"Hear me clearly," "America is not a racist country."- Tim Scott

dukkha said:
we have made great strides.
Progs lie we haven't , but yes indeed to the point racism is rare and not tolerated at all
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Blah, if yer white them hispanics feel entitled to be racist sometimes.

Seen a bunch of them harassing a white bum in a dominos in utah. Since he was white he was extra bereft of dignity for being a bum... They were morman hispanics :/
 
Primavera said:
You're so dim Doris, he was born to a single mother and experienced racism when young. He's talking about now ffs, you should listen to people like him.and not race hustlers like BAC, Guano, IQ64 and Daesh.
Click to expand...

Rana is an imbecile. The left is seeking to divide and bait Americans into hating and fighting against each other, and she parrots the party line.

Actually promoting racism — as has always been the case — is the DEMOCRAT Party with its commitment to identity politics.
 
dukkha said:
Hear me clearly," he said. "America is not a racist country." :thumbsup:

Scott used the GOP rebuttal to continue a theme he started earlier in the week about how there is unity in the country's diversity, claiming that Republicans have supported policies that have reformed the criminal justice system and opened the economy to all Americans regardless of race.

"Just before COVID, we had the most inclusive economy in my lifetime," he said.
"The lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians, and a 70 year low nearly for women. Wages were growing faster for the bottom 25% than the top 25%. That happened because Republicans focused on expanding opportunity for all Americans."

Republicans controlled Washington in May 2018 when the African American unemployment rate dipped to 5.9%, for instance.
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so?
 
Primavera said:
Nasty Knobrot is an unreconstructed Communist, he's a political dinosaur that's been resurrected from the dead.
Click to expand...
Marxism is resurgent in the USA..why is the question?
I think it's brainwashing oour kids and activists that are doing it
but it's wayy too common
 
Cypress said:
Biden did not say America is a racist country.

He said something all honest people recognize: 160 years after the civil war, after the 14th Amendment, we still have problems with racism in this country.
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Biden claims "systemic" racism- it's not -not even with cops. certainly not in civil society
 
Legion said:
Political scientist Eric Kaufmann notes that racial attitudes have been trending toward more tolerance for well over half a century, even as politicians, professional polemicists and major media organs (the failing New York Times’s “1619 Project”) continue to insist otherwise.

Terms like “systemic racism” and “unconscious bias” are increasingly common, but white racist views have been in steady decline, whether with regard to having black co-workers, classmates or neighbors.

Intermarriage trend lines also undermine the notion that racial bigotry in America is a growing problem.

The political left has a stake in overstating both the existence and effects of racism so that it can advocate for more and bigger programs to combat it. And the media has long been willing to do the left’s ideological bidding.

Social media allows for wide publicity of statistically rare incidents that are in reality getting even rarer, giving the impression that isolated events “happen all the time.”


https://www.wsj.com/articles/race-relations-in-america-are-better-than-ever-11619561751
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this
 
Cypress said:
Biden did not say America is a racist country.

He said something all honest people recognize: 160 years after the civil war, after the 14th Amendment, we still have problems with racism in this country.

Biden explicitly said the vast majority of cops are trying to serve with honor.

If you thought Biden was directly talking to you personally and actually calling you a racist, that has more to do with your own self-perception than anything Biden did.
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Those who are guilty squeal the loudest when hit!
 
BidenPresident said:
Where did Biden say there is "systematic" racism?
Click to expand...

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Good to be back. Mitch and Chuck will understand, it’s good to be almost home, down the hall.
Anyway, thank you, all.
Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President.
No president has ever said those words from this podium. No president has ever said those words, and it’s about time.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
first lady and her husband —
(SHEEP BLEATING)
— Second Gentleman, Chief Justice, members of the United States Congress and the cabinet, distinguished guests.
My fellow Americans, while the setting tonight is familiar, this gathering is just a little bit different. Reminder of the extraordinary times we're in.
Throughout our history, presidents have come to this chamber to speak to Congress, to the nation and to the world, to declare war, to celebrate peace, to announce new plans and possibilities.
Tonight, I come to talk about crisis and opportunity, about rebuilding the nation, revitalizing our democracy, and winning the future for America.
I stand here tonight, one day shy of the 100th day of my administration. Hundred days since I took the oath of office and lifted my hand off our family Bible and inherited a nation, we all did, that was in crisis. The worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War
Now, after just 100 days, I can report to the nation: America is on the move again.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
Turning peril into possibility, crisis to opportunity, setbacks into strength.
We all know life can knock us down, but in America, we never, ever, ever stay down. Americans always get up. Today, that's what we're doing. America is rising anew, choosing hope over fear, truth over lies, and light over darkness.
After 100 days of rescue and renewal, America is ready for takeoff, in my view. We're working again, dreaming again, discovering again, and leading the world again.
We've shown each other and the world that there is no quit in America, none. One hundred days ago, America's house was on fire. We had to act.
And thanks to the extraordinary leadership of Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer and the overwhelming support of the American people, Democrats, Independents and Republicans, we did act. Together we passed the American Rescue Plan, one of the most consequential rescue packages in American history. We're already seeing the results.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
We're already seeing the results.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
After I promised we'd get 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots into people's arms in 100 days, we will have provided over 220 million covid shots in those hundred days.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
Thanks to all the help of all of you.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
We’re marshaling, with your help, everyone’s help. We’re marshaling every federal resource. We’ve gotten vaccines in nearly 40,000 pharmacies and over 700 community health centers, where the poorest of the poor can be reached.
We're setting up community vaccination sites, developing mobile units to get to hard-to-reach communities. Today, 90 percent of Americans now live within five miles of a vaccination site. Everyone over the age of 16, everyone is now eligible to get vaccinated right now, right away. Go get vaccinated, America. Go and get the vaccinations. They're available.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
You're eligible now. When I was sworn in on January 20, less than one percent of the seniors in America were fully vaccinated against covid-19. One hundred days later, 70 percent of seniors in America over 65 are protected, fully protected. Senior deaths from covid-19 are down 80 percent since January, down 80 percent because of all of you. And more than half of all the adults in America have gotten at least one shot.
A mass vaccination center in Glendale, Arizona, I asked the nurse, I said, “What's it like?” She looked at me and she said, “It's like every shot is giving a dose of hope,” was the phrase, “a dose of hope.” A dose of hope for an educator in Florida who has a child suffering from an autoimmune disease wrote to me, said she's worried — that she was worried about bringing the virus home.
She said she then got vaccinated at a large site in her car. She said she sat in her car when she got vaccinated and just cried. Cried out of joy and cried out of relief.
Parents see the smiles on their kids' faces for those who are able to go back to school because the teachers and school bus drivers and cafeteria workers have been vaccinated. Grandparents hugging their children and grandchildren instead of pressing hands against the window to say goodbye. Means everything. Those things mean everything.
You know, there's still, you all know it, you know it better than any group of Americans — there's still more work to do to beat this virus. We can't let our guard down. But tonight, I can say it, because of you, the American people, our progress these past hundred days against one of the worst pandemics in history has been one of the greatest logistical achievements — logistical achievements this country's ever seen.
What else have we done in those first hundred days? We kept our commitment, Democrats and Republicans, of sending $1,400 rescue checks to 85 percent of American households. We've already sent more than $160 million checks out the door. It's making a difference. You don't know when you go home (ph).
For many people it's making all the difference in the world. The single mom in Texas who wrote me, she said she couldn't work and she said the relief check put food on the table and saved her and her son from eviction from her apartment. A grandmother in Virginia who told me she immediately took her granddaughter to the eye doctor, something she said she put off for months because she didn't have the money.
BIDEN: One of the defining images at least from my perspective in this crisis has been, cars lined up. Cars lined up for miles and not — not people just barely ever start those cars, nice cars, lined up for miles, waiting for a box of food to be put in their trunk.
I don't know about you but I didn't ever think I'd see that in America. And all of this is through no fault of their own, no fault of their own these people are in this position. That's why the rescue plan is delivering food and nutrition assistance to millions of Americans facing hunger and hunger's down sharply already.
We're also providing rental assistance. You all know this but the American people, I want to make sure they understand. Keeping people from being evicted from their homes, providing loans to small businesses to reopen and keep their employees on the job.
During these 100 days, an additional 800,000 Americans enrolled in the Affordable Care Act when I established a special sign-up period to do that, 800,000 in that period. We're making one of the largest one-time ever investments, ever and improving health care for Veterans. Critical investments to address the opioid crisis and maybe most importantly, thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we're on track to cut child poverty in America in half this year.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
And in the process, while this is all going on, the economy created more than 1,300,000 new jobs in 100 days. More jobs in the first —
(SHEEP BLEATING)
— more jobs in the first 100 days than any president on record. International Monetary Fund —
(SHEEP BLEATING)
— the International Monetary Fund is now estimated in our economy will grow at a rate of more than six percent this year. That would be the fastest pace of economic growth in this country in nearly four decades. America's moving, moving forward.
But we can't stop now. We're in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century. We're at a great inflection point in history. We have to do more than just “Build Back Better,” than build back — we have to “Build Back Better.” We have to compete more strenuously than we have.
Throughout our history, think about it, public investment in infrastructure has literally transformed America. Our attitudes as well as our opportunities. The Transcontinental Railroad, the interstate highways, united two oceans and brought a totally new age of progress to the United States of America.
Universal public schools and college aid opened wide the doors of opportunity. Scientific breakthroughs took us to the moon. Now we're on Mars, discovering vaccines, gave us the Internet and so much more.
These are investments we made together as one country and investments that only the government was in the position to make. Time and again, they propel us into the future.
That’s why I proposed the American Jobs Plan, a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself. This is the largest jobs plan since World War II, creates jobs, to upgrade our transportation infrastructure. Jobs, modernizing our roads, bridges, highways. Jobs building ports and airports, railcarters, transit lines.
It's clean water. And today, up to 10 million homes in America and more than 400,000 schools and child-care centers have pipes with lead in them including drinking water. A clear and present danger to our children's health. American Jobs Plan creates jobs replacing 100 percent of the nation's lead pipes and service line so every American can drink clean water.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
And the process will create thousands and thousands of good-paying jobs.
It creates jobs connecting every American with high-speed Internet, including 35 percent of the rural America that still doesn't have it. This is going to help our kids and our businesses succeed in the 21st century economy.
And I'm asking the vice president to lead this effort, if she would, because I know it will get done.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: It creates jobs, building a modern power grid.
Our grids are vulnerable to storms, hacks, catastrophic failures, with tragic results, as we saw in Texas and elsewhere during the winter storms.
The American Jobs Plan will create jobs that will lay thousands of miles of transmission lines needed to build a resilient and fully clean grid. We can do that.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: Look, the American Jobs Plan will help millions of people get back to their jobs and back to their careers.
Two million women have dropped out of the workforce during this pandemic — 2 million — and too often, because they couldn't get the care they needed to care for their child or care for an elderly parent who needs help.
Eight hundred thousand families are on the Medicare waiting list right now to get home care for their aging parent or loved one with disability.
If you think it's not important, check out in your own district, Democrat or Republican — Democrat or Republican voters. Their great concern, almost as much as the children, is taking care of an elderly loved one who can't be left alone.
Medicaid contemplated it, but this plan is going to help those families and create jobs for our caregivers with better wages and better benefits, continuing a cycle of growth.
For too long, we've failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis, jobs — jobs — jobs.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: For me, when I think climate change, I think jobs. The American Jobs Plan will put engineers and construction workers to work building more energy-efficient buildings and homes, electrical workers, IBAW members, installing 500,000 charging stations along our highways, so we can own —
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: — so we can own the electric car market. Farmers — farmers planting cover crops so they can reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and get paid for doing it.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: Look, think about it. There is simply no reason the blades for wind turbines can't be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing — no reason.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: None — no reason.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: So, folks, there's no reason American — American workers can't lead the world in the production of electric vehicles and batteries. There is no reason. We have the capacity.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: We have the brightest, best-trained people in the world.
The American Jobs Plan is going to create millions of good-paying jobs, jobs Americans can raise a family on — and, as my dad would then say, with a little breathing room.
And all the investments in the American Jobs Plan will be guided by one principle, buy American. Buy American.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: And I might note parenthetically —
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: — that does not — that does not violate any trade agreement. It's been the law since the '30s, buy American.
American tax dollars are going to be used to buy American products, made in America, to create American jobs. That's the way it's supposed to be, and it will be in this administration.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: And I made it clear to all my Cabinet people their ability to give exemptions has been strenuously limited. It will be American products.
Now, I know some of you at home are wondering whether these jobs are for you. So many of you, so many of the folks I grew up with feel left behind, forgotten, in an economy that's so rapidly changing, it's frightening. I want to speak directly to you, because if you think about it, that's what people are most worried about. Can I fit in?
Independent experts estimate the American Jobs Plan will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars to economic growth in the years to come. It is an eight-year program. These are good-paying jobs that can't be outsourced.
Nearly 90 percent of the infrastructure jobs created in the American Jobs Plan do not require a college degree. Seventy-five percent don't require an associate’s degree. The American Jobs Plan is a blue collar blueprint to build America. That's what it is.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: And it recognizes something I've always said in this chamber and the other, good guys and women on Wall Street, but Wall Street didn't build this country. The middle class built the country. And unions built the middle class.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: So that's why I'm calling on Congress to pass the Protect the Right to Organize Act, the PRO Act, and send it to my desk so we can support the right to unionize.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: And by the way, while you're thinking about sending things to my desk, let's raise the minimum wage to $15.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: No one, no one working 40 hours a week, no one working 40 hours a week should live below the poverty line.
We need to ensure greater equity and opportunity for women. And while we're doing this, let's get the Paycheck Fairness Act to my desk as well. Equal pay. It's been much too long. And if you wonder whether it's too long, look behind me.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: And, finally, the American Jobs Plan will be the biggest increase in nondefense research and development on record. We'll see more technological change. And some of you know more about this than I do. We'll see more technological change this the next 10 years than we saw in the last 50. That's how rapidly artificial intelligence, and so much more, is changing.
And we're falling behind the competition with the rest of the world. Decades ago, we used to invest 2 percent of our gross domestic product, in America, 2 percent of our gross domestic product in research and development.
Today, Mr. Secretary, that's less than 1 percent. China and other countries are closing in fast. We have to develop and dominate the products and technologies of the future. Advanced batteries, biotechnology, computer chips, clean energy.
The secretary of defense can tell you, and those of you who work on national security issues, know, the Defense Department has an agency called DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
And the people who set up before I came here, and that has been a long time ago, to develop breakthroughs that enhance our national security. That's their only job. And it's a semi separate agency. It's under the Defense Department. It has led to everything from the discovery of the Internet to GPS and so much more. It has enhanced our security.
The National Institutes of Health, NIH, I believe, should create a similar Advanced Research Projects Agency for health.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
And that would — here’s what it would do. It would have a singular purpose, to develop breakthroughs to prevent, detect, and treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancer. I’ll still never forget when we passed the cancer proposal in the last year as vice president, almost $9 million going to NIH.
Excuse the point of personal privilege — I'll never forget you standing, Mitch, and saying, naming it after my deceased son. It meant a lot.
But so many of us have deceased sons, daughters, and relatives who died of cancer. I can’t think of no more worthy investment. I know of nothing that is more bipartisan.
So let's end cancer as we know it. It's within our power — it's within our power to do it.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
Investments in jobs and infrastructure like the ones we’re talking about have often had bipartisan support in the past.
Vice President Harris and I met regularly in the Oval Office with Democrats and Republicans to discuss the Jobs Plan.
And I applaud the group of Republican senators who just put forward their own proposal.
So let's get to work. I wanted to lay out before the Congress my plan, before we got into the deep discussions.
I'd like to meet with those who have ideas that are different, they think are better. I welcome those idea.
But the rest of the world is not waiting for us. I just want to be clear. From my perspective, doing nothing is not an option.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
 
BidenPresident said:
Where did Biden say there is "systematic" racism?
Click to expand...

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Good to be back. Mitch and Chuck will understand, it’s good to be almost home, down the hall.
Anyway, thank you, all.
Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President.
No president has ever said those words from this podium. No president has ever said those words, and it’s about time.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
first lady and her husband —
(SHEEP BLEATING)
— Second Gentleman, Chief Justice, members of the United States Congress and the cabinet, distinguished guests.
My fellow Americans, while the setting tonight is familiar, this gathering is just a little bit different. Reminder of the extraordinary times we're in.
Throughout our history, presidents have come to this chamber to speak to Congress, to the nation and to the world, to declare war, to celebrate peace, to announce new plans and possibilities.
Tonight, I come to talk about crisis and opportunity, about rebuilding the nation, revitalizing our democracy, and winning the future for America.
I stand here tonight, one day shy of the 100th day of my administration. Hundred days since I took the oath of office and lifted my hand off our family Bible and inherited a nation, we all did, that was in crisis. The worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War
Now, after just 100 days, I can report to the nation: America is on the move again.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
Turning peril into possibility, crisis to opportunity, setbacks into strength.
We all know life can knock us down, but in America, we never, ever, ever stay down. Americans always get up. Today, that's what we're doing. America is rising anew, choosing hope over fear, truth over lies, and light over darkness.
After 100 days of rescue and renewal, America is ready for takeoff, in my view. We're working again, dreaming again, discovering again, and leading the world again.
We've shown each other and the world that there is no quit in America, none. One hundred days ago, America's house was on fire. We had to act.
And thanks to the extraordinary leadership of Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer and the overwhelming support of the American people, Democrats, Independents and Republicans, we did act. Together we passed the American Rescue Plan, one of the most consequential rescue packages in American history. We're already seeing the results.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
We're already seeing the results.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
After I promised we'd get 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots into people's arms in 100 days, we will have provided over 220 million covid shots in those hundred days.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
Thanks to all the help of all of you.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
We’re marshaling, with your help, everyone’s help. We’re marshaling every federal resource. We’ve gotten vaccines in nearly 40,000 pharmacies and over 700 community health centers, where the poorest of the poor can be reached.
We're setting up community vaccination sites, developing mobile units to get to hard-to-reach communities. Today, 90 percent of Americans now live within five miles of a vaccination site. Everyone over the age of 16, everyone is now eligible to get vaccinated right now, right away. Go get vaccinated, America. Go and get the vaccinations. They're available.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
You're eligible now. When I was sworn in on January 20, less than one percent of the seniors in America were fully vaccinated against covid-19. One hundred days later, 70 percent of seniors in America over 65 are protected, fully protected. Senior deaths from covid-19 are down 80 percent since January, down 80 percent because of all of you. And more than half of all the adults in America have gotten at least one shot.
A mass vaccination center in Glendale, Arizona, I asked the nurse, I said, “What's it like?” She looked at me and she said, “It's like every shot is giving a dose of hope,” was the phrase, “a dose of hope.” A dose of hope for an educator in Florida who has a child suffering from an autoimmune disease wrote to me, said she's worried — that she was worried about bringing the virus home.
She said she then got vaccinated at a large site in her car. She said she sat in her car when she got vaccinated and just cried. Cried out of joy and cried out of relief.
Parents see the smiles on their kids' faces for those who are able to go back to school because the teachers and school bus drivers and cafeteria workers have been vaccinated. Grandparents hugging their children and grandchildren instead of pressing hands against the window to say goodbye. Means everything. Those things mean everything.
You know, there's still, you all know it, you know it better than any group of Americans — there's still more work to do to beat this virus. We can't let our guard down. But tonight, I can say it, because of you, the American people, our progress these past hundred days against one of the worst pandemics in history has been one of the greatest logistical achievements — logistical achievements this country's ever seen.
What else have we done in those first hundred days? We kept our commitment, Democrats and Republicans, of sending $1,400 rescue checks to 85 percent of American households. We've already sent more than $160 million checks out the door. It's making a difference. You don't know when you go home (ph).
For many people it's making all the difference in the world. The single mom in Texas who wrote me, she said she couldn't work and she said the relief check put food on the table and saved her and her son from eviction from her apartment. A grandmother in Virginia who told me she immediately took her granddaughter to the eye doctor, something she said she put off for months because she didn't have the money.
BIDEN: One of the defining images at least from my perspective in this crisis has been, cars lined up. Cars lined up for miles and not — not people just barely ever start those cars, nice cars, lined up for miles, waiting for a box of food to be put in their trunk.
I don't know about you but I didn't ever think I'd see that in America. And all of this is through no fault of their own, no fault of their own these people are in this position. That's why the rescue plan is delivering food and nutrition assistance to millions of Americans facing hunger and hunger's down sharply already.
We're also providing rental assistance. You all know this but the American people, I want to make sure they understand. Keeping people from being evicted from their homes, providing loans to small businesses to reopen and keep their employees on the job.
During these 100 days, an additional 800,000 Americans enrolled in the Affordable Care Act when I established a special sign-up period to do that, 800,000 in that period. We're making one of the largest one-time ever investments, ever and improving health care for Veterans. Critical investments to address the opioid crisis and maybe most importantly, thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we're on track to cut child poverty in America in half this year.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
And in the process, while this is all going on, the economy created more than 1,300,000 new jobs in 100 days. More jobs in the first —
(SHEEP BLEATING)
— more jobs in the first 100 days than any president on record. International Monetary Fund —
(SHEEP BLEATING)
— the International Monetary Fund is now estimated in our economy will grow at a rate of more than six percent this year. That would be the fastest pace of economic growth in this country in nearly four decades. America's moving, moving forward.
But we can't stop now. We're in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century. We're at a great inflection point in history. We have to do more than just “Build Back Better,” than build back — we have to “Build Back Better.” We have to compete more strenuously than we have.
Throughout our history, think about it, public investment in infrastructure has literally transformed America. Our attitudes as well as our opportunities. The Transcontinental Railroad, the interstate highways, united two oceans and brought a totally new age of progress to the United States of America.
Universal public schools and college aid opened wide the doors of opportunity. Scientific breakthroughs took us to the moon. Now we're on Mars, discovering vaccines, gave us the Internet and so much more.
These are investments we made together as one country and investments that only the government was in the position to make. Time and again, they propel us into the future.
That’s why I proposed the American Jobs Plan, a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself. This is the largest jobs plan since World War II, creates jobs, to upgrade our transportation infrastructure. Jobs, modernizing our roads, bridges, highways. Jobs building ports and airports, railcarters, transit lines.
It's clean water. And today, up to 10 million homes in America and more than 400,000 schools and child-care centers have pipes with lead in them including drinking water. A clear and present danger to our children's health. American Jobs Plan creates jobs replacing 100 percent of the nation's lead pipes and service line so every American can drink clean water.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
And the process will create thousands and thousands of good-paying jobs.
It creates jobs connecting every American with high-speed Internet, including 35 percent of the rural America that still doesn't have it. This is going to help our kids and our businesses succeed in the 21st century economy.
And I'm asking the vice president to lead this effort, if she would, because I know it will get done.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: It creates jobs, building a modern power grid.
Our grids are vulnerable to storms, hacks, catastrophic failures, with tragic results, as we saw in Texas and elsewhere during the winter storms.
The American Jobs Plan will create jobs that will lay thousands of miles of transmission lines needed to build a resilient and fully clean grid. We can do that.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: Look, the American Jobs Plan will help millions of people get back to their jobs and back to their careers.
Two million women have dropped out of the workforce during this pandemic — 2 million — and too often, because they couldn't get the care they needed to care for their child or care for an elderly parent who needs help.
Eight hundred thousand families are on the Medicare waiting list right now to get home care for their aging parent or loved one with disability.
If you think it's not important, check out in your own district, Democrat or Republican — Democrat or Republican voters. Their great concern, almost as much as the children, is taking care of an elderly loved one who can't be left alone.
Medicaid contemplated it, but this plan is going to help those families and create jobs for our caregivers with better wages and better benefits, continuing a cycle of growth.
For too long, we've failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis, jobs — jobs — jobs.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: For me, when I think climate change, I think jobs. The American Jobs Plan will put engineers and construction workers to work building more energy-efficient buildings and homes, electrical workers, IBAW members, installing 500,000 charging stations along our highways, so we can own —
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: — so we can own the electric car market. Farmers — farmers planting cover crops so they can reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and get paid for doing it.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: Look, think about it. There is simply no reason the blades for wind turbines can't be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing — no reason.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: None — no reason.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: So, folks, there's no reason American — American workers can't lead the world in the production of electric vehicles and batteries. There is no reason. We have the capacity.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: We have the brightest, best-trained people in the world.
The American Jobs Plan is going to create millions of good-paying jobs, jobs Americans can raise a family on — and, as my dad would then say, with a little breathing room.
And all the investments in the American Jobs Plan will be guided by one principle, buy American. Buy American.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: And I might note parenthetically —
(SHEEP BLEATING)
BIDEN: — that does not — that does not violate any trade agreement. It's been the law since the '30s, buy American.
American tax dollars are going to be used to buy American products, made in America, to create American jobs. That's the way it's supposed to be, and it will be in this administration.
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BIDEN: And I made it clear to all my Cabinet people their ability to give exemptions has been strenuously limited. It will be American products.
Now, I know some of you at home are wondering whether these jobs are for you. So many of you, so many of the folks I grew up with feel left behind, forgotten, in an economy that's so rapidly changing, it's frightening. I want to speak directly to you, because if you think about it, that's what people are most worried about. Can I fit in?
Independent experts estimate the American Jobs Plan will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars to economic growth in the years to come. It is an eight-year program. These are good-paying jobs that can't be outsourced.
Nearly 90 percent of the infrastructure jobs created in the American Jobs Plan do not require a college degree. Seventy-five percent don't require an associate’s degree. The American Jobs Plan is a blue collar blueprint to build America. That's what it is.
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BIDEN: And it recognizes something I've always said in this chamber and the other, good guys and women on Wall Street, but Wall Street didn't build this country. The middle class built the country. And unions built the middle class.
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BIDEN: So that's why I'm calling on Congress to pass the Protect the Right to Organize Act, the PRO Act, and send it to my desk so we can support the right to unionize.
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BIDEN: And by the way, while you're thinking about sending things to my desk, let's raise the minimum wage to $15.
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BIDEN: No one, no one working 40 hours a week, no one working 40 hours a week should live below the poverty line.
We need to ensure greater equity and opportunity for women. And while we're doing this, let's get the Paycheck Fairness Act to my desk as well. Equal pay. It's been much too long. And if you wonder whether it's too long, look behind me.
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BIDEN: And, finally, the American Jobs Plan will be the biggest increase in nondefense research and development on record. We'll see more technological change. And some of you know more about this than I do. We'll see more technological change this the next 10 years than we saw in the last 50. That's how rapidly artificial intelligence, and so much more, is changing.
And we're falling behind the competition with the rest of the world. Decades ago, we used to invest 2 percent of our gross domestic product, in America, 2 percent of our gross domestic product in research and development.
Today, Mr. Secretary, that's less than 1 percent. China and other countries are closing in fast. We have to develop and dominate the products and technologies of the future. Advanced batteries, biotechnology, computer chips, clean energy.
The secretary of defense can tell you, and those of you who work on national security issues, know, the Defense Department has an agency called DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
And the people who set up before I came here, and that has been a long time ago, to develop breakthroughs that enhance our national security. That's their only job. And it's a semi separate agency. It's under the Defense Department. It has led to everything from the discovery of the Internet to GPS and so much more. It has enhanced our security.
The National Institutes of Health, NIH, I believe, should create a similar Advanced Research Projects Agency for health.
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And that would — here’s what it would do. It would have a singular purpose, to develop breakthroughs to prevent, detect, and treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancer. I’ll still never forget when we passed the cancer proposal in the last year as vice president, almost $9 million going to NIH.
Excuse the point of personal privilege — I'll never forget you standing, Mitch, and saying, naming it after my deceased son. It meant a lot.
But so many of us have deceased sons, daughters, and relatives who died of cancer. I can’t think of no more worthy investment. I know of nothing that is more bipartisan.
So let's end cancer as we know it. It's within our power — it's within our power to do it.
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Investments in jobs and infrastructure like the ones we’re talking about have often had bipartisan support in the past.
Vice President Harris and I met regularly in the Oval Office with Democrats and Republicans to discuss the Jobs Plan.
And I applaud the group of Republican senators who just put forward their own proposal.
So let's get to work. I wanted to lay out before the Congress my plan, before we got into the deep discussions.
I'd like to meet with those who have ideas that are different, they think are better. I welcome those idea.
But the rest of the world is not waiting for us. I just want to be clear. From my perspective, doing nothing is not an option.
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Look, we can't be so busy competing with one another that we forget the competition that we have with the rest of the world to win the 21st century.
Secretary Blinken can tell you, I spent a lot of time with President Xi, traveled over 17,000 miles with him, spent over 24 hours in private discussions with him. When he called to congratulate, we had a two-hour discussion. He's deadly earnest on becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world.
He and others, autocrats, think that democracy can't compete in the 21st century with autocracies. It takes too long to get consensus.
To win that competition for the future, in my view, we also need to make a once in a generation investment in our families and our children. That's why I've introduced the American Families Plan tonight, which addresses four of the biggest challenges facing American families and in turn, America.
First is access to good education. When this nation made 12 years of public education universal in the last century, it made us the best educated, best prepared nation in the world. It's, I believe, the overwhelming reason that propelled us to where we got in the 21st — in the 20th century.
But the world's caught up or catching up. They're not waiting.
I would say, parenthetically, if we were sitting down, we've set a bipartisan committee together and said, OK, we're going to decide what we do in terms of government providing free education, I wonder whether we'd think, as we did in the 20th century, that 12 years is enough in the 21st century. I doubt it.
Twelve years is no longer enough today to compete with the rest of the world in the 21st century. That's why my American Families Plan guarantees four additional years of public education for every person in America, starting as early as we can.
The great universities in this country have conducted studies over the last 10 years, and shows that adding two years of universal high-quality preschool for every three-year-old and four-year-old, no matter what background they come from, puts them in the position to be able to compete all the way through 12 years. It increases exponentially their prospect of graduating and going on beyond graduation.
BIDEN: Research shows when a young child goes to school, not day care, they're far more likely to graduate from high school and go to college, or something after high school. When you add two years of free community college on top of that, you begin to change the dynamic. We can do that.
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BIDEN: And we'll increase Pell grants and invest in historical black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, minority-serving institutions. The reason is they don't have the endowments.
But their students are just as capable of learning about cyber security, just as capable about learning about metallurgy, all the things that are going on that provide those jobs of the future.
Jill is a community college professor who teaches today as first lady. She's long said —
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She’s long — if I’ve heard it once I’ve heard it a thousand times, Joe, any country that out-educates us is going to out-compete us. She’ll be deeply involved on leading this effort. Thank you, Jill.
Second thing we need. American Families Plan will provide access to quality, affordable child-care. We guarantee —
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We’re now (ph) proposing a legislation, we guarantee that low and middle income families will pay no more than 7 percent of their income for high quality care for children up to the age of five. The most hard-pressed working families won’t have to spend a dime.
Third, the American Families Plan will finally provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave and medical leave — family medical leave.
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We’re one of the few industrial countries in the world —
(CROSSTALK)
No one should have to choose between a job and a paycheck or taking care of themselves and their loved ones or a parent or a spouse or a child. And fourth, American Families Plan puts directly into the pockets of millions of Americans — in March we expanded a tax credit for every child in the family, up to $3000 per child, if you’re under six years of age, excuse me, over six years of age, and $3,600 for children over six years of age.
For two parents, two kids, that's $7200 in the pockets to getting — help take care of your family. And that will help more than 65 million children and help cut child-care poverty in half.
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And we can afford it.
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We did that in the last piece of legislation we passed. But let’s extend that child-care tax credit at least through the end of 2025.
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The American Rescue Plan lowered health care premiums for 9 million Americans who buy their coverage under the Affordable Care Act. I know that’s really popular this side of the aisle. But let’s make that provision permanent so their premiums don’t go back up.
(SHEEP BLEATING)
 
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