By Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (Reuters) -President Joe Biden contrasted his economic plan with Republicans’ on Thursday in a last-ditch effort days before U.S. midterm elections to convince voters that Democrats are best equipped to battle inflation and create jobs.
“The previous president made a string of broken promises in places like Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio,” Biden said. “On my watch, we’ve kept our commitments. On my watch, made in America isn’t just a slogan, it’s a reality.”
Biden spoke in Syracuse, New York, where Micron Technology Inc plans to invest up to $100 billion in computer chip manufacturing, part of tens of billions in new factory spending announced after the president signed the CHIPS Act subsidizing the industry in August.
The visit was aimed at touting efforts to bring manufacturing jobs back to upstate New York, an American center of innovation associated with brands like IBM and Kodak that lost jobs that went to lower-cost locations abroad.
Biden contrasted those his made-in-America manufacturing approach with what he framed as Republicans wed to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement and an emphasis helping the wealthy at the expense of the working class.
Some Republicans have pledged to use the U.S. statutory borrowing limit or debt ceiling to force cuts to federal spending, extend Trump’s tax cuts, repeal Democrat-enacted laws lowering prescription drug prices and block Biden’s student debt relief plan.
“I would argue it’s reckless and irresponsible and will make inflation worse, if they succeed,” Biden said.
His trip comes at a time when the White House optimism that Democrats could buck history and retain control of one or both houses of Congress has waned. Any shift will shape the final two years of Biden’s term, and Democrats could lose control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Voters identify rising prices as their biggest concern amid inflation that has hit four-decade highs.
Meanwhile, Democrats in some crucial races have chosen to campaign without Biden, pushing the White House to significantly scale back their planned presence in competitive areas around the country in the weeks leading up to the race.
Forecasters regard the Syracuse-area 22nd Congressional District in New York state as one of few House of Representatives seats in the country that Democrats have a chance at gaining control of on Nov. 8.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Chris Gallagher; Editing by Heather Timmons, Lincoln Feast and Jonathan Oatis)
