MILWAUKEE — President Joe Biden made his first trip to Wisconsin since announcing his reelection bid. The president stopped in Milwaukee on the eve of the first anniversary of his Inflation Reduction Act.
He highlighted parts of his landmark legislation focused on combating climate change and job creation.
“Instead of exporting American jobs, we are creating American jobs and exporting American products, and they are being built right here in Wisconsin and places where factories have been shut down,” Biden told the crowd gathered on the factory floor of Ingeteam.
Before his remarks, the president toured Ingeteam, where orders for wind turbines are expected to double in the next year. The company also plans to make electric vehicle charging stations and create 100 new jobs.
The president credited both of those efforts to the Inflation Reduction Act he signed last year.
“This is happening across the state," Biden explained. "It is a direct result of the clean energy investments I signed into law a year ago. Folks, as I’ve said for a long time, when I think climate, I think jobs.”
According to the White House, companies in Wisconsin have invested $3 billion in clean energy and manufacturing since Biden took office. That includes $1.5 billion from Alliant Energy to build battery storage facilities at solar farms across the state.
“We are seeing the results of those efforts pay off, and our state is seeing record low rates of unemployment and record-high workforce participation month after month and beating the national averages,” Gov. Tony Evers said before the president took the stage.
Evers, and members of Wisconsin’s delegation in Washington, D.C., joined the president to show support for his Investing in America agenda.
“Biden has proved if you build from the bottom up, that the middle class will spread and that this robust economic expansion will touch everybody,” Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, added.
In conjunction with Biden’s visit to the Badger State, Siemens announced Tuesday it plans to manufacture solar inverters in Kenosha County.
Republicans, who are a week away from holding their first presidential primary debate of the 2024 cycle in Milwaukee, said Americans are not buying the president's so-called "Bidenomics" plan.
“Gas prices are rising, the cost of everyday goods is still sky-high, and real wages are down 3%, yet Biden still believes Americans are buying Bidenomics," Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. "Families in Wisconsin and across the country are footing the bill for Biden’s reckless tax-and-spend agenda, and no amount of gaslighting from the White House will change that. That’s why next summer, Republicans will nominate the next President of the United States in Milwaukee and send Biden on vacation for good.”
The presidential visit was part of a nationwide blitz as the White House touts the creation of 13 million jobs across the country. Biden’s trip to Wisconsin comes less than two weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at Sanmina in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. to announce job creation through broadband-related investments.
Tuesday’s trip to Wisconsin was Biden’s sixth since he took office. His last visit was to a labor training facility in DeForest, near Madison, in February to highlight job creation as part of his economic plan.