FRIDLEY, Minn. — President Joe Biden paid a visit to Fridley on Monday afternoon as part of his ongoing nationwide "Investing in America" tour.
Biden spoke about job growth and nationwide investments while pushing clean energy and manufacturing in the U.S., and discussed his administration's work in passing legislation like the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act.
Biden visited Cummins Power Generation Facility after it was announced last fall that the plant would start manufacturing electrolyzers in the U.S. for the first time, devices that use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen to produce clean hydrogen, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The company announced in conjunction with the Democratic president's visit that it's investing more than $1 billion in its U.S. engine manufacturing network in Indiana, North Carolina and New York to update facilities so they can produce low- to zero-carbon engines.
WATCH: President Biden lands at MSP Airport
Biden's administration is looking for ways to contrast its agenda and a proposed budget that includes $2.6 trillion in new spending with Republicans' plans for spending and economic growth. Republicans have rejected Biden’s budget but have yet to unveil a counteroffer to the Democrats’ blueprint, which is built around tax increases on the wealthy and a vision statement of sorts for Biden's yet-to-be-declared 2024 campaign.
Other members of Biden's administration are traveling to more than 20 states this week to buttress his message. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, for example, visited Connecticut on Monday for a fireside chat at Yale University on the economic agenda. While the president blasted Trump's 2017 tax cuts for raising the deficit, Yellen panned them for failing to boost growth.
The treasury secretary said Trump's signature achievement has "not been very successful, even at promoting investment spending and growth.” What the cuts did, instead, is tilt the tax code in favor of those with extreme degrees of wealth, according to Yellen.
“If you take something like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,” she said, "maybe that had some marginal impact on boosting private investment -- not obvious that it did. But it certainly raised the incomes of the wealthy individuals who received those huge tax cuts, and so it made the tax burden a lot less fair.”
WATCH: President Biden's full speech from Cummins Power Generation Facility
First lady Jill Biden also traveled Monday, where she was in Colorado to tout Biden's efforts to promote job training at community colleges. FLOTUS has more stops planned for this week as well, including in Maine and Vermont. Her plans to visit Michigan later Monday were postponed because of an aircraft issue.
President Biden's trip follow Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to Minnesota back in February when she discussed electric vehicles and the future of transportation at a transit bus manufacturer in St. Cloud.
Ahead of Biden's arrival, the Minnesota GOP released this statement:
"President Biden and the Democrats’ economic and fiscal policies have been a disaster for our state and country. Their wasteful and reckless tax-and-spending sprees have driven inflation over four percent and real wages are down for almost two years running. The President shouldn’t be traveling the country celebrating. He should apologize for making it harder for families to save for college or retirement, pay the bills, start a business, or even buy the things they need every day like groceries and gas. Minnesotans will see right through it and Republicans will make an aggressive case to hold Biden and the Democrats accountable."
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