Minimum wage, taxes, employment … Biden hammers his economic agenda

Sunday, November 15, for the first time, Donald Trump spoke of the victory of Joe Biden. But, it is only on January 20 that the transition will be made at the White House. The president-elect does not seem to want to waste time. He stressed on Monday the need to vote “quickly” for a new plan to help an American economy still weakened by the coronavirus pandemic. He was speaking from his home town of Wilmington, Delaware, after a virtual meeting with union officials and senior business leaders, including General Motors boss Mary Barra and executive from computer giant Microsoft, Satya Nadella. The opportunity to reiterate its main campaign objectives, including the creation of millions of “well paid” jobs and a minimum wage.

It was his first intervention on the economy, one of his priorities with the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. “We discussed whether to be (economically) stronger, more resilient than we were” before the pandemic, he said at a press conference. He said he was “very encouraged” by the first exchanges on Monday, not only with companies, but also with union officials, including Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the main union in the United States. The future president, who predicted a “dark winter”, further insisted that the sine qua non for an economic recovery was to control the virus.

“Millions of well-paid jobs”

At the same time, he noted, Congress must absolutely vote “quickly” a plan of “immediate support” for the economy, while Americans are facing a resurgence of the coronavirus across the country, forcing some local authorities, as in New York, to toughen their measures to contain the pandemic. “Our plan is to create millions of well-paid jobs in the manufacturing industry, in the construction of cars, products, technologies, which we will need in the future to be competitive against the rest of the world”, a- he declared.

“We will buy American”, he also promised, in the continuity of his campaign speeches. The Democrat also reaffirmed his willingness to put in place a “fair tax system” which will consist in making large companies and the wealthier Americans pay a “fair share”, taking the opposite view of the Trump administration, which had lowered the corporate tax from 35% to 21%, and that of the wealthiest households.

Towards a minimum wage

Joe Biden also intends to set up a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour, a union demand, while many jobs, especially in the restaurant sector, have a miserable fixed salary (a few dollars) and workers So basically rely on tips from customers to get decent pay. Earlier, his advisers had indicated that Joe Biden and his vice president-elect Kamala Harris were to meet virtually with union leaders and leaders “to discuss how, despite our different perspectives,” they could “work together” to achieve goals. “common objectives”. According to advisers, Joe Biden intends to “ensure” that workers and businesses can operate safely in the context of the pandemic and “rebuild the economy to be more resilient and inclusive.”

During his press conference, the Democrat reiterated that the health of the country’s economy was closely linked to the evolution of the virus. For him, revitalizing the economy requires controlling the pandemic, an opinion shared by the president of the American Central Bank Jerome Powell. The choice of meeting with certain bosses such as Mary Barra also appears as a signal of his desire to re-establish a good relationship with those who were the targets of Donald Trump. Throughout his presidency, the Republican president had indeed sharply criticized the strategic choices of the CEO of GM, criticizing the closure of a factory in Ohio. Mr. Trump also forced the group last March to produce artificial respirators for Covid-19 patients.