In a wide-ranging speech on the economy Tuesday, President Joe Biden praised union leaders and members for their role in building up the middle-class and helping boost wages and benefits, contrasting those priorities with a Republican economic proposal that could put federal benefits programs at risk.

What You Need To Know

  • In a wide-ranging speech on the economy Tuesday, President Joe Biden praised union leaders and members for their role in building up the middle-class and helping boost wages

  • Biden, who regularly calls himself “the most pro-union president” in history, highlighted his economic wins at the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia

  • He contrasted his priorities with a Republican economic proposal that could put federal benefits programs like Social Security at risk

  • Yet it’s been difficult for Biden to get away from the reality of gas prices exceeding $5 a gallon on average and an overall 10% spike in food

Biden, who regularly calls himself “the most pro-union president” in history, highlighted his economic wins at the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia. The Biden administration has kept a clear focus on the economy this month, as record-high prices threaten the president’s political and economic progress.

There are few short-term solutions available to the president as supply chain issues keep the price of goods and food high and the ongoing war in Ukraine continues to impact the cost of gas.

Instead, Biden on Tuesday reiterated his browder vision for an economy growing “from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down.”

“Because I know when the middle class does well, everybody does. The wealthy do very well. They're never hurt,” he said.

And he focused on his biggest economic win: more jobs. At 3.6%, the unemployment rate is near a half-century low, and the government reported that employers added 390,000 more jobs in May — roughly double the pre-pandemic pace. 

“Better-paying jobs, better jobs for them and their families. It's been a long time since that's happened in this country. But it's happening now. And it's working,” the president told hundreds of union members Tuesday. 

Yet it’s been difficult for Biden to get away from the reality of gas prices exceeding $5 a gallon on average and an overall 10% spike in food, especially core items like eggs, meat and fish.

"Prices haven't stopped soaring, and everyday there's a new jaw dropping increase at the pump, the grocery store, the pharmacy, and bills are getting harder and harder to pay," said Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning. "It costs the average American family $5,000 more a year for the same things they purchased the previous year." 

On Tuesday Biden pinned blame on Republicans for not letting him follow through with his economic plan, which includes raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

And Biden pointed to a GOP plan proposed by Sen. Rick Scott of Florida that would require Congress to fund things like Social Security and Medicare or potentially let them lapse without congressional action.

“Ask yourself: how well are you going to sleep at night knowing that every five years, Ted Cruz and the other ultra-MAGA Republicans are going to vote on whether you’ll have Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?” Biden said.

“It's unlikely they'll be able to wipe it out. But do any one of you doubt for a second they'll find ways to cut benefits and programs in order to keep anything going?”

Biden had previously criticized the part of Scott’s plan that would raise taxes even on Americans with the lowest-income, a measure that the Florida senator dropped from the plan this week.

“I happen to believe that no billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate than a teacher, a firefighter, electrician or a cop,” Biden said to applause at the convention Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.