Remarks by President Biden on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and Build Back Better Agenda
OCTOBER 05, 2021
Location: Not determined

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, Michigan! (Applause.) It’s good to be back. It really is. And, John, thank you for that introduction.

The truth of the matter is there’s a reason why the American labor movement across the board has the single-best workers in the world: because you’re the best trained.

I wish the American people understood how much serious, serious training goes into being a union worker. I really mean it. You’re the best in the world.

I was kidding — someone said to me earlier that — I said I’m a union President; I’m a union — a President who supports unions — not labor, unions. And someone pointed out to me that I allegedly have the — used the word “union” as President more than the last seven presidents combined. (Applause.)

You built the country. No, not a joke. You built the country.

And it’s great to be here with several excellent members of Congress. Elissa Slotkin — Elissa, you — you don’t want to screw around with her. (Laughter.) She’s an intelligence officer as well, so she’s forgotten more than most of you know. But thanks for riding out with me, and thanks for the advice you’ve given me — and I mean that sincerely — and how we’re going to make sure that everything we do here is paid for — paid for, and not a single penny raised in taxes of anybody making under 400 grand.

And, Debbie, you’re the best in the world. You and John have been so — friends of mine — you’ve been for so, so long. You’ve stepped in and taken over in a way that I think is — had to be both emotionally difficult, but you’ve done an incredible job. And I consider you one of my great friends. Thank you.

And, Dan, I — you’re okay, Dan. (Laughter.) You ain’t — you ain’t quite like the woman sitting next to you. But all kidding aside — (laughter) — Dan, you’ve done a great — I mean, I really mean it: You’re always there for everything that’s important to your constituents. And you understand what I’m going to talk about little bit later: The way we built this country is from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down. And you get it.

And, Andy, as my dad would say, you’ve got good blood, kid. (Laughter.) And thank you for what you’re doing. Thank you for stepping in. And thank you for the great job you do.

Michigan, I also have — it’s also fortunate to have an outstanding United States senators, who are doing what they’re supposed to do. They’re in Washington because the Senate is in. Debbie and Gary are in Washington now and — to cast some really important votes to keep things moving.

And, of course, it’s great to be here with my friend — we’ve become friends — an outstanding governor, one of the best governors in the United States of America, and her lieutenant governor, who covers in every way — both in terms of physically and mentally — (laughter) — and every other way. And thank you for all you did to help me get elected. I really mean it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Look, I know there’s a lot of noise in Washington; there always is. But it seems to me, a little more than usual now — a whole lot of hyperbole, a lot of heat. And I’m here today to try to set some things straight, if I can.

I want to talk about what’s fundamentally at stake for our country now, at this moment.

I know it’s an overused phrase, but I’ve been using it a lot: We’re at an inflection point. Every — anywhere from 40 to 80 years in America, there’s an inflection point where we have to choose what direction we’re going to go, what we’re going to do. Not — not Democrat/Republican, but what are we going to — who are we going to be?

For a long time, America set the pace across the entire globe. For the better part of the 20th century, we led the world by a significant margin in investments in ourselves, in our people, in our country.

We invested in our infrastructure — in our roads, highways, bridges, ports, airports — in the arteries of the nation that allow commerce to function smoothly and swiftly and allow us to generate significant income.

We’ve invested in our people, in opportunity. We’re among the first to provide access, for example, to free education. It’s the reason why, in the 20th century, we began to take off.

It was back in the late 1890s we decided, among the first countries, that we were going to be the first nation that every single American, regardless of their background — and it wasn’t, at the time, regardless of their background, but based on income — would have free 12 years of education.

We invested to win the space race. We led the world in research and development that led to the creation of the Internet.

And, you know, but then something happened. We slowed up. We stopped investing in ourselves.

America is still the largest economy in the world. We still have the most productive workers and the most innovative minds in the world. But we risk losing our edge as a nation.

Our infrastructure used to be the best in the world — literally, not figuratively. Today, according to the World Economic Forum, we rank 13th. Our infrastructure — 12 nations have a better infrastructure than we do, which means they can move product, they can do so many things better than we can do it.

We’re among the first in the world to guarantee access to universal education. Now, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development ranks America 35th out of 37 major countries when it comes to investing in early childhood education as a percent of GDP.

Think of that. Think of that. Of all the industrial nations in the world, the instinct Americans would say if you asked them 25 years — they would say, “We’re number one.” We are not. There’s only two industrial nations that are lower than us.

All those investments that fuel the strong economy, we’ve — we’ve taken our foot off the gas. We’ve taken — we just — I don’t know what’s happened. The world has taken notice, by the way, including our adversaries. And now they’re closing the gap in a big way.

So it’s essential that we regain our momentum that we’ve lost. And work our — you know, the work of our time, it seems to me — those of us who hold public office — is to prepare ourselves to be more competitive and to win the fast-changing 21st century and — the global economy.

Things are changing incredibly quickly. That’s why I proposed two critical pieces of legislation being debated back in Washington right now. The first, a bill to invest in our physical infrastructure. And the second is a bill to invest in our human infrastructure. I’ll talk about both of these bills in just a moment.

But first I want to set one thing straight: These bills are not about left versus right or moderate versus progressive or anything that pits Americans against one another. These bills are about competitiveness versus complacency. They’re about opportunity versus decay. They’re about leading the world or continuing to let the world pass us by, which is literally happening.

To support these investments is to create a rising America, America that’s moving. And to oppose these investments is to be complicit in America’s decline.

To support these bills is to pursue a broader vision of our nation. And to oppose them is to accept a very cramped view of our future.

This isn’t about two pieces of legislation; it’s about the inflection point I mentioned earlier we are in our history — the world history.

So here’s what I’m proposing. First, the infrastructure bill: It’s about rebuilding our roads, our highways, our bridges, our ports, our airports, our broadband — all the things that need repair. Our arteries of our economy have always been fueled by the economic might and dynamism of Americans.

Across the country right now, 45,000 bridges and 173,000 miles of roads, according to the engineers — Society of Engineers — are in poor condition right now, including more than 1,200 bridges, as the Governor has been fighting to repair here in your state; 73 — 7,300 miles of roads here in Michigan.

I’ll bet everyone in this room can tell me what the most dangerous intersection in this town or any town they live in — and where it is — that you hold your breath when you’re driving over or trying to cross the street. Not a joke.

Working with the Governor and members of the Congress here, we’re going to put hardworking Americans, like the operating engineers here in Howell, on the job to bring back our infrastructure and bring it up to speed. Good union jobs, not 12, 15, 18 doll- — prevailing wage jobs. (Applause.) Wage that gives you dignity, that you can raise a family on, that you can hold your head up.

This is a blue-collar blueprint for how we restore America’s pride. And the jobs can’t — these are jobs that can’t be outsourced.

We’re going to put plumbers and pipefitters to work replacing lead pipes in America so families and children can drink clean water. Forty — 400,000 schools. I mean, this — it’s not just our homes; it’s across the country.

We’re going to put line workers and electricians to work laying thousands of miles of transmission lines and to build a modern infrastructure and energy grid.

We’re going to make high-speed Internet affordable and available to — everywhere in America. We were talking about it on the way over with Elissa, that how short the number of — number who don’t have access to the Internet here because of the lack of investment.

We’re going to make the largest investment in public transit in American history. And we’re going to make the most important investment in our rail system since the creation of Amtrak 50 years ago.

Now, let me tell you, our competitors aren’t hanging around and waiting to see what we’re going to do. They’ve been pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure and into training their people for years now.

Take China, for example. Now, I’ve been clear that China
uses unfair and coercive practices to get ahead of their competitors. But that’s not the whole of the story. They also invest in themselves.

In recent years, China has spent around three times as much
on infrastructure as a share of their economy than we have. Three times. And they’re not slowing down.

Yesterday, my U.S. Trade Representative delivered an important speech on our competition with China. She pointed out that China made a major investment in steel plants beginning about 20 years ago. And in the last 20 years, half of America’s steel companies have been shuttered.

We went from 100 U.S. steel companies to 51. And employment in the American steel industry dropped by 40 percent since the year 2000.

China now produces more steel in one month than America does in an entire year. You can see it in the sector after sector: Other countries are speeding up and America is falling behind.

We’ve got to reset the pace again. We’ve got to set a different pace. For example, here in Michigan, we need to make sure that American autoworkers lead the world in electric vehicles. (Applause.)

And some of you came to the White House when I had the chairmen of the board of General Motors, Chrysler, and GM — I mean, General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford. You know — and what have they decided to do? They decided they’re going to lead the world and they’re going to build more of the electric vehicles than any other country.

But guess what? China is not waiting around. They’ve manufactured more than twice as many electric vehicles as we have over the last decade. They control more than 75 percent of the battery market. And they’re poised to invest another $14 billion in charging capacity now in their country.

Back in May, I had the chance to tour Ford’s new state-of-the-art facility in Dearborn, where union workers are building the first-ever all-electric Ford F-150. I got to drive that sucker. (Laughter.) It’s quick: zero to sixty in 4.1 seconds. And it’s a big boy. It’s a big one.