Transcript - Remarks: Joe Biden Delivers Remarks on the Economy in Toledo, OH - October 12, 2020 | Factba.se

Joe Biden

00:00:00 - 00:00:52 ()

Hello, Toledo. This feels like coming home. Well, I tell you what, I -- my dad was an automobile man. I got through school and we got through being able to lead after we lost a job up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he had to move down to Delaware because my cousin was selling General Motors products. And so I've known -- and my state used to have the largest percentage of autoworkers of any state in the nation because we had a small population and the largest General Motors and the largest Chrysler plant outside of Michigan and -- and Ohio.

Joe Biden

00:00:52 - 00:01:18 ()

And I saw -- I saw what happened when we got hit very hard. We've lost both those plants. But let me start off by saying, Mr. Mayor, thanks for the passport into your city and Marcy, you've been a friend a long time, thank you for your introduction. You know, there's no more fierce defender -- there's no more fierce defender of the people she grew up with than Marcy.

Joe Biden

00:01:18 - 00:01:43 ()

She has never, ever, ever forgotten where she came from. She's tough, she shoots -- she's a straight shooter. She's influential in congress. She's honest and she sees you. You're always in her view. And Tony, Mr. President, I know you're new and he says "piece of cake" so I don't have to worry, if I get elected the first hundred days.

Joe Biden

00:01:43 - 00:02:08 ()

But all kidding aside, Tony, thank you for hosting us and thank you to Local 14. And Kenyana, you -- thanks for that introduction. All you did for Barack and me when we were running, when we got elected, jumping in and being part of helping us govern. You remind me of something my dad said. He said, "Joey, a job's about a lot more than a paycheck.

Joe Biden

00:02:08 - 00:02:37 ()

It's about your dignity. It's about your place in the community. It's about respect. It's about being able to say to your kid, look him in the eye and say, 'everything's going to be okay' and mean it. That's what a job's about." A decent paying job like the UAW provides. This lesson I grew up with surrounded by hard-working families in Scranton and then in Claymont, Delaware where he had to move when dad lost work -- there was no work in Scranton.

Joe Biden

00:02:37 - 00:03:05 ()

Just like here in Toledo. But the times are hard, unemployment is way up due to the pandemic and the terrible way in which it's been handled. The economic outlook remains uncertain. Across Ohio and the country, folks are worried about making the next mortgage payment or the rent payment. Whether or not they can purchase their prescription drugs or be able to put food on the table, literally.

Joe Biden

00:03:05 - 00:03:32 ()

Worried about whether a kid's school is open and being able to stay open and, if they're not open, how they can go to work if they have a job and still take care of their kids. They see the people at the very top doing better than they ever have, while they're left to wonder who's looking out for me? That's Donald Trump's presidency. 215,000 dead because of COVID.

Joe Biden

00:03:32 - 00:03:59 ()

Experts say we're likely to lose another 200,000 people in the next few months unless we take some serious action and he doesn't know what he's doing. All because this president's only worried about one thing, the stock market. He refused to follow the science. It's estimated if we just wore these masks, nationally, we'd save over 100,000 lives between now and the end of the year.

Joe Biden

00:03:59 - 00:04:24 ()

This president knew back in January. He was briefed in detail by the intelligence community how extremely dangerous this COVID virus was, how communicable the disease was. He went on a taped interview with Bob Woodward, a leading journalist, was on tape and played, telling Woodward that he knew how dangerous the disease was, but did nothing.

Joe Biden

00:04:24 - 00:04:53 ()

Ask yourself, why didn't he tell us? Why didn't he warn us? He said nothing. He told Woodward he didn't want to panic the American people, that's why he said nothing. We don't panic. America doesn't panic. But trump panicked. His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis has been unconscionable. The longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he seems to get.

Joe Biden

00:04:53 - 00:05:15 ()

Doctor Fauci, the most respected doc on this issue in the world -- in the country, he -- he told the president -- you know, the president's announcement of his pick for the Supreme Court in the rose garden, as -- he referred to that as a super spreader. All those people that caught -- that got the disease, how is he responding?

Joe Biden

00:05:15 - 00:05:50 ()

Well, guess what, he's now running an ad you probably saw, a national ad quoting Dr. Fauci out of context, way back in march referring to public health officials, Dr. Fauci said, "I can't imagine that anybody could be doing more." In the recent ad that's going out nationally, Trump ad quotes Dr. Fauci as saying that about him, the president, Trump and his campaign deliberately liked making it sound like Fauci was talking about Trump.

Joe Biden

00:05:50 - 00:06:16 ()

Fauci went on the public air and the ad came out saying three days ago, I did not give permission for that quote. He wasn't referring to the president. And even after that, Fauci said he didn't say that the president and the campaign -- even after Fauci laid this out -- the campaign said, "we're still going to use it because he did say it", even though it wasn't about him.

Joe Biden

00:06:16 - 00:06:36 ()

The point I'm trying to make is, it was a knowing lie like we're being told about everything about this COVID consequences. As a consequence, through his months of overwhelming lie and misleading and irresponsible action on the part of Donald Trump, how many empty chairs were around your breakfast table this morning?

Joe Biden

00:06:36 - 00:07:04 ()

Someone you loved, someone you cared about, someone you knew, a family member or a neighbor, missing -- missing, and why? Because of negligence. Look, I view this campaign -- as I've said before and I'll say it again -- between Scranton and Park Avenue, between Toledo and Park Avenue, all Trump can see is from Park Avenue is Wall Street.

Joe Biden

00:07:04 - 00:07:31 ()

That's why his only metric for American prosperity that he values is the Dow Jones and index. Like a lot of you, I spent a lot of my time with guys like Trump looking down on me, the Irish Catholic kid in the neighborhood. Guys who thought they were better than me because they had a lot of money. Guys who inherited everything they ever got and still managed to squander it.

Joe Biden

00:07:31 - 00:07:59 ()

I have to admit, I shouldn't have done it, but I've gone on record saying it so I'll repeat it, I still have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder about guys like him. I read some stories after I got the nomination that, "If Biden gets elected, he'll be the first non-ivy league school graduate to get elected in a -- forgot if it was 80 or 90 years -- guys, have a seat, man.

Joe Biden

00:07:59 - 00:08:26 ()

You know what, like some state school guy, I went to the University of Delaware, I was proud of it. Hard to get there, hard to get through in terms of money. But folks, since when can someone who went to a state university not be qualified to be president? Folks, I know what it takes to be president. I sat next to a man for eight years watching and participating.

Joe Biden

00:08:26 - 00:08:49 ()

My mom taught me that what you are probably taught by your parents too, she said, "Joey, nobody is better than you. But everybody's your equal." I don't measure people based on the size of their bank account. I don't respect people based on whether they own a mansion. I don't judge them whether they're -- based on whether they belong to a country club.

Joe Biden

00:08:49 - 00:09:15 ()

You and I measure people by the strength of their character, their honesty, their re -- their courage -- their courage. My mom used to say, the greatest gift of all, the greatest virtue is courage. You're redeemed by your courage. That's what she'd say. And redeemed by your loyalty. Honesty, loyalty, things that are bigger than yourself.

Joe Biden

00:09:15 - 00:09:40 ()

Those are the neighborhoods we were raised in. It's all about family, decency, honor, opportunity, these are the values I learned growing up in Scranton, and my guess is you learned growing up in Toledo or wherever you grew up, the people I grew up with in Scranton didn't have any money in stocks. In our house growing up, every penny my dad made went to paying the bills, keeping the lights on, and food on the table.

Joe Biden

00:09:40 - 00:10:03 ()

Every penny our friends in Scranton made went to paying the bills and taking care of their families as well, and we looked out for our neighbors. That's why I have a different measure by which I judge the health of America's economy. I see hard-working women and men who are just trying to earn an honest living and take care of their families, just want even shot.

Joe Biden

00:10:03 - 00:10:24 ()

They're not asking for anything; they're just asking for a fair shot. And you know, given a shot the American people will never, ever, ever, ever let their country down. Never the other expression my dad would have he said when you see the abuse of power there's only one way to respond to it -- and that's with power.

Joe Biden

00:10:24 - 00:10:52 ()

And the only power we had to take on corporate America is union power. That's the only power. I just think back to 2008 when Barack and I were elected and we inherited the worst recession short of a depression in history. President put me in charge of the recovery act, $800 billion it was needed to wave our economy from going into a depression.

Joe Biden

00:10:52 - 00:11:14 ()

We did it with less two tenths of 1 percent waste of fraud. We were able to see to it that Ohio and other states received substantial assistance to address their economic pain and recovery and rebuild. To make sure we kept teachers, firefighters and cops, public nurses on the job. People being laid off now cause you don't have the local money to do it.

Joe Biden

00:11:14 - 00:11:41 ()

So they didn't have to be fired because of lack of money. That was the federal government stepped up and started the longest sustained economic recovery in American history. That this guy inherited and then squandered again. But you know what Mitch McConnell said recently about helping the states and the cities he said, "Let them go bankrupt". I heard that before.

Joe Biden

00:11:41 - 00:12:03 ()

You heard it too. Republicans said the same thing about the auto building industry. Like I said, I come from an automobile state and an automobile man. The auto industry supported one in eight Ohioans was on the brink -- it was more than 1 years ago but your remember like it was yesterday. It was on the brink.

Joe Biden

00:12:03 - 00:12:27 ()

Barack and I bet on you and the American worker and it paid off. I argued the American worker was the finest auto worker in the world management screwed it up. You didn't. You didn't make the mistake. And by the way, it all go t paid back. But guess who made the greatest sacrifices? Auto workers. You made the sacrifices to get it back.

Joe Biden

00:12:27 - 00:12:57 ()

So it's over -- over the many objections of many that we stepped in and rescued the automobile industry. General Motors and Chrysler saving 1 million jobs -- and then what happened when Donald Trump came to office? Remember what Trump said in 2017 in Lordstown? He said, don't move -- "Don't move. Don't sell your house." But Lordstown shut down on Trump's watch.

Joe Biden

00:12:57 - 00:13:17 ()

And after a decade in Cleveland I met after the debate in Cleveland I met with an elementary school teacher in Lordstown. Her husband was there as well -- one of the workers that lost his job in Lordstown. He had to accept a transfer to a plant in Kentucky eight hours away, one way -- to maintain his healthcare and his pension.

Joe Biden

00:13:17 - 00:13:47 ()

He drives 16 hours a weekend to see her and her two kids. But Donald Trump's betrayal doesn't stop there. He betrayed union workers at Goodyear when he called for a boycott of buying tire Goodyear tires because of a personal grudge. He passed a tax bill for the super wealthy and corporations that actually provided incentives for companies to move jobs overseas.

Joe Biden

00:13:47 - 00:14:16 ()

Folks, manufacturing is the backbone of America but we are in a manufacturing recession because of Donald Trump even before the COVID virus hit. We're down 647,000 manufacturing jobs nationwide since the crisis started. And the balance of payments we are sending more overseas than coming to us more we're buying more overseas than we're selling is higher than its been in a long time.

Joe Biden

00:14:16 - 00:14:44 ()

There is still 9 -- 10,900 lost auto worker manufacturing jobs in Ohio, not come back. The Trump presidency would be the first presidency since Herbert Hoover over 90 years ago, first president in modern history to leave office with fewer jobs than he had when he came to office. Donald Trump's only plan is more tax cuts for the wealthy.

Joe Biden

00:14:44 - 00:15:15 ()

Most of you if you still have a job paid more than he paid last year in taxes -- $750. Come on. The system is rigged. We're going to change it. $30 billion the new proposal just for the gains of the 100 richest billionaires in America -- 30 billion. You hear me? They make $30 billion alone in this year while the rest of the people are getting killed.

Joe Biden

00:15:15 - 00:15:44 ()

The middle of this pandemic why do republicans have time to hold a hearing on the Supreme Court providing incentive -- providing a significant economic [Inaudible] for localities? I tell you why it's about finally getting his wish to wipe out the Affordable Healthcare Act. Because their nominee has said in the past that the law should be struck down.

Joe Biden

00:15:44 - 00:16:08 ()

His relentless effort to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, provided healthcare coverage for 20 million people that didn't have it. Protections for well over 100 million people with preexisting conditions. You know, and we've seen his pledge to terminate the tax dedicated to financing Social Security. Marcy and I were talking about that.

Joe Biden

00:16:08 - 00:16:36 ()

You know what the actuary at the Social Security Department said? If it goes through this tax he's coming about come through Social Security it will actually bankrupt -- bankrupt Social Security by the middle of 2023. Go home and tell your parents that. Not once has President Trump called for a high-level meeting between Democrats and Republicans in the White House.

Joe Biden

00:16:36 - 00:17:03 ()

This is going on now. The House has already passed. In the beginning of the summer -- this position to be able to reconcile people who are in real trouble. Help the states like we did. He hadn't once called a meeting between Democrats and Republicans to deliver the new COVID relief package for working families and small businesses that are going bankrupt.

Joe Biden

00:17:03 - 00:17:25 ()

He spent too much time in the bunker of his golf course or in the bunker of the White House than he was willing to actually sit to try to work something out. Check it out. First president I can ever remember in the middle of a national economic crisis did not try to call the parties together. He turned his back on you.

Joe Biden

00:17:25 - 00:18:18 ()

I promise you I will never do that. Folks, that's why my build back better plan is built around a simple concept -- its' time to reward work not wealth. Work. I mean it. An independent analysis by a big Wall Street firm called Moody -- not a Democratic think tank -- they did an analysis of my economic plan to revive this country an analysis of his -- here's what they concluded that my plan would create 18.6 million jobs in the next four years.

Joe Biden

00:18:18 - 00:18:44 ()

Seven million more than the president's economic plan that would generate economic growth an additional trillion dollars more than the president's plan. Look what these guys don't get when you do well, when my family does well everybody does better. Everybody does better. That's the God's truth. Here's how my plan works.

Joe Biden

00:18:44 - 00:19:12 ()

I'm not going to raise taxes on anyone who makes less than $400,000 a year if you make more than 400 beep your horn cause you're going to get a tax raise. I'm going to raise your tax slightly if you're making over 400. But look you're going to pay a bit more. In fact 10s of millions of middle-class families are going to get a tax cut when they need it most and raising their kids, trying to get affordable healthcare, buying their first home, they're saving for retirement.

Joe Biden

00:19:12 - 00:19:32 ()

I'm going to ask big corporations and the super wealthy just to begin to start to pay their fair share. I'm going to raise back tax cut he gave for corporate America. They are paying the mid-30s now paying 21 if we just raise the tax back to where it should be, 28 percent that generates over $100 billion.

Joe Biden

00:19:32 - 00:20:00 ()

You hear me? That's money. Excuse me $1.3 trillion that's what it raises to help hardworking folks. Allow us to invest in working people and grow the middle class. Make sure everybody comes along this time. My plan will create a million good playing union jobs manufacturing and building products and technology that we need now and in the future.

Joe Biden

00:20:00 - 00:20:34 ()

We're not investing in research. Starts with a pretty basic idea -- you know, the president federal government every year spends $600 billion just making sure that we have ships and planes, cars, trains all the things the government vets contracts for. Well, I promise you this -- every single product, every single contract let will be only let only to a company or a firm that makes it in America from beginning to end.

Joe Biden

00:20:34 - 00:21:18 ()

Not a joke. Going to use the buy American products, support American jobs, we'll invest to build more resilient infrastructure -- roads, bridges, ports. 1.5 million new affordable housing units, high-speed broadband, and every American household more important than ever. We are going to rebuild crumbling schools, retrofit 4 million buildings and weatherize 2 million homes, creating 1 million new jobs, the reason why everyone from the electric works and every other major union is strongly supported us, and it's all going to be done by certified union labor.

Joe Biden

00:21:18 - 00:21:53 ()

Promise. You may remember when the president but me in charge of that $800 billion not one single contract went out that was in prevailing wage, not one. So we are going to end trumps new incentive for sending jobs abroad, that is what he's done. More jobs are going abroad now. Any company that offshores a job is going to pay a 10 percent penalty.

Joe Biden

00:21:53 - 00:22:23 ()

Any company that brings back a job or reopens a closed factory like a manufacturing [Inaudible] they will get a 10 percent credit for their investment. We are going to make trade [Inaudible] fights for every American worker and every American job and actually get results, not Trump's trade war, erratic tweets and bluster that has only stiffed American workers and consumers including farmers.

Joe Biden

00:22:23 - 00:22:50 ()

He has let you down, he has let us down. I promise you I will stand up to China's trade of abuses and I will invest in the American worker because I know no one, nobody can outcompete an American worker when they've gotten a fair shot, nobody in the world. One more thing, the United States government owns and maintains an enormous fleet of vehicles.

Joe Biden

00:22:50 - 00:23:08 ()

We are going to convert many of them to electric vehicles and you are going to still need to build these transmissions and for a long time to come that in a new jobs in that area are going to go to people in the automobile industry who are in the manufacturing who are in the UAW are going to be making these new vehicles sourced right here in America.

Joe Biden

00:23:08 - 00:23:46 ()

The government provide and demand support to retool factories that are struggling to compete. The U.S. auto industry will step up. I will expand capacity so the United States not China leads the world and modern new technology. We are going to make it easier for American consumers to move to the vehicles of the future by building a network of 500,000 charging stations across the country we are offering consumers rebates to swap older fuel-efficient cars.

Joe Biden

00:23:46 - 00:24:20 ()

We are going to move in a direction that technology is taking us and making sure the UAW leads the way and how we do it. Together this will mean 1 million good new jobs in the auto industry. Folks, as an example of how we can do anything I am more optimistic about what we have a chance to do in the next 4 to 6 years, eight years than anything in a time in my whole career.

Joe Biden

00:24:20 - 00:24:46 ()

The blinders have been taken off the American people, they see with the combination of the pandemic the economic crisis, racial any quality we are facing and what is going on internationally and they are ready to step up. They know we have to change, nothing, nothing, nothing is beyond the capacity of the United States of America and I mean that.

Joe Biden

00:24:46 - 00:25:16 ()

Think about it. We are the only country in the world that has come out of every crisis stronger than we went in because of who we are. As I have said to other world leaders never underestimate the American people. There is no -- there's no quit in America. There's none in America we can do anything that we need to do if we can do it together.

Joe Biden

00:25:16 - 00:25:42 ()

Nothing can stop us. You know we have to come together and that's why I'm running. I'm running as a proud Democrat for the Senate when I ran as a proud Democrat for vice president I am running as a proud Democrat for president but I promise you this I will govern as an American president. I will govern for everyone who voted for me as well as against me.

Joe Biden

00:25:42 - 00:26:34 ()

We can be better than what we have seen. We can be what we are at our best, the United States of America so vote, vote. Visit Iwill.com/Ohio. God bless you and God bless the auto workers [Inaudible] thank you. He would say to me Joey, my grandpa would say Joey, keep the faith and my grandmother when she was alive she was no, Joey, spread it.

Joe Biden

00:26:34 - 00:26:40 ()

Go spread the faith. Let's win this thing.