Joe Biden: Hello, Philadelphia! Now, before I get going — hey, everybody. How are you? (Applause.)
“Moms Demand Action.” We’re going to get action.
Hey, you know, what? His mom is watching — Tina. Tina, I don’t know — I wish you were here. I could meet you. But they say — they speak of the — with a little bit of an accent in southern Delaware. Talk at you like this, you know what I mean? (Laughter.) You look at that (inaudible), you say, “You done good with that boy.” Congratulations, Mom. Congratulations. Thank you, Mom. (Applause.)
Please have a seat.
Well, you know, I don’t know whether you know this or not. Because of the previous President, Jimmy Wil- — I — Jimmy, you — Williams — the only reason I’m standing here is you guys — not a joke — and when I was running with Barack, we were having — when things were slowing up a little bit and I asked for help. And you guys got on a bus and got a bus, and you’re the reason why I’m standing here. I was Vice President then, and I’m President because of you guys. (Applause.)
And again, they say — you know, I’ve told your son he got good blood. (Laughs.) My dad would say.
But thank you all very, very much. And it’s great to be here with Josh — Josh Shapiro — one of the — I predicted he was going to be one of the best governors in the history of the state. Where are you, Gov? (Applause.)
That’s, in large part, because he married up. (Laughter.)
And I want to thank Congressman Brendan Boyle for the passport to get into his district. Brendan, you’ve been a great friend from the time we’ve been together. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)
By the way, he now leads the Democratic part of the Budget Committee. He’s the guy that is going to determine whether or not my budget gets passed if I — (laughter) —
But, you know, while they couldn’t be here, I want to thank Jim Kenney, who’s a good friend, the mayor of Philadelphia, and two great senators — a great close, close friend, Bobby Casey, and John Fetterman, who will continue to deliver for the people of Pennsylvania, I believe.
John, if you could hear this at all, we’re with you, pal. We’re with you. (Applause.)
Everybody asks why I ever moved from Scranton. We moved from Scranton because we lived five blocks from the Caseys. (Laughter.) You think I’m kidding. (Laughter.) And I knew as long as his dad was around, I’d never be able to be a senator or governor of Pennsylvania. (Laughter.)
And then along comes Bobby. Anyway. Great, great family and great friends.
Folks, here’s why I’m here today. For too long, working people have been breaking their necks, but the economy has left them behind — working people like you — while those at the top get away with everything and get everything.
One of the reasons why I ran for President, and I mean this sincerely — you may remember when I announced this — that there are three reasons I was running.
One, to restore the soul of America, restore some decency and honor to the system.
And two, to rebuild the backbone of the country: the middle class. When the middle class does well, the poor have a way up and the wealthy still do very well.
And the third one is to unite the country. Didn’t think we could do that, but — as we’ve seen all the talk about, “We never get any cooperation from the other team.” The last two years, we’ve passed some pretty big things with bipartisan support.
You know, I ran to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up and not the top down. And I know when I grew up — my dad’s kitchen table — not a whole lot trickled down on trickle-down economics onto my kitchen table for my dad. That’s why I wanted to come here today and lay out the next part of my economic plan: my budget — my budget I’m sending to Congress today.
And if I could hold for just a second. I want to be clear — and I’ll be clear to the press as well. The fact is that the Speaker of the House has been — he’s a very conservative guy, and he has an even more conservative group with him.
But he and I met early on, and he said, “What are we going to do about the budget?” And I said, “Well, let’s make a deal. Let’s meet.” I said, “I’m going to introduce my budget on the 9th of March. You introduce yours. And we’ll sit down, and we’ll go line by line. And we’ll go through it. We’ll see what we can agree on and what we disagree on, and then fight it out in the Congress.”
So, I want to make it clear. I’m ready to meet with the Speaker anytime — tomorrow, if he has his budget. Lay it down. Tell me what you want to do. I’ll show you what I want to do. See what we can agree on. What we don’t agree on, let’s see what we — we vote on. (Applause.)
Now, I’m not going to lay out the entire budget; that would take the rest of the day. But — no, it’s a detailed budget. But I want to give you the contours of what we are for and how it will — how it’s in stark contrast to what appears to be what the other team is for.
My dad had an expression. He — someone would come up to my dad say, “Let me tell you what I value, Joey.” And he’d say — my dad would say, “No, no, show me your budget. I’ll tell you what you value.”
No, I’m serious. My — it was an expression my dad would use. “Show me your budget. I will tell you what you value.”
Well, folks, let me tell you what I value with the budget I’m releasing today.
I value everyone having an even shot — not just labor, but a small-business owners, farmers, and so many other people who hold the country together who have been basically invisible for a long time.
More at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/03/09/remarks-by-president-biden-on-his-budget-for-fiscal-year-2024/
Midtown Tribune New York and US News
