President Biden Delivers Remarks at the 29th AFL-CIO Quadrennial Constitutional Convention 6/14/22 Transcript

Liz Shuler: (00:01)
We are here ready to introduce the most pro-union president in the history of the United States. We’ve been hearing that phrase a lot. And we’re going to hear it some more. But before our next speaker comes out, I want to talk to you about what that really means. Day in, day out, we have a president who understands the issues and the vision of working people. And I know he is a busy man and each day he gets a big briefing book that they hand to him when he gets on the plane and he goes to his meetings and reads up on it.

Liz Shuler: (00:49)
This president doesn’t need a briefing memo to talk to the AFL-CIO and 57 unions that represent workers. What it means to be the most pro-union president in the history of the United States means having working people kept front and center in our nation’s plans for recovery and for the future. It means having a union member as Secretary of Labor, a card carrying union member. It means having a task force at the White House dedicated to worker organizing and worker empowerment. Never done before. It means having an NLRB that’s working to ban captive audience meetings.

Liz Shuler: (01:51)
And it means having a champion in the Oval Office who knows that working people are the engine of our economy and the heartbeat of our communities and our country. And your work, you work in getting out the vote in 2020 made all of that possible. And his commitment to our shared values made it a reality. Sisters and brothers and siblings, it is my honor, it is my privilege to introduce the most pro-union president in the history of the United States, Joe Biden.

Joe Biden: (02:44)
Hello AFL-CIO. You ain’t labor, you’re union. Makes a difference. It’s good to be home. As they say in Claymont, “Y’all brung me to the dance.” Thank you. Please, please have a seat if there is one.

Joe Biden: (03:34)
You’re a gigantic reason why I’m standing here, standing here today as your president. I really mean it. I owe you. From the very beginning of my running for office back when I was a kid, it was labor unions made a difference. At the time. We were a right to work state and we changed that too. I’ve never forgotten, not only what you’ve done for me, but how importantly it meant to me and to the country, to our country, what you’ve done for the country. And I want to thank Liz for being such a good friend for so long. The first woman to lead the AFL-CIO. Born of a union household, started out as an organizer and she never stopped. Congratulations, Liz, congratulations. And congratulations to Fred Redmond, the Secretary Treasurer as well. I hope your daughter-in-law knows she’s married into a union family. Anyway, look, I know this bittersweet for all of us. This is the first convention without Rich Trumka. Rich was not only a legendary labor leader, he literally was a close friend to me and to so many of you, a true friend. Particularly there when things weren’t going well, he was always there. Above all he was an American worker. No matter how high he rose through the ranks, he never forgot where he came from.

Joe Biden: (05:06)
We use that phrase all the time, never forget where you came from. He never forgot where he came from or what this work is all about. Before Rich passed, he gave me the highest compliment that I’ve ever gotten in my life, and I mean it sincerely. He called me, which your president just did, the most pro-union president history. I promised you I would be and I commit to you as long as I have this job I will remain that. Folks. Thanks you. I’ve got to tell you, nothing made me prouder than that. That’s why I made sure we put a former union president in Secretary of Labor, Marty Walsh.

Joe Biden: (06:15)
Marty, he’s going to learn how to speak English, but he’s real. I kid him all the time. I’m joking. He parks his car in a car bond but he knows what he’s doing. Marty was here yesterday and he’s doing a hell of a job, but he fights like hell for us all. And just yesterday I had a conversation, a Zoom conversation with our next Senator from this state, John Fetterman.

Joe Biden: (06:44)
If you’re in a foxhole, you want John with you, man. I know he can’t wait to get back on the trail and he’s looking good. And there’s no bigger, stronger voice for working people in this state than John. Certainly no bigger one for that matter. Look, we’re also joined here today by three great members of Congress who flew up with me on Air Force One, Brendan Boyle was labor, labor, labor. Donald Norcross who’s labor, labor, and Mary Gay Scanlon as well. By the way, they’ve all been there when the votes were tough, when the votes were tough to stay with you, they were there. And they’re great champions of unions. And Stacey Abrams is here as well. By the way, I’m going to ask you all a favor, help her in Georgia. Help Stacey Abrams in Georgia.

Joe Biden: (07:44)
There’s three things I learned about her early on. One, she’s loyal. Two, she’s capable and three, she’s smarter than you. Me. She knows what she’s doing. So folks, please help her out. And folks, thanks to all of you coming along and we come a long way in a short time. Do you remember when our economy was like, what it looked like before we took office? 3,000 Americans are dying every day from COVID, 20 million Americans had lost their jobs on the last guy. In fact, so many Americans lost their jobs that my predecessor became just the second president in history to leave office with fewer jobs in America than when he took office. But you stepped up. The other one by the way was Herbert Hoover. And just remember, remember those long lines of cars stretching miles back waiting for just a box of food to be put back in their trunk?

Joe Biden: (08:41)
Wasn’t just poor folk, it was working class folks, middle class folks. A lot of pretty nice cars in those lines. And while it was going on, America created more billionaires during that crisis in 2020 than any year in history. Talk about a contrast. Ordinary people waiting in line for an hour for a box of food and the policies in the past created more billionaires than ever in American history.

Joe Biden: (09:13)
Folks, it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. That’s what we inherited. And then with your help, we went to work with an economic vision that looks out from Scranton, Pennsylvania, hardworking towns like it all across America, not down from Wall Street. Wall Street didn’t build this country. Middle class built this country and unions built the middle class. I’m not joking, without unions there’d be no middle class. That’s a fact. By the way, there’s a reason. You’re the best trained workers in the world. That’s not hyperbole.

Joe Biden: (10:02)
… workers in the world. That’s not hyperbole. When you do well, everybody does well. If investment bankers in America, they’re not all bad guys, they’re not bad, but I guess if they went on strike, not a whole hell a lot would happen. But guess what? Guess what? I tell this to my buddy, if the IBW went on strike, everything shuts down.

Joe Biden: (10:24)
All of you go down the road. I’m serious. No, you guys don’t understand. You don’t talk, you don’t … I don’t think you appreciate how critically important you are. I’m not trying to be nice to you. It’s just a fact. Folks, we need an economy built from the middle out and the bottom up, not to top down. Because I know when the middle class does well, everybody is. The wealthy do very well. They’re never hurt. But I also know too often, we’ve had an economy where the wealthy do better and better while the middle class gets left behind. So we went to work to change that and started with the American Rescue Plan. The law helped 41 million people put food on their table. Remember they were in trouble? Putting food on their table. We put money in the pockets of hardworking Americans who are in trouble. Being thrown out in the street because couldn’t pay the rent through no fault of their own. It gave them, what my dad used to call, just a little bit of breathing room.

Joe Biden: (11:32)
The next step was the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. And now not only is it infrastructure Week, we’ve arrived at infrastructure decade. And people are going to see a lot of it. We got to remind them where it’s coming from. We announced nearly $3 billion this year to improve more than 3,000 airports across 50 states. This year, this year we announced $5 billion so union workers can get to work building a national network of electric vehicle charging stations.

Joe Biden: (12:11)
We announced the largest investment in public transit in American history, more than the entire Amtrak system when it started, $20.5 billion. And the people we come from, like when the President Obama used to always give me the good assignments. Well, I remember one day I walked in, not a joke, and said, “Joe, fix Detroit.”

Joe Biden: (12:37)
I said, “Okay, no problem.” No, you think I’m kidding? You think I’m kidding? What I didn’t realize is I thought I knew a lot about the cities. When I was in Detroit, the vast majority of the people living in the cities, their jobs are out of town, because they’re not doing manufacturing in towns anymore. Out of town. So we got a rail system for them. We got freight, so we got a bus system. It changed it. It’s growing.

Joe Biden: (13:03)
It’s going to create more good jobs using products that are made in America. And folks, it’s also going to reduce pollution while it’s making it safer and safer for folks to go to work and get to work every day.

Joe Biden: (13:16)
What all this means for all of you, it’s a simple proposition. And I remember us having this discussion, old buddy, when I think global warming, I think jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs, good paying union jobs. Jobs you can raise a family on. Jobs you can’t be outsourced.

Joe Biden: (13:36)
Look, the infrastructure law is about more than rebuilding our infrastructure. It’s about rebuilding the middle class, and that’s why we made sure that the infrastructure law included significant labor protections.

Joe Biden: (13:49)
For example, I insisted that overwhelming majority of the funds I included in the law are subject to Davis-Bacon requirements. Union has to do it. And it’s not just because they want to help unions. It’s simple. We’re the best in the world. If we’re going to build infrastructure, we should have, we know … What I always find we don’t talk enough about, and I’m not going to take the time today.

Joe Biden: (14:16)
But you know what? You don’t just decide you want to be a pipe fitter or an electrician or whatever else you want to pick. It takes you four or five years hard work. It’s like going to college. Fortunately you can have these union paid … You can get paid to do some of it. But my point is people don’t realize. And I see every place I go and you’ve heard me do it at Chambers of Commerce, the best trained workers in the world. So folks rebuilding our country will earn a prevailing wage. They should.

Joe Biden: (14:50)
Another thing the law does, it’s helped expand registered apprenticeships. Remember when the business were saying, “We’ll take care of the apprenticeships.” Bless me father, for I have sinned. Come on, man. Come on. Union partnerships will allow workers to earn while they learn. That matters because laying a strong foundation for the future of this country is about more than having strong roads and bridges. It’s about making sure that here in America, folks who work hard can live their lives with dignity and respect. That’s why I continue to call on Congress to finally pass the PRO Act, which will make it easier for workers to organize.

Joe Biden: (15:56)
When Franklin Roosevelt passed the NLRB, it didn’t say you can’t have unions. It said we should encourage unions. That’s the NLRB says. It’s a big difference. And look, I’m not just saying that to be pro-union. I’m saying it because I’m pro-American, folks.

Joe Biden: (16:26)
That’s the approach I’ve taken to build this economy. What has to be done? Well, we brought down COVID deaths by 90%. We opened schools and businesses that were shuttered. All, it all created the greatest job recovery in American history. People don’t want to talk about these days, but it’s true. Since I become president, we’ve created 8.7 million new jobs in 16 months, an all time record. And even last month, 390,000 jobs and 600,000 new manufacturing jobs. They said manufacturing is dead in America.

Joe Biden: (17:08)
Look, folks. Our unemployment rate is near historic lows and 3.7% and millions of Americans are leaving. I love these guys talking about, “Why did this guy left my employment and went to another job because.” He got paid more. Isn’t that awful? Isn’t that a shame that they got to compete for labor. Better paying jobs for better jobs for them and their families. It’s been a long time since that’s happened in this country, but it’s happening now, and it’s working.

Joe Biden: (17:51)
Since I took office, to your help, families are carrying less debt nationwide. They have more savings nationwide. More Americans applied for new small businesses last year than ever before in American history. 5.4 million new small business applications. Jobs and companies are coming home again. We’re making buy American a reality, not just a slogan.

Joe Biden: (18:20)
I award no contracts from the federal government unless they can prove they bought it in America. And by the way, Republicans like to portray me as some kind of big spender. We have spent a lot of money, but let’s compare the facts. Under my predecessor, the deficit exploded, rising every single year, and all of the benefit going to the top 1% basically. Under my plan, last year we cut the by $350 billion doing all this.

Joe Biden: (19:01)
You know how they talk about Biden wants spend more on schools and all this. Guess what? He’s going to create a deficit. Ladies and gentlemen this year, by the end of the fiscal year, we will have cut the federal deficit by another $1.6 trillion in one year, one year. So when they come to you and talk about big spenders, let them know almost $2 trillion in deficit reduction.

Joe Biden: (19:39)
I don’t want to hear any more of these lies about reckless spending. We’re changing people’s lives. And because of the facts, this year we’re delivering the biggest drop in deficit in the history of the United States of America.

Joe Biden: (20:05)
Look, the point is this, under my plan for the economy, we made extraordinary progress and we put America in a position to tackle a worldwide problem that is worse everywhere but here, inflation. It’s sapping the strength of a lot of families.

Joe Biden: (20:24)
I grew up in a household, not far from here, in Claymont, in Wilmington where the price of a gallon of gasoline went up, it was a conversation at dinner table. It mattered. It mattered to my working family. It mattered if the price of food went up. The problem is Republicans in Congress are doing everything they can to stop my plans to bring down costs for on ordinary families.

Joe Biden: (20:52)
That’s why my plan is not finished and why the results aren’t finished either. Jobs are back, but prices are still too high. COVID is down, but gas prices are up. Our work isn’t done, but here’s the deal. America still has a choice to make, a choice between a government by the few, for the few, or a government for all of us. Democracy, for all of us. An economy where all of us have a fair shot and a chance to earn our place in the economy. My plan is simple. First, I’m doing everything in my power to blunt Putin’s gas price hike. Just since he invaded Ukraine, it’s gone up $1.74 a gallon because of nothing else but that. So I have a plan to bring down the cost of gas and food. It’s going to take time, but let the world coordinate the largest release, what I’ve been able to do, the largest release of oil and from the global fund in history, a million barrels a day and 240 million barrels to boost global supply when I convince other nations to join us to keep prices from rising even more.

Joe Biden: (22:18)
And I’m working closely with our European partners to get 20 million tons of grain locked in Ukraine out onto the market to help bring down food prices. Folks, look, what Putin’s war has done is not only tried to wipe out the culture of the Ukrainians, to decimate people and commit numerable war crimes. But he’s also prevented the grain, thousands of tons of grain that are locked up in those silos ready to be exported, but they can’t get out through the Black Sea because they’d get blown out of the water.

Joe Biden: (22:59)
So working on a plan to get it out through other countries by rail. But guess what? Ukraine has a system like Russia has, a rail gauge that is different than the gauge of the rest of the tracks in Europe. So we’re going to build silos, temporary silos, in the borders of Ukraine, including in Poland so we can transfer it from those cars, into those silos, into cars in Europe and get it out to the ocean and get it across the world, but it’s taking time.

Joe Biden: (23:38)
Second. We work to bring down gas and food prices, we can save families money in other items. We can change the dynamic of middle class families. Look, give them a little breathing room my dad said. You’ve heard me say that before. But imagine. What most middle class and working class families do is they look at that monthly bill they have on everything, the rent or the mortgage, the cost of maintaining the car, the food, everything. So if portions of that go up, one of the ways to deal with inflation damage is bring the other costs down.

Joe Biden: (24:17)
For example, 200,000 people Type 1 diabetes, are paying up to a thousand dollars a month for insulin. We can make sure they pay no more than $35 a month. And by the way, drug companies will still do very well. It’ll cost them 10 bucks to develop that insulin, so they’re making three and a half times their cost. My plan gives Medicare the power to negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies, just like the Veterans Administration does. Bringing down the average cost of prescription drugs is a gigantic way. It really does. It affects the total amount of money you got to write out of that checkbook.

Joe Biden: (25:03)
So gas is up and food is up, which we’re going to get down come hell or high water. But there’s other things we can do beyond getting the price of insulin down to $35 a month. Imagine the difference it could make. Imagine the difference it could make if in fact you had other things that I’ve been proposing. Imagine, just imagine, if you’re in a situation where you’re in a position to where pay preschool for kids that are three and four years old, increasing exponentially their possibility of going out no matter what kind of family they come from in terms of educational standing to raise a standard for people. Imagine what we could do for childcare in a city like Philadelphia and New York, the big city of Chicago. Cost you 12 to $14,000 a month for childcare. Well, there shouldn’t have to pay more than 7% of your income for that. We could easily afford to do it. Look, we could do the same thing. But I really mean it. Think how that would change the families that you represent. Think how change the circumstances for working class people.

Joe Biden: (26:16)
And by the way, we could do the same thing with utility bills. Congress would ease the cost to families today by passing the clean energy investments I proposed. Things like tax credit for business to produce cleaner energy. Tax cuts for families that make their homes more energy efficient, which would mean a lot more jobs by the way, for some folks in this room. I met with nearly a dozen CEOs of the largest 12 utility companies in America. They said, if you pass that tax cut that, tax credit for modernizing the home, winterizing, et cetera, we will guarantee it will immediately lower the average cost of energy cost $500 a year for the average family.

Joe Biden: (27:01)
That’d help a lot. In the long run it would help finally make America truly energy independent. So in the future, an American family is no longer subject to the whims of dictators halfway around the world. We’ve laid out concrete plan for families to save money, not only prescription drugs and utility bills, but on rent and mortgage costs. High speed internet. You guys out there are going to be putting on high speed and we’ve already got the money for it. Billions of dollars. Well guess what? When you get it done, it’s going to lower the cost of high speed internet for every family in America by 30 bucks a month. That’s a lot of money and it’s a lot of jobs.

Joe Biden: (27:46)
Look, we can do all this. All I’m asking is for the largest corporations and the wealthiest Americans to begin to pay their fair share in taxes. I’m deadly earnest. Anybody out there think the tax system is fair, raise your hand. Look, under my plan I made this commitment in the beginning and nothing’s changed. No one making less than $400,000 a year will pay a single solitary penny more in federal taxes. Nobody.

Joe Biden: (28:39)
But we’ll no longer have a situation where 55 of the largest Fortune 500 companies made 40 billion last each year the last two years and paid zero. Zero in federal income tax on that profit, 40 billion. No, it’s a fact. I know it sounds like I making… I give you my word. It’s a fact. The fact is we’ve got about roughly 790 or so billionaires in America. You know what their average tax rate is for billionaires? I’m serious now. This is dead earnest. You can check it out. 8%.

Joe Biden: (29:21)
The tax rate for all of you is significantly higher. Two to three to four times higher tax rate. I say it again, 8% in federal taxes. Anybody in this room who thinks, I know you don’t think it’s fair, but we got to do something about it. And by the way, it’s not just labor, organized labor unions and Democrats who think that. The average Republican knows it’s not fair. That suburbanite mom and dad out there, they look around and know it’s not fair. I happen to believe that no billionaires should be paying a lower tax rate than a teacher, a firefighter, or electrician, or a cop.

Joe Biden: (30:00)
In our cop. Republicans have it all backwards. Their plan literally calls for increasing taxes on middle class and working people and cutting taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans. And I’m not talking about punishing anyone. Just pay your fair share. It’s a matter of decency. It’s a matter of dignity. It’s a matter of fiscal responsibility. Look, I believe in bipartisanship, but I have no illusions about this Republican party, the MAGA party. I’ve been able to bring some Republicans along on parts of my plan, but the fact is Republicans in Congress are still in the grip of the ultra MAGA agenda. They still refuse to consider changing any part of the Trump tax cuts, which delivered massive windfalls to billionaires and others. And they weren’t paid for. They still refuse to consider a minimum corporate tax, a 15% minimum tax.

Joe Biden: (31:06)
They seem to think that the problem in America today is the working families aren’t paying enough. Congressional Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida, as my mother would say, God love him, he laid out a plan. I think you have it on your desks. I just took one page of that plan. This is published. It says all… This is just one of their ideas. All federal legislation sunsets in five years. If the law is worth keeping, Congress could pass it again. Now, guess what that is? Social Security. Not a joke. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. That’s not a joke. Every five years will be put on the chopping block. Every five years. And if it’s not reinstated by a vote in the Senate of a 60 or more, guess what? It automatically has got existence. That’s what they’re proposing. Unless the Congress affirmatively votes back that bring them back into existence. Think about that.

Joe Biden: (32:23)
Social security you paid for your whole life. Medicare, Medicaid. Not a joke. Really ask yourself, how are you going to sleep at night knowing that every five years Ted Cruz and the other ultra MAGA Republicans are going to vote on whether you’ll have social security, Medicare, Medicaid. It’s unlikely they’ll be able to wipe it out, but any one of you doubt for a second they’ll find ways to cut benefits and programs in order to keep anything going? That’s what this is about. They’ve always wanted to cut social security. They’ve always wanted to cut Medicare. They’ve always wanted to cut Medicaid. But if you have to start from scratch, the gentleman from Wisconsin, Senator Ron Johnson is back at it again, trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for preexisting conditions. A hundred million people have preexisting conditions. The only reason insurance company has to cover it is because of that law. And they’re never going to stop going after it.

Joe Biden: (33:34)
So now the plan that Senator Scott’s trying to walk back, but it’s clear, the last thing they want to see is workers with power in this country. The bottom line is this. I truly believe we’ve made extraordinary progress by laying a new foundation for our economy, which becomes clear once global inflation begins to recede. There’s so much at stake, but the truth is I’ve never been more optimistic about America than I am today. I really mean it. I travel the world, trying to put things back together. You know, Trump did not leave a very good situation. You think I’m kidding? No matter where I go in the world, whether it was the Inter-American Conference we just had for this hemisphere, or NATO, or dealing with the ASEAN countries or the Far East, guess what? They look at me, and I say, “America’s back.” And they look at me and they say, “For how long?” This is America, we can do any damn thing we put our minds do. And guess what? We’re not going back to the false promises of trickle down economics. We’re going forward. We’re going forward.

Joe Biden: (34:54)
I really mean this. I know I’m called a cockeyed optimist, but this is based on history. We’re the most unique country in the world. We’re organized on one notion. Every other country’s organized based on ethnicity, religion, geography, but the United States is based on idea. Only country in the world based on an idea. Think about it. Look to your right, look to your left. See if you and everybody all shares the same backgrounds. We’re so diverse. Why are we doing it? Because we said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men and women are created equal. Endowed by their creator with certain in alienable rights. Life, liberty.” We’ve never met the goal, but we’ve never, other than the Trump administration, tried to walk away from that goal. And it gets better every time we push.

Joe Biden: (35:56)
And unions, unions are going to play a critical role in that future. America’s always counted on union workers. Giving us half a chance you have never ever, ever, ever let the country down. We’re counting on you again to build this country for all of us, help build an economy that works for working people. And I promise you, I’m going to keep fighting for you. Are you prepared to fight with me? Well, let’s build it together. Let’s continue to give working families a fighting chance, face our challenges head on. And let’s keep building a better America because we can do it. God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.