When Biden Bits was posted for Thursday, President Biden had tweeted 1 time and retweeted 1 time. He added 11 tweets giving him a Thursday Tweeting Total of 12 tweets and 1 retweet.
The White House posted the following Proclamation:
Throughout our history, prayer has been an anchor for countless Americans searching for strength and wisdom in times of struggle and sharing hope and gratitude in seasons of joy. In public reflections on life’s many blessings and in quiet moments during life’s most difficult trials, Americans of nearly every background and faith have turned to prayer for comfort and inspiration. Prayer is a sacred right protected by free speech and religious liberty enshrined in our Constitution, and it continues to lift our spirits as we navigate the challenges of our time.
On this day, we recognize the healing power of prayer, especially as we recover from the trauma and loss of the COVID‑19 pandemic. Today we find ourselves in a moment of renewal — of lives saved, of new jobs created, and of new hope for rebuilding America. Today is also a moment of reflection when we are called to address some of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced — saving our planet from the existential threat of climate change; responding to attacks on democracy at home and abroad; and living up to our Nation’s promise of liberty, justice, and equality for all.
As the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “There is a need we all have in these days and times for some help which comes from outside ourselves.” Across our diverse and cherished beliefs, on this National Day of Prayer, no matter how or whether we pray, we are all called to look outside ourselves. Let us find in our hearts and prayers the determination to put aside our differences, come together, and truly see one another as fellow Americans.
The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on the President to issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a “National Day of Prayer.”NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 5, 2022, as a National Day of Prayer. I call upon the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and I invite all people of faith to join me in asking for God’s continued guidance, mercy, and protection.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.
White House.gov. 05/04/2022.
On Wednesday, President Biden offered remarks on the economy. The YouTube is 12 minutes and 01 second long. His full remarks can be full found here.
Looking ahead, I have a plan to reduce the deficit even more, which will help reduce inflationary pressures and lower everyone’s costs.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 5, 2022
It’s a plan that lets Medicare negotiate the price of prescription drugs, as they do with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 5, 2022
We can cap the price of insulin at $35 instead of hundreds of dollars or even $1,000 a month for some families.
My plan provides tax credits to utility companies to generate clean energy and those companies are required to pass on those savings to families.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 5, 2022
My plan includes tax credits for consumers to purchase electric or fuel-cell vehicles — new or used — which will save the typical driver about $80 a month not having to pay for gas at the pump.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 5, 2022
It includes tax credits for folks to buy solar panels and heat pumps and more efficient windows and doors for their home — estimated to save about $500 per year on average.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 5, 2022
We can do these things by making sure no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a single penny more in federal taxes.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 5, 2022
All we’re asking is that the wealthiest Americans and the largest corporations begin to pay their fair share.
President Biden: As a result of these and other economic recovery plans, we recovered faster than projected. A record 6.7 million jobs created last year — the most in the first year of any president in American history, and the fastest economic growth in any year in nearly four decades. And, looking ahead, I have a plan to reduce the deficit even more, which will help reduce inflationary pressures and lower everyone’s costs for families.
President Biden: Look, it’s a plan that lets Medicare negotiate the price of prescription drugs, as they do with the Department of Veterans Affairs. We can cap the price of insulin at $35 instead of the hundreds of dollars or even $1,000 a month for some families.
President Biden: And my plan provides tax credits to utility companies to generate clean energy and those companies are required to pass those savings on to families. I met with about a dozen of those utility CEOs here in the White House, and they confirmed this plan will lower energy bills for families immediately.
President Biden: My plan includes tax credits for consumers to purchase electric or fuel-cell vehicles, new or used, which will save the typical driver about $80 a month not having to pay for gas at the pump; tax credits for folks to buy solar panels and heat pumps and more efficient windows and doors for their homes — estimated savings: $500 per year on average.
President Biden: And we can do these things by making sure that no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a single penny more in federal taxes. All we’re asking is that the very wealthiest Americans and largest corporations begin to pay their fair share — at least part of their fair share.
The video clip is 53 seconds long.
President Biden: When I came to office, we took a different approach across the board. With the American Rescue Plan and other actions, we started to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out: rescue checks and tax cuts for working families that gave them just a little bit of breathing room and put food on the table and a roof over their heads.
President Biden: Remember the first year — all those long lines of automobiles lined up and going through a parking lot just to get a box of food in their trunk? Those — all that — we put — we got vaccine shots in arms that helped us go from 2 million Americans who had been vaccinated to more than 220 million Americans fully vaccinated. And we made it easier for millions of Americans to sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, saving them an average of $2,400 a year. As a result of these and other economic recovery plans, we recovered faster than projected. A record 6.7 million jobs created last year — the most in the first year of any president in American history, and the fastest economic growth in any year in nearly four decades. And, looking ahead, I have a plan to reduce the deficit even more, which will help reduce inflationary pressures and lower everyone’s costs for families.
The White House posted the following readout:
Today, Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh held a roundtable discussion with a diverse group of young, grassroots worker organizers to discuss their extraordinary efforts to organize unions in their workplaces, and how their efforts can inspire workers across the country to make the choice to join or organize a union. The roundtable was led by the Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, which the Vice President chairs with Secretary Walsh as vice-chair.
President Biden stopped by the discussion and thanked the worker organizers for their leadership in organizing unions, the inspiration they offer to workers across the country who may want to organize, and their contributions to the worker organizing momentum that is growing across the country.
Vice President Harris and Secretary Walsh listened to the worker organizers tell the stories of why they and their co-workers organized unions in their workplaces and how they did it. Among other things, the workers talked about fair pay, paid leave and health care benefits, their commitment to co-workers, and the desire for basic dignity and respect as important motivators for their organizing efforts. They also described some of the anti-union tactics deployed by some of the employers. The Vice President and Secretary Walsh reaffirmed that the Biden-Harris Administration is the most pro-union administration in history, and reiterated that worker power is at the core of this administration’s economic vision to rebuild the economy from the bottom up and middle out. As we experience an historically strong labor market recovery, Vice President Harris and Secretary Walsh underscored that all workers must benefit and get the dignity and respect they deserve in the workplace.
The attendees represented a wide range of industries with grassroots union organizing efforts, from warehousing to animation to retail.Attendees included Vice President Harris, Secretary Walsh, Christian Smalls, Amazon Labor Union, Laura Garza, Starbucks Workers United/Starbucks, Alex Speidel, United Paizo Workers/CWA, Rachel Gitlevich, Titmouse productions/IATSE, Jaimie Caldwell, Baltimore Public Library/IAM, and Damien Sowell, REI/UFCW-RWDSU.
White House.gov. 05/05/2022.
The YouTube is 14 minutes and 47 seconds long. Their full remarks can be found here.
Semi-related to his remarks: As Jill said: Cinco de Mayo is a day to celebrate freedom and resilience, and, you know, it’s also day to celebrate friendship. And President López Obrador, when — he was kind enough to come up and see me here in the Oval and the White House in November. And he pointed to a patriot — a — excuse me, a portrait over the mantle of the — of the — in the White House, in the Oval Office. And it’s a picture of — it’s a big portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt hanging on the wall. And he told me that he liked Roosevelt because he was the President who initiated the Good Neighbor Policy between our two nations. We talked about that for a while. And I told him that today the United States and Mexico are more than good neighbors; we’re genuine, true friends, partners. And there’s an unshakable bond strengthened by mutual respect and our shared commitment to the prosperity and security of both our nations. It’s not our backyard; it’s our front yard.
On Tuesday, President Biden offered remarks on the security assistance the U.S., is providing Ukraine. The YouTube is 17 minutes and 45 seconds long. His full remarks can be found here.
Prior to his remarks he toured Lockheed Martin Pike County Operations. The tweeted video is 54 seconds long.
Person I don’t know his name, sorry, says: So this is the missile assembly area, sir. So I just wanted to show you just a little bit about what we do here. So we have the seeker, the warhead, and the rocket motor that these folks that you’re looking at all assemble and put together. That’s the same Javelin missile that’s been overseas for 20 years and proven in combat.
President Biden: I came to say thank you. I don’t know–it’s probably impossible for you to understand how appreciated you are. I’ve spent a lot of time with heads of state, my counterparts, prime ministers and presidents all they want is an American product. You’ve allow Ukrainians–and we’ve been providing them–you’ve been providing them ten to one. And so, it’s because of what you’ve been able to do to give people the ability to defend themselves.
It’s hard to judge who in the clip says: I speak for everybody, Mr. President, we’re pretty proud of what we’re doing here.
President Biden: Well, you should be. I mean you really should be.
For Friday, May 6th, 2022, President Biden will travel to Hebron, Kentucky. This afternoon he will meet with manufacturing leaders. After his meeting he will offer remarks calling on Congress to pass legislation; like the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which will create good-paying jobs, boost domestic manufacturing, and lower prices for working families.
The White House posted the following fact-sheet; Biden Administration Celebrates Launch of AM Forward and Calls on Congress to Pass Bipartisan Innovation Act
AM Forward will help lower costs for American families by improving the competitiveness of America’s small-and-medium-sized manufacturers, creating and sustaining high-paying manufacturing jobs, and improving supply chain resilience through adoption of additive manufacturing
President Biden’s top economic priority is to fight inflation by lowering costs that working families face, and lowering the federal deficit.
One of the best ways to lower the cost of the goods and services that families rely on is to make more things in America, with more secure, resilient supply chains. We’ve learned this the hard way during this crisis – when brittle supply chains and hollowed out manufacturing resulted in backlogs, bottlenecks and higher prices for families.President Biden’s plan to fight inflation addresses this problem head on. Thanks to the President’s leadership, we are in the midst of an American manufacturing boom with over $200 billion of investments in new manufacturing facilities and record-setting job creation. The Biden Administration has spurred unprecedented job growth and the fastest economic recovery in nearly four decades. Since taking office, President Biden’s actions have resulted in the creation of 7.9 million jobs, including 473,000 in manufacturing – more jobs in the first 14 months of any President’s term ever.
Companies are investing in America again, bringing good-paying manufacturing jobs back home. Whether it’s semiconductors, advanced batteries, or other leading sectors, companies are opening new facilities and announcing commitments to produce the world’s most cutting-edge technologies in the United States.
This is just the beginning of a broad revival of American industrial might. Continuing this momentum is key to easing price pressures throughout our economy and bringing inflation down. That is why the President is committed to making more in America, strengthening our supply chains, supercharging American leadership in the industries of the future, and lowering costs for families. That starts with the historic resources in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which are rebuilding our roads, bridges, ports, airports, and making our businesses and workers more competitive globally. And we can take the next step by passing the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which will make generational investments in innovation, domestic manufacturing, and lowering prices through stronger supply chains.
AM Forward builds on that work and advances key Administration goals:
White House.gov. 05/06/2022.
- More resilient and innovative supply chains, by investing in small and medium sized companies;
- Growing industries of the future, overcoming coordination challenges that limit adoption of new technologies like additive manufacturing; and
- Both inventing and making more in America, through investments in regional manufacturing ecosystems.
Each of these goals is also advanced by the Bipartisan Innovation Act (BIA), which establishes a Supply Chain Office at the Department of Commerce, supports foundational technologies such as additive manufacturing, and invests in regional tech hubs as well as increasing funding for Manufacturing USA Institutes and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
Keeping pace with technological change should not be the capability of a few, or an over-the-horizon goal, out of reach for most of our manufacturing base. It should be a pillar of American industrial competitiveness – something that is broadly deployed and available to small and large companies alike. Enacting BIA will put important new technologies like additive manufacturing into the hands of entrepreneurs and companies across the country—raising the productivity and resilience of US manufacturers while lowering costs for American families. It is urgent that Congress acts quickly to pass the BIA, sending it to the President’s desk for his signature.
But not enough American companies are using 3D printing or other high-performance production technologies. That’s why President Biden is pleased to join several leading American companies to celebrate the launch Additive Manufacturing Forward (AM Forward), a voluntary compact between large, iconic manufacturers and their smaller U.S.-based suppliers. GE Aviation, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Siemens Energy are the initial participants in AM Forward. These leading manufacturers will support their U.S.-based suppliers’ adoption of new additive capabilities, helping to transform shop floors across the country.
In additive manufacturing, producers transmit computer data to industrial 3D printers. In turn, these machines build parts on-demand, directly in suppliers’ own shops. Firms use this capability to reduce the number of parts required for an application, to make spare parts one at a time as needed, and design high-performing components in various industries ranging from aviation to medical devices
Through AM Forward, each of these iconic companies will make clear, public commitments to purchase additively produced parts from smaller U.S.-based suppliers; train the workers of their suppliers on new additive technologies; provide detailed technical assistance to support their suppliers’ adoption of new capabilities; and engage in common standards development and certification for additive products.
White House.gov. 05/06/2022.
Among other public commitments:
- GE Aviation will target small/medium sized suppliers to compete on 50% of the requests for quotes that are sent out on products made using additive or related technologies; and will target 30% of its total external sourcing of additively manufactured parts from U.S.-based SME suppliers.
- Raytheon will seek SME manufacturers involvement in over 50% of its requests for quotes on products manufactured using additive technologies; the company will also seek to simplify and accelerate the procurement process of AM parts.
- Siemens Energy will target to purchase 20-40% of total externally sourced AM parts and services from U.S.-based suppliers and partners. It will engage 10-20 U.S. SME suppliers to help improve their AM capability. And, it will also train 10-20 SME suppliers on inspection and post-processing best practices.
- Lockheed Martin will work with its SME suppliers to conduct research to improve the performance of additive manufacturing AM techniques specifically focused on the use of 3D printing as an alternative to castings and forgings; and it will further participate in university and technical college programs for additive workforce development, including coursework and apprenticeship.
- Honeywell will target U.S.-based SME suppliers to compete on request for quote packages sent out for products, machinery, manufacturing tooling, and/or manufacturing process development utilizing additive or related technologies. It will also offer technical assistance in part design, data generation, machine operation, post-processing, part inspection / quality management to its SME suppliers.
AM Forward is a completely voluntary compact open to any OEM to participate, provided they are willing to make public commitments to support their suppliers’ adoption of additive capabilities. It will be supported by Applied Science & Technology Research Organization (ASTRO), a non-profit organization.
To support AM Forward, the Biden Administration has identified a range of federal programs that U.S. SME manufacturers can use to support their adoption of additive capabilities and increase their competitiveness. The Administration’s actions are focused on helping to overcome common challenges that have slowed the deployment of AM technologies, particularly among smaller manufacturers.
They include:
White House.gov. 05/06/2022.
- Providing access to capital to our SME manufacturers: Providing affordable financing to small manufacturers will support the installation of additive equipment by reducing its cost. To address this issue, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will make its Business and Industry program available to rural manufacturers to support the purchase of new additive machines, and the training necessary to upskill their workforce. The Export-Import Bank will highlight its new domestic lending program that can help SME manufacturers upgrade their existing production equipment. And the Small Business Administration will work with the participants of AM Forward on how its 504 Loan Program and Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program can support the widespread deployment of new additive capabilities across U.S. industry.
- Delivering technical assistance from the federal government and OEMs to our SME manufacturers: SME manufacturers have noted the need for technical assistance to utilize new production technologies like 3D printers to their fullest extent. To support AM Forward, the Department of Energy will make its Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory available to SME manufacturers to test new additive techniques. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership will provide enhanced technical assistance; and the Department of Defense (DOD) will use its Mentor Protégé Program to reimburse the cost to the large OEM participants in AM Forward for providing technical assistance to their smaller U.S.-based suppliers owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. DOD’s Manufacturing Technology Program Office will work with America Makes, a DOD-sponsored Manufacturing Innovation Institute, and AM Forward members on a pilot standardization project.
- Investing in the additive manufacturing workforce: To fully benefit from the use of additive capabilities, SME manufacturers must train their workforce differently to successfully deploy additive capabilities, including upskilling workers. America Makes will thus develop curriculum for workforce training with AM Forward participants; and, along with the U.S. Department of Labor, will assist manufacturers in launching apprenticeship programs in additive manufacturing.
- Setting industry standards: Finally, since 3D printing requires different standards and process certifications, the U.S. Department of Commerce – through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – will conduct measurement science research to overcome key barriers to widespread use of metals-based additive manufacturing, develop the technical basis for new high-priority standards, and disseminate these results to AM Forward participants through leadership of standards development within ASTM International, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and other standards bodies
As you are aware today is Jobs Report Friday!
The BLS says that in April total non-farm payroll employment increased; by 428,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, in manufacturing, and in transportation and warehousing.
And as always we turn to econ reporter Ben Casselman, cause he uses charts.
We are gonna start with the non-charted thread…
To the charts!
President Biden has now tweeted 1 time.
He has a later tweeting start for this Jobs Report Friday, than normal.
His full statement:
Today, we learned that the economy created 428,000 jobs in April – bringing the total number of jobs created since I took office to 8.3 million: record setting job creation in my first 15 months in office. Our plans and policies have produced the strongest job creation economy in modern times. The unemployment rate now stands at 3.6% —the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President’s term ever recorded. There have been only 3 months in the last 50 years where the unemployment rate in America is lower than it is now. This is a direct result of the American Rescue Plan, our COVID vaccination program, and my plan to grow our economy from the bottom up and middle out. When I took office, there were around 20 million people relying on unemployment benefits to feed their families; today, that number is around 1 million – the lowest since 1970. We are building an economy that values the dignity of work.
White House.gov. 05/06/2022.
There’s no question that inflation and high prices are a challenge for families across the country, and fighting inflation is a top priority for me. The continued strength of our job market and the savings that families have built up over the last year means that our economy faces the challenges of COVID-19, Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and global inflation from a position of strength. There’s more work to do. I encourage Congressional Republicans to join us in our efforts to lower prices for families across the country, by making more in America, strengthening our supply chains, and cutting the energy and prescription drug costs.
The daily press briefing will be held aboard Air Force One. It’s scheduled for 12:15 p.m. D.C., time.
President Biden’s remarks are scheduled for 3:45 p.m. D.C., time.
This is an Open Thread.
