live and work nearby told CNN that they are happy to see these projects and jobs, but it is difficult to guarantee that their own economic anxiety will be alleviated.
"Things are really uncertain. I don't know what will happen to interest rates and the whole economy," said Dave flannery, whose family runs Apple Hall Orchard and Farm, just a few miles from where Biden visited on Wednesday. "Personally, I am very optimistic about our future, but sometimes the situation outside is terrible."
On February 13, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois, a customer was shopping at the grocery store. Will the economy affect your vote in November? Share your story. Tom Oberhaus, whose family owns the comfortable Nock Farm near Waukesha, an hour's drive away, said that inflation was one of his biggest criticisms of Biden's government. Although he is not a big admirer of Trump and does not want to have a Republican replacement, he said that he would be happy to return to the economic policy of the Trump era.
"You get paid, and it looks good, but when you pay the bill, it's like' Wow, it's all gone'," Oberhaus said. "For me, inflation is the overriding economic problem. “
When asked whether it is fair to blame Biden entirely, Oberhaus said: "They are the government in power."
Progressive Biden
At the beginning of his tenure, Biden told some Democratic colleagues that he planned to become "the most progressive president since Roosevelt, the architect of Roosevelt's New Deal".
In the past two years, Biden has been touring to publicize the trillions of dollars in infrastructure and construction expenditure brought by the legislation he signed, most of which was passed by Congress on a bipartisan basis. But leading economists believe that the money that helped promote economic growth also led to price increases-casting a shadow over Biden's ability to sell these achievements to voters.
Mandela Barnes, the former deputy governor of the state, told CNN: "It is important for him to emphasize his economic information repeatedly here and make it a reality." "Some people are still thinking about the ,500 check they got from Trump."
In the recent CNN poll, Biden's support rate for economy (34%) and inflation (29%) is still obviously negative, because voters said that economic issues are more important to them than the last two presidential campaigns.
With Biden mired in the unfinished business of the 2020 campaign-and urging voters to let him "finish the job" in 2024-many external consultants and donors expressed concern that the president was too left-leaning. What is worrying is that a platform containing expensive proposals such as popularizing preschool education, subsidizing the care of children and the elderly, and expanding medical care caters to the foundation of the Democratic Party more than moderates.
"One eighth of one percent of the population will decide this election," a long-time Biden donor told CNN, asking for anonymity to share confidential conversations with the campaign team. "I have told them to move closer to the middle. “
However, Biden is still trying to consolidate the foundation of his progress, which is complicated by the increasingly infuriating way the government handled the Israeli-Hamas war.
"Americans should have a president who cares about them, and they have this in President Biden. On the other hand, Donald Trump is proudly cutting social security and medical insurance, increasing Americans' daily health care costs, and moving jobs overseas, "Biden campaign spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement to CNN.
Central Wisconsin supports Biden's re-election
On April 8, 2024, US President Joe Biden gave a speech at Madison Regional Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin, talking about the debt relief of student loans. Wednesday will be Biden's fourth visit to Wisconsin so far this year, which shows the state's central position in the road map for re-election. Wisconsin, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania, is the pillar of the so-called "blue wall"-Trump won these three States in 2016, and Biden turned over four years later. In 2020, Biden won Wisconsin with less than 21,000 votes. As the winner in 2024 is expected to be elected by a similar narrow margin, several consultants and former Biden officials said that it is crucial to reach the right policy tone with moderates this year without alienating the party's foundation.
"I think this is the first issue," a former adviser to Biden said of the debate on how the president's approach can be improved. "Answering this question is the answer to whether Biden won the election."
Biden's campaign team and its followers don't think so. They cite polls showing that the president's agenda is very popular among the party's most loyal voters and independents.
"He doesn't have to choose between the path of progress and the path of moderation," said Bharat Lammurti, Biden's former deputy director of the National Economic Council. "The agenda he pursues is the road to consensus. “
Policies change with the party's priorities.
As the Democratic Party's priorities have evolved, consensus has taken different forms-sometimes Biden needs to shift his position to the left.
As a self-proclaimed capitalist, he promised not to demonize the rich during the 2020 election campaign. Shortly after taking office, Biden began to promote the policy of taxing wealthy individuals and enterprises many times. This change originated from the "Unity Task Force" established by the campaign team, which sought the opinions of progressive economists.
Perhaps no policy can better explain this change than student loan exemption. Biden only supported the most limited student loan exemption at the beginning of the 2020 campaign-for example, granting loans when the borrower declared bankruptcy or death.
But in March 2020, on the eve of the debate with bernie sanders, a progressive agitator who advocated the total cancellation of student loans, Biden expanded his support for loan exemption. As president, Biden announced his support for income-based exemption, which would cancel more than 0 billion in government loans.
Although the plan was blocked by the Supreme Court, Biden used regulatory and institutional powers to cancel about 6 billion in student debt.
"It never seemed like what he really wanted to do during the campaign," said the former Biden consultant. "Now this is one of his top economic agenda items. “
Individual issues such as student loan relief are often very popular among voters, especially young voters, whose monthly payment accounts for a large part of after-tax income.
"When you look at these data, it's quite amazing," Lamamurti, a former deputy director of Biden's National Election Commission and a former adviser to Senator elizabeth warren, told CNN. The question is whether the vote will be held in November.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Tom Oberhaus' surname.
Jeff Zelenyi, MJ Lee and Camilla De Chalus of CNN contributed to this article.