• President Joe Biden visited the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 26 in Lanham, Maryland to celebrate his administration’s investment in the economy.
• Biden praised union labor and said that the nation’s investment in green energy would mean “good-paying jobs for electricians, plumbers, pipefitters, laborers, carpenters, cement masons, ironworkers, and so much more.”
• Biden’s economic plan is in stark contrast to the Republican’s “top-down, trickle-down economics” and their 2017 tax cut that has already added $2 trillion to the federal deficit.
• The economy continues to perform better than expected in 2023, with retail buying increasing 3% in January and the job market remaining strong.
• Biden accused the Republicans of proposing measures that would raise the deficit, while he wants to address it with taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations.
• The derailment of fifty Norfolk Southern train cars near East Palestine, Ohio, released highly toxic chemicals into the air, water, and ground, causing a massive fire and forcing about 5,000 nearby residents to evacuate.
• Republican Ohio governor Mike DeWine has refused federal assistance from President Biden, while Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said that Norfolk Southern had botched its response to the accident.
• The Trump administration got rid of a rule imposed by the Obama administration that required better braking systems on rail cars that carried hazardous flammable materials.
• Ohio’s new far-right Republican senator J. D. Vance blamed the Biden administration for the accident on the Fox News Channel show of personality Tucker Carlson.
Published February 16, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post February 15, 2023
