With a series of announcements and a campaign-style swing that is set to run past the 4th of July, President Biden is launching a new effort to sell his economic record to a country that remains wary.
The first prong came Monday morning with the unveiling of new details about how $40 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be spent in the years ahead to connect more Americans to high-speed internet. The funds will flow into a Commerce Department program with checks set to begin flowing to states early next year.
The money represents “an unprecedented investment in broadband that is finally going to close the digital divide,” promises White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients.
Monday’s news also kicks off of what will be a three-week effort with top Biden officials fanning out to over 20 states to sell his economic record, make more announcements, and try to convince Americans that Biden’s two and a half years in office have concretely improved their lives.
The president will headline multiple events himself with the centerpiece being a stop in Illinois Wednesday where he is set to deliver an address to his economic vision — and also adopt the term ‘Bidenomics’.
President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will kick things off Monday with the formal announcement of the broadband funding during an event at the White House.
The results have been evident in in poll after poll with a Yahoo News/YouGov survey in recent days finding a 40% approval rating overall and a 36% rating on how he is handling the economy.
President Joe Biden speaks about reproductive rights at an event in Washington on Friday. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The Democratic effort also comes as Republicans are in the midst of their own messaging campaign on the economy and have scoffed at the administration’s efforts to change American’s mind on the state of the economy. The GOP message is focused heavily on inflation, which has declined but remains a huge drag on Biden’s effort to secure a second term.
The president’s travels this week will also take him to Maryland and New York where he will be participating in official events as well as fundraising appearances to fill the coffers of his 2024 campaign.
A focus on broadband
The centering of the initial announcement on broadband continues the Biden administration’s focus on what it estimates are 8.5 million locations across America that still aren’t able to connect to high speed internet.
Biden has set a goal of connecting every American by 2030 and has put aside over $90 billion towards the effort. Of that total, $25 billion came from early 2021’s American Rescue Plan, with money headed to things like capital projects and providing emergency connectivity. The remainder — $65 billion — came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed into law later that year.
White House aides have repeatedly compared their broadband efforts to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. That bill was signed by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the New Deal and helped bring electricity to rural areas of the United States.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a White House event on high-speed internet access on June 3, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The $40 billion in funding announced Monday will flow into the Commerce Department’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. The department will then distribute the funds to states who propose projects to increase accessibility. A senior administration official says the government’s first priority is to connect unserved areas followed by areas that are currently underserved with subpar speeds.
States can begin applying for the funds this month. Applications are then due by the end of the year with the first wave of money set to be distributed in early 2024. Each state is set to receive at least $100 million with higher awards likely for the states with the most unserved locations.
Another important prong of the administration’s broadband strategy is $14.2 billion that has already been rolled out for a program that gives low-income Americans a $30-a-month discount on their internet bill. The White House says 19 million households across the country are currently taking advantage of that program.
‘Rebuilding the backbone of America’
Also announced Monday morning is nearly $1.7 billion in new funding for low- to no-emission city buses that the Department of Transportation estimates will replace over 1,700 buses around the country in coming years.
“You’ll see more announcements and ribbon cuttings in cities and towns across the country” Zients said of the coming tour, which the White House has dubbed the second leg of March’s Investing in America tour.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks about summer air travel at the department’s headquarters in May. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The White House has already hinted at some of the announcements to come. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is set to be in Washington state in the coming days to announce new infrastructure funding around roads and bridges. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm is also set highlight new administration efforts around clean energy and tour the southeastern US in an electric vehicle.
Zients made sure the the overall message of the tour — and likely Biden’s re-election campaign as well — was clear in a call with reporters to announce the new funding. He says the Biden administration is doing nothing less that “rebuilding the backbone of America” with a vision that represents a “sea change” from the GOP agenda.
Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.
“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”
Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.
Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.
Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.
In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.
The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.
And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.
The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
