David Lauder
DETROIT (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced on Thursday that President Joe Biden’s agenda has made the economy stronger than it was pre-coronavirus Strong – 19 Pandemic, but says more needs to be done to protect earnings, especially by addressing inflation.
Traveling to Detroit to promote the impact of recent legislative achievements ahead of November’s congressional elections, including hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in semiconductors, research, healthcare, green energy and infrastructure, Yellen said, Fighting inflation remains the government’s “top economic priority”.
“Our plan worked,” Yellen said in a campaign-style speech, Ford Motor (NYSE: F) Job growth and economic equality improved at its Rouge Electric Company. An auto factory in Dearborn, a city outside Detroit. “By any traditional measure, we have experienced one of the fastest economic recoveries in modern history.”
She said the recently passed CHIPS Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and last year’s infrastructure package The plan would expand the productive capacity of the U.S. economy and put Biden’s goal of halving U.S. carbon emissions from 2005 levels “within reach,” in part due to North American tax credits like Ford makes electric cars like the F-250 Lightning pickup truck it makes in Dearborn.
“The most immediate challenge is to restore an environment of price stability without sacrificing the economic gains of the past two years,” Yellen said, adding that the Fed had primary responsibility for containing inflation. “To ensure our long-term economic stability, we must keep our public finances healthy.”
Tax, spending plan
Yellen said the government will continue to push for New % additional tax increase on top of the alternative minimum tax for large corporations, as well as the implementation of a missed global tax Reform deal
“This includes filling loopholes to bring interest rates back to historical standards for high earners and businesses,” she said, suggesting the government still wants to reverse 2017 tax cuts enacted by former President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans — an effort thwarted by a narrow Democratic majority in Congress.
Yellen also said the administration will still seek to increase funding for childcare to attract more women into the workforce, another move that calls for Democrats to win more seats in Congress.
Biden’s party is trying to maintain control of Congress in November, and Yellen’s speech in Detroit, the birthplace of the U.S. auto industry, was part of a month-long speech tour promoting economic improvement part.
Yellen’s remarks did not mention Biden’s executive order, pardonable up to $20, 000 Personal income does not exceed $19,250 of student loan debt, or $250,000 have married couple. The plan, which responds to calls for debt relief from progressives on the left of the Democratic Party, has drawn criticism for helping some wealthy people, which could fuel inflation and incur hundreds of billions of dollars in new debt.
Yellen’s speech was aimed at focusing on the economic impact of recent legislation, which meant some material had to be cut, a Treasury official said.
Yellen said investment plans for green energy, technology and infrastructure would shift investment more broadly in the U.S., not just to prosperous coastal cities.
The Treasury secretary has previously called Biden’s economic agenda, including earlier unrealized plans to increase spending on child care and education, “modern supply-side economics.”
Unlike the term Yellen popularized in the 1980 years to describe the Reagan administration’s focus on tax cuts and deregulation To encourage productive investment, Yellen thinks Biden’s version will focus on a range of investments to boost
“We know that a disproportionate amount of economic opportunity is concentrated in major coastal cities. Biden’s economic plan investment has started to change that dynamic,” Yellen said.
