President Biden’s Public Schedule for Tuesday, September 27th 2022:
| 10:30 AM | The President receives the President’s Daily Briefing Oval OfficeClosed Press |
| 12:00 PM | In-Town Pool Call Time In-Town Pool |
| 12:00 PM | Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell James S. Brady Press Briefing Room |
| 1:15 PM | The President delivers remarks focused on lowering health care costs and protecting and strengthening Medicare and Social Security |
Press Briefing:
President Biden’s Remarks:
When Monday’s post was posted, President Biden had not tweeted. He ended up with a Monday Tweeting Total of 7 tweets and 0 retweets.
The YouTube is 10 minutes and 6 seconds long. President Biden opens the event speaking until the 6 minute and 12 second mark. Their remarks can be found here.
President Biden: (4:37) You made the playoffs and beat the Brav- — the Brewers and the Dodgers. And then you beat the Astros to win it all. Forever known as the “Upset Kings of October.” (Applause.) One of the greatest — one of history’s greatest turnarounds. First title in 26 years. But none of it came easy. People counted you out. Heck, I — I know something about being counted out. (Laughter.) And I know in Georgia, you show up when it counts. (Applause.) When it counts. You never give up. You never give in. As my mother would say, “You keep the faith.”
The expanded New York Times Tweet:
Article as a gift tweet:
Snips from the article:
The resurgence has not been driven by companies bringing back factory jobs that had moved overseas, nor by the brawny industrial sectors and regions often evoked by President Biden, former President Donald J. Trump and other champions of manufacturing.
Instead, the engines in this recovery include pharmaceutical plants, craft breweries and ice-cream makers. The newly created jobs are more likely to be located in the Mountain West and the Southeast than in the classic industrial strongholds of the Great Lakes.
[Snip]
In recessions over the last half century, factories have typically laid off a greater share of workers than other employers in the economy, and they have been slower to add jobs back in recoveries. Often, companies have used those economic inflection points to accelerate their pace of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries, where wages are significantly lower, and to invest in technology that replaces human workers.
This time was different. Factory layoffs roughly matched those in the services sector in the depth of the pandemic recession. Economists attribute that break in the trend to many U.S. manufacturers being deemed “essential” during pandemic lockdowns, and the ensuing surge in demand for their products by Americans.
Manufacturing jobs quickly rebounded in the spring of 2020, then began to climb at a much faster pace than has been typical for factory job creation in recent decades. Since June 2020, under both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, factories have added more than 30,000 jobs a month.
[Snip]
Manufacturers say the numbers could be even stronger, if not for their continued difficulties attracting and hiring skilled workers amid 3.7 percent unemployment.
Fernando Torres, vice president of operations for Greene Tweed, a Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of materials and components used by the aerospace and semiconductor industries, said his company has had to become more flexible to attract new workers and offer more attractive salaries and benefits. He has been looking for employees with different backgrounds that the company can train to develop the skills to fill open jobs, and said that it has been hard to retain staff because competitors are aggressively trying to lure them away.
But Mr. Torres said that Greene Tweed, which employs just fewer than 2,000 workers, did not plan to give up, considering the demand for his company’s products.
“We are looking for lots of employees,” Mr. Torres said. “We are not looking at slowing down.”
[Snip]
Businesses are also beginning to question the wisdom of producing so many goods in China, amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade and technology. The Chinese government’s insistence on a zero-Covid policy, despite the severe disruptions it has caused for the economy, has especially shaken many executives’ confidence in their ability to operate in China. Mr. Biden has also maintained many tariffs on Chinese imports imposed by Mr. Trump.
[Snip]
While attitudes toward doing business in China have quickly soured, patterns of production have been slower to change. A survey of 117 leading companies released in August by the U.S. China Business Council found that business optimism had reached record lows, but U.S. corporations remained overwhelmingly profitable in China, which is still home to the world’s most expansive ecosystem of factories and a lucrative consumer market.
New York Times via gifted article tweet. 09/26/2022.
President Biden offered remarks on Monday at the third meeting of the White House Competition Council. The YouTube is 11 minutes and 12 seconds long. His full remarks can be found here.
“Executive order” appears one-time in his remarks:
President Biden: (3:38) A little over a year ago, I signed an executive order to promote competition with a goal of lowering prices for consumers and raising the wages of workers and encouraging innovation in the economy. We made some real progress.
The Executive Order on; Promoting Competition in the American Economy was issued on July 9th 2021. The fact-sheet can be found here.
Biden Bits covered it here and here in 2021.
The White House posted the following readout:
This afternoon, the President met with the White House Competition Council in the State Dining Room to discuss the significant progress made since he signed the Competition Executive Order just over a year ago, and to call on the Council to continue taking aggressive actions to deliver concrete costs savings to American families.
The July 9, 2021 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy established the Competition Council to drive forward the Administration’s whole-of-government effort to promoting competition. Its purpose is to coordinate progress on the Order’s 72 initiatives to restore competition in the economy, to collaborate on addressing pressing competition problems across the economy, and to find new ways of delivering concrete benefits to America’s consumers, workers, farmers, and small businesses. The Council is comprised of ten Cabinet members and the heads of seven independent agencies.
The President commended the Council’s members for the impressive work done over the last year, and highlighted several examples of initiatives to delivering cost-savings for American consumers:
White House.gov. 09/26/2022.
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has taken steps to address the nearly $30 billion in ”junk fees”—such as late fees, overdraft fees, bounced check fees—that Americans pay every year. Spurred by CFPB actions, three-quarters of the nation’s 20 largest banks are getting rid of bounced check charges. And the overall level of overdraft fees is on track to be down $3 billion in 2022, compared to pre-pandemic levels.
- Last month, if your flight was canceled or delayed, no top airline guaranteed to cover meal or hotel costs, and only one guaranteed free booking—even when the delay or cancelation was the airline’s fault. The Department of Transportation called them out and launched a transparency dashboard. As a result, now nine of the top ten airlines cover hotels and meals, and ten provide free guaranteed rebooking.
- Today, the Department of Transportation is issuing new rules that, when fully implemented, will require airlines and online search sites to disclose up front—while you are shopping for the best fare—any fees to sit next to one’s kid, for baggage, and for changes or cancellations. This will stop airlines from hiding the true cost of a ticket, so that consumers can find the actual best deal—saving Americans money and spurring more competition on prices.
- The Federal Communication Commission is pursuing similar rules that will require internet companies to display a standardized “Broadband Nutrition Label” that discloses their monthly prices, fees, and internet speeds—so customers can see which company is cheapest and companies will have to compete for business.
The President emphasized that hidden, surprise fees hit the most vulnerable Americans the hardest, and that too often companies impose non-transparent fees that don’t allow customers to see the full price of what they’re buying, and use termination fees to make it harder for consumers to switch their service providers, like their cell phone company. The President called on all agencies to reduce or eliminate such fees, and to deliver concrete results by the next Competition Council meeting.
The Council’s members then used the rest of the meeting to discuss their plans for the coming months, including strategizing on how best to deliver on the President’s call to action to reduce or eliminate unfair fees that Americans shouldn’t have to pay. The Council’s members also discussed additional actions expected in the coming months, such as:
White House.gov. 09/26/2022.
- Progress on banning or limiting noncompete agreements, which prevent millions of workers from seeking out better-paying jobs: Non-competes – which are used by nearly 1/3 of companies, including for many low-wage workers – stifle wage growth for American workers by making it more difficult for them to leave for higher-paying jobs. The Federal Trade Commission is working towards banning or limiting noncompete clauses.
- Funding for smaller meat processors to bring more competition to a highly concentrated sector: USDA will soon announce the distribution of millions in funding to help expand and diversify meat and poultry processing capacity, helping give consumers more and cheaper options.
- Implementing the over-the-counter hearing aids rule: The Food and Drug Administration has issued final rules allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter, without a prescription or exam, starting next month. This is anticipated to save Americans as much as $3,000 per pair, providing more breathing room for the estimated 30 million Americans with hearing loss – including nearly 10 million adults under 60.
- Strengthening enforcement against illegal mergers: The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are working to finalize revisions to the merger guidelines—the framework for their analysis of mergers under the antitrust laws. The agencies are working to modernize the federal merger guidelines to better detect and prevent illegal, anticompetitive deals in today’s modern markets.
Participants in today’s meeting included:
- Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense
- Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture
- Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services
- Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation
- Shalanda Young, Director of the Office of Management and Budget
- Cecilia Rouse, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
- Wally Adeyemo, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
- Lisa Monaco, Deputy Attorney General
- Julie Su, Deputy Secretary of Labor
- Rohit Chopra, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Lina Khan, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission
- Jessica Rosenworcel, Chair of the Federal Communications Commission
- Marty Oberman, Chair of the Surface Transportation Board
- Daniel Maffei, Chair of the Federal Maritime Commission
- Rostin Behnam, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
- Brian Deese, Director of the National Economic Council
- Kathi Vidal, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
- Amanda Fischer, Senior Counselor at the Securities and Exchange Commission
President Biden: (10:39) I’ve said it before — before: Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism; it’s exploitation. Capitalism without competition is not — not capitalism; it’s exploitation. And we’re building an economy that works for everyone. That’s what we’re about at this table.
One place he said it before…
July 9th 2021:
Like most things the tweet text was taken from his remarks at the signing ceremony held on July 9th 2021:
President Biden: (6:07) But let me be very clear: Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism; it’s exploitation. Without healthy competition, big players can change and charge whatever they want and treat you however they want. And for too many Americans, that means accepting a bad deal for things that can’t go — you can’t go without.
President Biden has tweeted 1 time so far for Tuesday.
This is also a blast from the past coming from his July 9th 2021 remarks:
President Biden: (14:46)Let me close with this: Competition works. We know it works. We’ve seen it works when it exists. Fair competition is was what made America the wealthiest, most innovative nation in history. That’s why people come here to invent things and start new businesses.
This is an Open Thread.
