Biden Speaks at Campaign Event in Las Vegas

Hello, hello, hello. Pablo, thank you for the introduction. I appreciate it. Thanks for sharing your story. You immigrated to America as a teenager, graduated from high school and spent four years a union apprentice, which is like earning a college degree, before he became a journeyman. I’m a big pro-union guy. I make no apologies about it. Everybody talks about unions. It’s interesting. People who don’t understand, they go, “Well, union.” They like to walk in and say, “I want to be an electrician. I’m want to be a plasterer.” You got four or five years of apprenticeship. You earn it, you earn it, and you deserve it. You help build homes for others and reach their dreams, and now you’re in the market yourself to continue your dream. I also met another mother named Latree. Latree Shue. Where’s Latree? Latrice. Excuse me. There she is. Was able to buy her first home with a $15,000 down payment by the American Rescue Plan, which we wrote. All she needed was a fair shot. She found a good paying union job. She took home ownership, classes to raise her credit score.

(01:40)
She did her hard work, and now she owns a home in Paradise with her sixteen-year-old daughter, a straight-A student. Stand up kiddo. We’re fortunate to have great partners in Congress here today who are helping make these dreams possible. Representative Steven Horsford, a great leader of the fourth district and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, who works every single day to reduce housing costs and close the racial wealth cap, which is happening. Representative Susie Lee, who’s a driving force to cut red tape and build more affordable housing all across Nevada. Representative Dina Titus, God love you, Dina. You’re an old friend. You’ve always had my back, and I’ve had yours, and you had people of this country and this city’s back. Housing is so much more than just a word. It’s about people’s lives. You can’t be here today because there are votes in Washington. But I also want to thank your outstanding senators, Catherine Cortez-Mastow and Jackie Rosen for the leadership for making housing more accessible and affordable. I also want to thank all the housing advocates here today who are doing God’s work. The housing advocates stand up.

(02:51)
[inaudible 00:02:59] doing everything. You’re doing a great job. And by the way… I won’t go into that, I guess. But look, folks, when I came to office, the pandemic was raging and our economy was reeling. Nevada was especially hard hit as tourism took a dive, a gigantic dive. Before I came to office, unemployment had reached 30% here, and we’re turning things around today because of the folks I just talked about. And Nevada has created 274,000 jobs, bringing back lost jobs of the pandemic and adding another 129,000 jobs. Things are on the move. Unemployment is down dramatically with more Nevadans working today than ever before in the history of Nevada. And thousands of cities across all of America are seeing this great comeback story. My American Rescue Plan, which I might add not a single solitary Republican voted for, provided 350 billion to state and local governments, including funds for every city, county, town, tribe in this state, and your state put that money to good use.

(04:03)
You put cops on the beat, teachers in the classroom, kept small businesses on their feet, and families in their homes. And that’s not all. You can’t have the best economy in the world, which we do now, if you don’t have the best infrastructure in the world. My predecessor promised… Remember my predecessor kept talking about infrastructure weak for four years. Well, he didn’t build a thing. You all think I’m kidding. I’m not. I proposed and sign the most significant investment in our nation’s infrastructure and generations, and now we’re going to have an infrastructure decade. So far, 47,000 new projects modernize America’s, roads, bridges, ports, airports, public transit, and so much more is happening, creating jobs now, and jobs for the future as well. $3.4 billion in projects right here in Nevada, $3.4 billion. And while I was writing this and talking about, all I kept thinking about was Harry Reid. We’re connecting the entire state to affordable high-speed internet. By the end of this decade, every single part of the state will have high-speed, affordable internet, and we’re already saving 276,000 Nevada families as much as $75 a month on their internet bills.

(05:26)
And I know our friend Harry is looking down saying damn proud of… The airport in his name is getting an upgrade as well. I couldn’t do one without the other. He’s so proud of building America’s first high-speed rail line to take folks from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in two hours instead of four. That’s going to create 35,000, first major high speed rail line in America, 35,000 good paying jobs, take 3 million vehicles off the road, and reduce pollution significantly. It’s also taking the most significant…

(06:02)
By the way, it’s going to cut the time in half. Now, I don’t know why anybody want to get to LA in half the time, but I know why all won’t come here. All kidding aside, it really is incredible. It’s a gigantic project. And by the way, it’s encouraged California and central California to build a high-speed rail as well. The idea that we haven’t had one single high-speed rail built in America up to now is ridiculous. And so Chinese have a rail system that goes 130 miles an hour, 230 miles an hour I should say.

(06:41)
But look, we’re taking the most significant action to fight climate change ever. My policies have attracted $650 billion in private sector investments from companies that are moving clean energy factories and jobs back here in America where they belong. For example, in Reno, redwood materials is going to invest $3.5 billion, $3.5 billion, one of the country’s major electric vehicle battery cycling, manufacturing plants, creating thousands of jobs here, thousands of jobs. By the way, tomorrow in Arizona, we’ll be talking about America invented the semiconductor chip, the tiny chips the size of the tip of your little finger, which powers everything from automobiles, to smartphones, to weapon systems. We invented those chips, we made them better, and then we lost the market because a lot of the corporations said, “Let’s send the jobs overseas where they’re cheaper, and bring the product home, which is more expensive.” We don’t do that anymore. We make it here. We keep the jobs here. We sent products overseas.

(07:54)
The reason I mentioned we’ve been able to bring the chips manufacturing back home. We attracted $240 billion in private sector investments to build chip factories here in America. And by the way, they’re creating tens of thousands of good paying jobs both in construction and manufacturing, and the average salary in one of those, they call them FABS, or factories, is $100,000 a year and you don’t need a college degree to get that job. Across the country, folks have filed a record number of new business applications since I took office, the fastest growth of Latino-owned businesses in more than a decade, more black small businesses starting at the highest rate in 30 years. In Nevada, since I came to office, we’ve seen 195,000 small business applications, and every one of those applications is an act of hope. It’s critical because small businesses… And the reason I keep talking about small businesses, small businesses make up half the GDP, half the economy of America. Half of all the economy of America generated by small businesses.

(08:55)
But here’s the deal, as more folks move to Nevada for good-paying jobs, we need housing that’s affordable. In the depth of the pandemic, the American Rescue plan delivered funds to keep 8 million families in their homes nationwide by preventing foreclosures and evictions. Here in Nevada, you use those funds to keep 50,000 people’s rent to be able to be paid. Hundreds of first-time home buyers be able to make a down payment. You invest in more in building and renovating affordable homes than almost any other part of the country, any state in the country. For example, here in Clark County, nearly 1,000 brand-new affordable units for seniors are under construction today as a result, 8,000 homes total for families, seniors, and veterans. And across the country, more people own homes now than before the pandemic. We’re seeing fewer foreclosures than any time in decades, but we have a lot more to do. For too many people, the dream of having a good home and still feels out of reach. I get it.

(10:02)
Look, here’s my plan. But everybody thinks because I was president, I was probably born wealthy and come from a significant background economically. Well, I had the dubious distinction being listed as the poorest man in Congress for 36 years. I got a phone call. My wife was campaigning… I was campaigning up in New Hampshire back when that statistic came out in the nineties, and she called. I used to call because the kids were little when I was away, and say, “How’s everything going?” I got this, “Fine.” You know you’re in trouble when your wife or husband says, “Fine.” I said, “What’s the matter?” She said… Only elected official’s husband or wife understand this. She said, “Did you read today’s paper?” I said, “They don’t have today’s paper, Wilmington paper Delaware where I’m with Leahy up in Vermont. And she said, “Well, let me read it. Top of the full headline, Biden, poorest man in Congress. Is that true?” I don’t know how the hell it was true, but it turned out it was true. But here’s the deal. My new budget works to lower housing costs for owners and renters alike today.

(11:18)
I was raised in a… When Scranton, where I was born, and in my early years were raised, when Scranton went dead in terms of the economy, we moved down to a little place called Claymont Delaware where my dad had started off as a kid. And we couldn’t afford anything. We lived in a duplex called Brookview Apartments, which became public housing years later. And my dad kept trying to figure out how we get the down payment to get the first home. Well, we rented and we saved, he saved, and we were able to buy a three-bedroom home and a new development because these areas, they were building 40, 50 homes at a shot. We had four kids and three bedrooms and a grandpa living with us. And we weren’t poor, but we never had anything at the end of the month.

(12:11)
And so what my dad used to always say was that the way you build equity in your home is the way you build wealth. So when you build enough equity in your home, then you have enough money to borrow to get something new and move and so on. And that’s how everybody makes it. Everybody in middle class makes it there, usually through equity in their home. Well, look, it works. What we’ve been doing works to increase housing supply and keep costs down in the future. First, for homeowners, inflation keeps coming down and it’s predicted to do that. Mortgage rates are going to come down as well, but I’m not going to wait. I’m not going to wait.

(12:49)
I want to provide an annual tax credit will give Americans $400 a month for the next two years as mortgage rates come down to put toward their mortgage when they buy their first home or trade up for a little more space if they come from middle-class background, they come from a family that has well under $200,000 or less. We’re also making more affordable to refinance your home by eliminating title insurance fees on federally funded backed mortgages. That’s going to save folks as much as a $1,500. The federal government can afford to do that. In addition, last week, the National Association of Realtors agreed for the first time that Americans can negotiate lower commissions when they buy or sell their home

(13:41)
On a typical home purchase, that loan could save folks an average of $10,000 on a sale or purchase. I’m calling on realtors to follow through on lowering their commissions to protect home buyers. And folks, we’re also working and the legacy of discrimination on the base of home valuations. It’s exacerbated. As you know, it’s exacerbated racial wealth gap and held back black and brown families, and it’s simply wrong. If you build a… If the developer came along and built 20 homes on one side of a highway and 20 homes on the other, and the one side had people of black and brown backgrounds and the same exact home was built in the white neighborhood, guess what? The day you won that home, that black home was worth 20% less than the white home, or the Hispanic home was worth 20% less. It’s wrong.

(14:32)
Second, my plan goes to work so we can bring rents down. My administration’s cracking down on big corporations who break antitrust laws by price fixing to keep the rents up. That’s how they work it out. Landlords should be competing to give folks the best deal, not conspiring to charge them more. You’re also going after what I call unfair rental and junk fees, like the ones you charge when you move into an apartment, one of those surprise convenience fees that aren’t convenient at all. You can add up to hundreds of dollars. And some of you have been stuck with that. Folks are tired of being played for suckers and I’m tired of letting them be played for suckers. We’re also expanding rental assistance to over 100,000 more low-income families. Since I took office, the biggest increase in 20 years. And my new plan would help hundreds of thousands more, including foster kids, as we mentioned earlier, aging out of foster care, so they have to move out living on their own for the first time.

(15:42)
It’s also going to help thousands of veterans afford the rent because no one should be homeless in America, especially someone who served this country. Folks, we know affordable housing has been a challenge for a long time. To solve it long-term, we have to increase supply. Because when supply down, demand is up, costs rise. The bottom line to lower housing costs for good is to build, build, build. And that’s why to help your congressional delegation. I’ve cut red tape so more builders can get federal financing for the new project, a record 1.7 million new housing units are under construction nationwide right now because of it. In fact, today, my administration reported that single-family housing starts are the highest level they’ve been to nearly two years, and my new plan would create 2 million affordable homes, including tens of thousands right here in Nevada.

(16:49)
And we’re doing this through what they call the neighborhood home tax credit to build or renovate affordable housing, and we do it by expanding the bipartisan low income. It’s called the low income… Sorry, with all these titles, but that’s what these bills are, a low income housing tax credit to build affordable rental units, which supported by lenders, builders, families, and housing advocates alike. Look, my plan will also establish an innovative program to help communities build and renovate housing or convert housing from empty office spaces into housing, empty hotels into housing. My plan would provide $8 billion to fight homelessness and move people into homes and off the street. I’ll say it again,

(17:37)
The United States, no one should have to live in the street. No one. Folks altogether experts are calling these measures, quote, “The most consequential housing plan in more than 50 years.” But let me be clear, it’s not only my plan. It is fully paid for. And while I’m paying for it, we’re also reducing the federal debt at the same time. I know the Republicans talk about big tax and Democrats. Give me a break. Come on. I’ve already cut the federal deficit by $1 trillion since I took office. The last guy increased the deficit by a larger margin than any president in American history in the four years he was president, I signed the bipartisan budget deal to cut another trillion dollars in the next decade. For example, because of the law, I signed finally, big pharma, the pharmaceutical companies, and we finally beat them, giving Medicare the power to negotiate the prescription drug prices they pay for seniors like they do with the Veterans Administration. The VA says, “I need this for veterans, but I’m not going to pay you more than this for this amount of money.”

(18:44)
Well, it doesn’t just save seniors money. It’s already saving taxpayers money. The one thing we’ve been able to do is, when I did that one thing and making sure that you’re going to be able to have insulin for 35 bucks instead of 400 bucks a month, well, guess what? That cut the deficit by $160 billion, $160 billion. And there’s a reason for it. Not only saves seniors a lot of money… And when I first wrote it, it included everybody. The Republicans knocked out everybody and left the seniors in. They couldn’t lose that one. But here’s the deal, $160 billion over the next decade, because big pharma doesn’t have to pay out the $400 a month. They’re paying out $35 a month too big pharma. My plan would double the number of drugs able to be negotiated to save another 200 billion a year.

(19:37)
This bill has already been passed. Here’s the deal, folks. Right now, we cut the deficit even more by making the very wealthy begin to pay their fair share, but here’s the deal. If you’re going to deal with Medicare and you want to make sure you’re going to be able to save money, well, guess what? Many of you know seniors who have cancer drugs, it costs up to $35,000, $15,000 a year, 12, 15,000 bucks with all their other costs. Well, guess what? Already passed the law beginning in 2024, January 2025, no matter what the total cost of prescription drug costs for a senior are, they will not have to pay more than $2,000, period. 2,000.

(20:25)
It’s going to save another 200,000. Anyway, I get really… If we drove out to the airport and put you on Air Force One, you said you had a prescription needed filled and it was an American company that made it, I’d say, “Okay, let’s fly to Toronto, or to Berlin, or to London, or to Rome, or any major city in America, I’ll get you that same prescription filled in those cities for 40 to 60% less it’ll cost you at a pharmacy year.” It’s wrong. But look, I’m a capitalist. If you want to make a billion bucks, great. Just begin to pay your fair share of taxes

(21:14)
In 2020, 55 of the largest Fortune 500 companies made 40 billion in profits. They paid zero in federal taxes. Not anymore. Thanks to the law I wrote and we signed, big companies now have to pay a minimum of 15%, but that’s still too little to have to pay in federal. Wouldn’t you all trade that? You have to pay 15% instead of what you’re paying now. But look, it’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21%, so every big corporation finally begins to pay their fair share. Before the whole thing with COVID, there were 750 billionaires with a B in America. Today, there are a thousand. You know what they pay in average, the average tax for billionaires in America, 8.2% federal tax. Anybody want to trade them with the billionaire tax? I’d take 8.2%. It’s far less than the vast majority of Americans pay. No billionaire should pay a lower tax than the teacher, a sanitation worker, a nurse, anybody busting the net.

(22:25)
That’s why I’m proposing. If I’m re-elected, we’re going to get it done, a minimum tax of 25% for billionaires. That’s not even the highest tax rate, just 25%. You know how much that would raise over 10 years? 500 billion in 10 years, 500 billion if they just started to pay that. Imagine what we could do. We could cut the federal deficit even more. We can invest in things that make America great again, child care, a whole range of things we could do. And we’d all be better, affordable child, home care, housing, all of which help families grow our economy. And by the way, every one of these things I propose, I asked the Treasury department to do a study for me because I’m a pro-union guy and I’ve been the most pro-union president of American history, and here’s the deal.

(23:11)
And people say, “Well, that costs a lot of money.” It saves money. The study they’ve done points out that union labor and contracts raise everybody’s income, everybody’s income, and they have the best in the world. Besides, like I said, when I got all, when I got that $350 billion invested for computer chips, I was in… It was a Samsung in South Korea, convinced them to come here. I said, “Why would you come here?” He said, “You have the workers in the world, and my safest investment is in America.” Folks, there’s so much we could do, but my predecessor has a totally different view when it comes to fair taxes. He said, and he said this to his friends in Mar-a-Lago, quote, it’s on the record, “I know plenty of you.” This is his quote. “You’re rich as hell, and we’re going to give you tax cuts.” That’s what he says out loud.

(24:09)
When the president enacted a $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the very wealthy and biggest corporations, he exploded the federal deficit, as I said. He added more to the national debt than any president has in one term in all of American history, and he wants to do it again. He’s committed to another $2 trillion tax cap for the wealthy and biggest corporations. He also proposed cutting funds for affordable housing, not building them, cutting the funds for them. Folks at home, does anybody really think anybody really think the tax code is fair? I don’t know. You don’t really think the wealthy and big corporations need another $2 trillion tax code, do you? Well, they’re doing pretty well. I sure in hell don’t. Look, I’m going to keep fighting like the devil to make sure the wealthy pay their fair share to make the tax system fairer.

(25:00)
And under my plan, to make sure I wasn’t able to be at the other end of his demagoguery, I made a commitment when I got elected, and I’ve kept it, no one earning less than $400,000 a year, which is a lot of money where I come from, will pay an additional penny in federal tax, not one single penny, not one penny, but everybody else is going to start paying their fair share. Let me close with this. As I travel the country, folks often tell me how back in 2020, they were down. They lost their business, they lost faith in the system. But then those laws we passed, the work we’ve done together, got them back on their feet, we created 15 million new jobs in three years, more than any administration has in history. We’re keeping millions of people in their homes. We’re creating a new cycle of hope and pride.

(25:52)
Pride in your hometown is making a comeback, pride in America, pride in knowing you can get big things done if we work together. I’ve never been more… We have a lot more to do, a lot more to do. Reason this election is so important is not about me. It’s about the future. It’s about the future. He wants to undo every single thing we’ve done if he gets elected. He stated it straight up. But there’s so much more to keep and to do. I’m never more optimistic about our future. We just have to remember who in hell we are. We’re the United States of America. There is nothing, think about, nothing beyond our capacity when we work together. We’re the only nation in the world that’s come out of every crisis stronger than we went in every time when we work together. And with your help, we’re going to get people working together in a way they haven’t for decades. So ladies and gentlemen, God bless you, and may God protect our troops. Let’s get this done.