U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan this week as part of her election-year push to showcase what she says is the nation’s “strongest economic comeback of our lifetime.”
Yellen will be in Pittsburgh on Feb. 13 and Detroit on Feb. 14 to attend events with elected officials on the Biden administration’s initiatives to reduce healthcare costs, support small businesses, and increase economic prosperity, according to Treasury.
Pennsylvania and Michigan
The visits to Illinois and Wisconsin in January and also other states like Nevada and North Carolina last year provide the background for the trips. Pennsylvania and Michigan are among seven states Biden’s reelection campaign counts as election battlegrounds because its voters might shift in either party and decide the outcome of the November race.
Polls Reflect Public Skepticism
However, the administration’s attempts to highlight its economic achievements through repeated efforts have so far not managed to convince the American people, the polls suggested.
An Ipsos survey sponsored by Reuters showed that President Joe Biden is trailing the Republican front-runner, former President Donald Trump, by six percentage points and that voters are concerned about illegal immigration, Biden’s age, and lingering economic worries despite the major progress made by Biden since he took office in 2021.
Yellen, in the past, has advocated for patience, saying that the pandemic left some worries and reassuring about the increased consumer sentiment.
“Over the last three years, the Biden administration has led the largest economic comeback since when we were born,” Yellen said in a speech to be delivered at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday. She will meet business leaders at the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce and will have a working lunch with a Biden backer, Democratic Senator Bob Casey.
Yellen will applaud the United States’ robust economic growth, a faster and more rapid decline in inflation than in other developed nations, and the labor market’s ongoing resilience.
At a time when unemployment stood at about 4% and median household wealth grew some 37% from 2019 to 2022, which was the largest in record history, Americans had more purchasing power, according to her.
Focus on Small Businesses in Detroit
In Detroit, whose recovery has been slower than in other cities, Yellen will participate in a joint event with the governor, and the Senator will also join the meeting. The tour will end with a speech focusing on small businesses.
Detroit has experienced economic development, but midwestern counterparts’ workers have big numbers of those earning a living wage, however, according to University of Michigan economists.