Biden Continues Tour Of Battleground State PA

1 week ago A fiery Joe Biden kicked off his multi-city tour of the battleground state of Pennsylvania Tuesday with a stop in his hometown of Scranton renewing his calls to raise taxes for wealthy Americans and large corporations, while also taking shots at his Republican rival Donald Trump.

“Folks, he's coming for your money, your health care and your Social Security. And we're not going to let it happen. We can't let it happen.”

“Scranton values or Mar a Lago values. These are the competing visions for our economy, and they raise questions of fundamental fairness at the heart of this campaign."

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found that voters trust Trump more than Biden to better manage the economy by a margin of 39% to 33%.

Yet Biden is betting his economic populist message will animate voters in a blue-collar region of Pennsylvania.

“No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a nurse, a sanitation worker. I mean it."

And Biden is contrasting his vision of higher taxes on Americans making more than $400,000 annually, with Trump's promise to protect his 2017 slashing of the corporate tax rate.

“Folks, trickle down economics fail the middle class. It failed America. And the truth is, Donald Trump embodies that failure.”

With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is a top prize in the 2024 presidential election that features a rematch between Biden and Trump.

Biden, who spent part of his childhood in working-class Scranton before his family moved to Delaware, won Pennsylvania in 2020 by less than 1.5%, or roughly 80,000 votes.

Polls show another close race this year.

Biden said Wednesday that he wants to triple U.S. tariffs on steel from China. The president plans to announce that he is out to better protect American producers from Beijing’s “industrial overcapacity” in an address to steelworkers in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Biden is hoping to highlight his international trade policy as he courts voters in a state that is likely to play a pivotal role in November’s election. The move however is largely symbolic as just 3% of imported steel over a 12-month period came from China, according to the Census Bureau. The White House insists the policy is more about shielding American manufacturing from unfair trade practices overseas than firing up a union audience.