Remarks by President Biden Celebrating Labor Day and the Dignity of American Workers | Eastern North Carolina Now

    In fact, next week, I'm going to Ohio for the groundbreaking of a multi-billion-dollar semiconductor manufacturing plant. (Applause.) The company is Intel. It's one of the largest investments of its kind ever. They're putting $20 billion in as a start.

    It's going to create thousands of jobs - thousands - 7,000 construction jobs just building the facilities; 5,000 permanent jobs for blue-collar workers who will make $125,000 a year in those jobs. (Applause.)

    And by the way, if you take a look, manufacturers all over the world are coming to the United States - (applause) - from Korea, from Japan, from all over the world.

    Why? You know why the head of an outfit out of Korea told me they're coming here? Because we have the safest environment and the best workers in the world. (Applause.) That's a fact. We do. I'm not just saying this. This is real. (Applause.)

    Look, folks, it means we're going to build the future in America with American workers in American factories using American-made products. (Applause.)

    Look, it's something most people don't know, but you guys out there in this audience know: 15 percent of our military become - veterans become union workers when they leave the military. Fifteen percent. (Applause.)

    How many veterans out there? Holler out. (Applause.) You got it.

    In my State of the Union Address, I put forward what I call a Unity Agenda that - including taking care of our veterans.

    Look, we have a lot of responsibilities but only one sacred responsibility - not a joke, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart and I've said it from the first day I entered politics: We have an obligation to equip those we send into harm's way and care for them and their families when they come home - (applause) - both their families - especially our veterans who've been exposed to toxic burn pits, like my son.

    Those pits the size of football fields - 8, 9, 10 feet deep in Afghanistan and Iraq - I was in and out of those countries over 35 times in the middle of these wars as Vice President - that incinerate wastes of war - tires, poisons, chemicals, jet fuel, so much more.

    A lot of people, like my son, had their hooch just probably 300, 500 yards from those pits. You could smell it. You could inhale it. Well, guess what? These poisonous fumes just came - people came home with headaches, numbness, dizziness, cancer.

    I just signed - we call it the PACT Act - to take care of these veterans - (applause) - who need medical assistance and to provide for their families when they are gone. (Applause.)

    For God's sake, it's the least we can do. It's the least we -

    AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, Joe!

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I love you too, kiddo. I tell ya -


    Look, like I said, I believe we have a lot of obligations - we have a lot of obligations, but only one sacred obligation, and that's to take care of those vets we send overseas and when they come home.

    AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)

    THE PRESIDENT: No, I know - I - but I really mean it. And as I said, I just signed into law a historic Inflation Reduction Act. (Applause.)

    It wasn't easy to take big drug companies, but we did. I've been fighting them since I got in Congress 180 years ago. (Laughter.)

    You know, we pay more for our prescription drugs in the United States of America than any major country in the world - here in the United States. Okay? There's no reason for it.

    For the last several decades, many of us have been trying to fix the problem. But for decades, Big Pharma tried to block giving lower drug prices for those on Medicare or anywhere else.

    For decades, Big Pharma won - year in, year out - because they own chunks of the Congress, because they had help, like your senior senator, Ron Johnson, who said -

    AUDIENCE: Booo -

    THE PRESIDENT: No, I - I want to say what he said. He said he opposed lowering drug costs because it would result in "punishing the pharmaceutical industry."

    AUDIENCE: Booo -

    THE PRESIDENT: Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I mean, come on, man. (Applause.)

    Not this year. We beat Pharma this year. We beat Pharma this year, and it mattered. We're going to change people's lives. (Applause.) We finally beat Pharma.

    Now Medicare will have the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. We can guarantee no senior - no senior will have to pay more than $2,000 out of pocket for their drugs for the entire year, no matter whether their bill is $50,000. No more than $2,000. Period. (Applause.)

    And if you're on Medicare and you have diabetes, your cost for insulin will be capped at $35. (Applause.)

    And by the way, there's a reason for that. You know how much it costs for them to make and package the insulin for diabetes? Ten bucks. Ten.

    Any of you have to - you need that insulin or your children need it. You know what it costs. It costs you somewhere between 650 and 1,000 bucks a month. It's outrageous.

    Well, guess what? We also had, in this bill of mine - we also had a provision that affected people who weren't on Medicare, but because of the leadership of your senior senator and others, it got defeated. But I'm coming back and getting it. (Applause.)

    Imagine - this about this. Imagine being a mom or a dad - I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Imagine being a mom or a dad with a kid with Type 2 diabetes, knowing you need that insulin and you don't have the insurance, you can't pay for it. I'm not joking. Think about it. Think about how it would rip your heart it.

    It's wrong. It's simply wrong. And we're going to end it. It costs 10 bucks, and you can make 35 if you want. That's it. (Applause.)

    For decades, the biggest corporations - and by the way, I know corporations; I come from the corporate state of the world. (Laughter.) More corporations are incorporated in Delaware than every other nation - every other state in the country combined. Okay? So I could write a doctrine on corporations. (Laughter.) So, it's not like I'm anti-corporation generically. But I do think everybody should pay their fair share. (Applause.)



    And, by the way - and, by the way, look, for decades, the biggest corporations and the wealthiest Americans have fought to block a fair tax code. Republicans passed a $2 trillion tax cut mainly benefiting the wealthiest corporations under the Trump administration. Put us -

    AUDIENCE: Booo -

    THE PRESIDENT: By the way, it increased the debt by $2 trillion.

    Well, guess what? In 2000, 55 of those corporations earned a $40 billion in profit. They didn't pay a single solitary penny in taxes.

    AUDIENCE: Booo -

    THE PRESIDENT: And the wealthiest Americans - of the 700-plus billionaires in America - you know what their average tax rate is - the federal tax? Eight percent. They pay more taxes than any one of you - less - fewer taxes than any of you pay.

    AUDIENCE MEMBER: It's not right!

    THE PRESIDENT: It's not right. No, no, I mean, this is - I - it's just outrageous.

    Well, guess what? Guess what? I wasn't able to take care - anyway.

    If you're a cop, a teacher, a firefighter, a steelworker, a miner, you pay double that federal tax. It's just wrong.

    But this year, the American people won. Now, big corporations have to pay at least the minimum tax of 15 percent - at least. (Applause.)


    The days of billion-dollar companies paying zero, they are over in America. (Applause.) And they know they can afford it.

    And while we're doing this, we're actually reducing the federal deficit. You know how they talk about responsible de- - they - the last guy left me with a giant deficit. Well, guess what? In my first year I reduced the deficit by $350 billion. (Applause.)

    And you know how much - you know how much I'm reducing the deficit this year? One trillion, five hundred thousand reduction of the deficit. (Applause.)

    And, by the way, just by dealing with allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, it means Medicare doesn't have to pay out that many tax dollars to buy them. That alone is reduce - going to reduce, over time, $300 billion in the deficit.

    You would think that if Republicans really cared about reducing inflation, they'd vote for the Inflation Reduction Act. But every single Republican in House and Senate voted against it. Every single Republican in the House and Senate.

    AUDIENCE: Booo -

    THE PRESIDENT: Now, I admit some of them voted against it. They thought it made sense, but they weren't - they couldn't let Biden, quote, "have a victory." It's not my victory. It's American people's victory. (Applause.)

    In spite of the fact that while doing all this we lowered the deficit by a trillion five this year here, here in America, every single Republican voted against lowering prescription drug prices, against lowering healthcare costs, against protecting your pensions, against lower energy costs, against creating good-paying jobs, against a fairer tax system - every single one in the House and Senate. Every one.

    And one thing more: When Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Re- - Labor Relations Act - when it passed in the '30s - he didn't say it was okay to be a union. He said - and in fact, it says we should "encourage unions" - "encourage." (Applause.)

    Well, I'm encouraging unions. (Applause.) That's what I've been doing from day one.

    It includes for public service sector workers in Wisconsin as well.

    Today, support for unions in this country is higher than it's been in nearly 60 years. Think about this. You guys know the numbers. Unions are more - have more support today in America in public opinion than any time in 60 years. The key - it's a key way to building the economy, to grow us from the bottom up and the middle out. I'm so sick and tired of trickle-down economics. (Applause.)

    I come from a family where my dad worked hard. He worked like hell. We lived a decent, middle-class life. We lived in a three-bedroom, split level home in a development that was - there - as we were - the area was growing, with four kids and a grandpop.

    I sometimes wonder - anyway, I wonder - it was great for us, but those walls are thin. (Laughter.)

    But all kidding aside, we did fine. No complaints. We did fine.

    But here's the point: The biggest contrast from what MAGA Republicans - the extreme right, the - the "Trumpies" - they want to go to - these MAGA Republicans in Congress are coming for your Social Security as well.

    Now, are you - by the way, as I said, you might think I'm making this - some of this stuff up it's so outrageous.

    But here's the deal, guys: The Republicans - read the Republican campaign plan, the Senate campaign they put out this year. Go online and read it. Senator Rick Scott of Florida heads that campaign committee.

    AUDIENCE: Booo -

    THE PRESIDENT: It's all in black and white. I'm not making it up. You can go online and read it.


    They want to require Congress to vote on the future of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid every five years to decide whether they continue.

    AUDIENCE: Booo -

    THE PRESIDENT: No, no, every five years, they get to vote to change, to cut, to reduce, or entirely eliminate Social Security and other things. How's that make us feel knowing you guy -

    AUDIENCE: Booo -

    THE PRESIDENT: And then along - you know, remember that song, "Along Comes Jones"? And then along comes Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.