President Biden delivered remarks Monday morning at the White House to press Congress to act on both halves of his economic agenda, claiming momentum from an uptick in job growth over the course of his administration and pushing back on Republican critiques of his multi-trillion-dollar spending plans.
Mr. Biden cast his economic policies and his administration’s vaccination efforts as a key driver of accelerating growth, and he promised his remaining agenda items would help Americans work more and earn more money while restraining inflation by making the economy more productive.
The spending he has proposed, Mr. Biden said, “won’t increase inflation. It will take the pressure off inflation.”
Mr. Biden used the speech to champion the nearly $600 billion bipartisan infrastructure agreement he struck with Democratic and Republican centrists in the Senate last month. The deal is in jeopardy after Republicans balked at a key revenue source included in the initial deal: stepped-up enforcement efforts at the I.R.S. to catch tax cheats.
“Our economy has come a long way over the last six months,” Mr. Biden said. “It can’t slow down now.”
White House officials and Senate negotiators — including 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans — are working to salvage it by substituting a new revenue source.
