Biden reveals intention for a $700 billion spending plan

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spoke in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, to unveil his $700 billion spending plan intended to combat the economic fallout from the nationwide, pandemic inspired, shutdown. Biden's “Build Back Better" proposition would use the federal government’s regulatory and spending power to bolster US manufacturing and create 5 million new American jobs.

Biden began by describing three crises present in the country: the pandemic, the collapse of the economy, and the "national reckoning on the issue of racial injustice that has long plagued the United States of America." This is all on top of the widening "economic inequity" and amounting "climate crisis," he stated.

Attacking President Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic, Biden claimed his opponent said, "Maybe if you drank bleach, you may be okay."

The #DisinfectantDonnie hoax was propped up by CNN's reporting that "Trump suggested the possibility of injecting disinfectants as a treatment for COVID-19.”

During a White House press briefing, Trump had said, "Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t work," toying with the notion that rinsing an internal organ in bleach might be a good idea. Later on, Trump revealed he was just being sarcastic in the face of “a group of extraordinarily hostile people. Namely the fake news media.”

Biden went on to say that Trump has been singularly focussed on the stock market and not the people who comprise the economy.

He then used his neighboring hometown of Scranton and the Dunmore metal works plant as pivots to talk about working class families.

"The only way to deal with abusive power is with power. And labor, unions, are the only one with the capacity to do it, " Biden stated in support of unions, which had led him to support the PRO Act.

Based on California's disastrous AB5 law and partially drafted by the AFL-CIO, the PRO Act re-classes independent contractors as employees, promising to protect them from the companies they work for. In actuality, the PRO Act disenfranchises the majority of freelancers to in order to allow share and gig economy workers to unionize.

"It's time for corporate America to pay its fair share in taxes," Biden urged, promising to raise federal taxes back up to 28 percent, demand Amazon pay up, and stop handing out tax breaks to the ultra wealthy.

"We must reward work as much as we rewarded wealth. But now we just reward excessive wealth," Biden stated.

Biden said the federal government should spend taxpayers' money to buy American projects and support American jobs, vowing to modernize infrastructure and enhance national security.

"The Chinese are spending multiples of billions of dollars trying to own the technology of the future while we sit with our thumb in our ear," Biden stated bluntly.

Biden promised a "dramatic resurge" in development and investment in $30 billion in his first year alone, calling it the the greatest mobilization in American history since World War II.

Biden then moved onto the racial talking points dominating the horse race in politics today. His funding will be used to aid minority "communities that have been historically left out" to eliminate "racial inequity." Biden continued by accusing Trump of supporting the Confederate flag and the statues of Confederate generals that the left-wing movement has moved to take down.

The first stage of Biden's plan includes a $400 billion investment in federal purchases of American products, including steel, cement, and concrete that will be used to rebuild US infrastructure.

The plan also calls for a $300 billion investment in researching and developing emerging technologies, including electric vehicles, biotechnology artificial intelligence, clean energy, and lightweight materials.

The plan is the first of four economic proposals Biden will roll out over the next few weeks, according to The Hill.

Biden had visited Pennsylvania more than any other state since the coronavirus lockdown began. Meanwhile, current Vice President Mike Pence visited Lancaster, PA.

In 2016, Trump carried Pennsylvania by about 45,000 votes, becoming the first Republican candidate to win the swing state since 1988.

The RealClearPolitics average of polls in Pennsylvania shows that Biden holds a 6.5-point lead over Trump.