President Joe Biden on Wednesday met the heads of major companies like Ford, General Motors, Microsoft, HP and more as he aims to zero back in on his social and climate spending plan, after negotiations fell apart at the end of last year.
The group gathered at the White House to focus on the economic impact of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda – which includes provisions for child care, including universal pre-Kindergarten, expansion of Medicare, lowering prescription drug prices and the largest-ever legislative investment in combatting the climate crisis – discussing how they see it as a boost for U.S. competitiveness, worker productivity and workforce participation.
“There’s a very important connection, Mr. President, between the pieces of Build Back Better and what matters not just to Microsft’s business, but to every American business,” Brad Smith, President and Vice Chairman of Microsoft, said, adding: “What we see is that we need to do more to help bring Americans back to work, and one of the key ingredients that we see … is that people can only come back to work if they have a way to take care of their children.”
Smith also gave a “full-throated endorsement of the climate provisions” in the bill.
“It is an honor to be here today and be able to speak about climate change and our aligned goals as it relates to converting to an all-electric future,” General Motors chair and CEO Mary Barra said, touting the company’s more than $35 billion to support electric and autonomous vehicles by 2025.
Biden touted the economic successes his administration has had in its first year, including “the strongest job growth on record, the largest decline in unemployment on record, the strongest small business growth in a long time and the strongest economic growth in 40 years,” but acknowledged they have a lot of work to do in order to reduce consumer prices in the face of the highest inflation rate in 40 years – which, he said, is what the Build Back Better bill aims to do.
“Our Build Back Better plan is paid for, it doesn’t increase the deficit, and maybe the best news of all, it will actually help alleviate inflation,” Biden said.
“That’s why the last component of my plan is so important,” Biden said of his sweeping social spending and climate change legislation, specifically mentioning its child care and climate change provisions.
Biden said the Build Back Better plan cuts child care costs “in half,” also specifically mentioning the bill’s provisions for universal pre-Kindergarten: “My plan cuts in half for most families the cost of that child care, helping their budgets and helping millions of parents, especially women, get back to work.”
“We want to have the best-educated workforce,” Biden said, calling it a “necessity.”
Biden also praised Barra and Jim Farley, the president and CEO of Ford, for helping to bring back domestic manufacturing with their plans to move to an all-electric future for their vehicles. “The industrial Midwest, believe it or not, is coming back,” Biden said.
“And that’s just the start: Our Build Back Better plan is gonna do even more, mind you,” Biden added. “Combined with the the infrastructure law, we’re making the biggest investment in clean energy manufacturing ever in American history. This is about here and now and the future.”
“The bottom line is a lot of folks refer to this as just social spending,” Biden said. “Well, I see it this way: Build Back Better plan lowers prices for families and gets people working. It creates the best-educated workforce hopefully in the world and ensures that we’ll remain the most dynamic and productive economy in the world. It’s good for families, it’s good for the economy and it’s good for the country.”
Biden last week admitted that his spending plan may have to be broken up into “big chunks” to pass, but he was optimistic that many of the policies in the latest version could get through Congress.
Regardless, the Democrats’ plan is to get Build Back Better through Congress without a single Republican vote, meaning all Democratic senators must be on board, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who derailed the $1.9 trillion package in December.
The president didn’t comment on the other major news of the day, the impending retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer from the Supreme Court, but joked with Cummins CEO Tom Linebarger: “Want to go to the Supreme Court, Tom?”
Biden and the CEOs were joined by the president’s top economic and climate advisers, including Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy.
The business leaders in attendance on Wednesday were:
- Mary Barra, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, General Motors
- Marc Benioff, Chair, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Salesforce
- Thasunda Brown Duckett, President and Chief Executive Officer, TIAA
- Jim Farley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ford
- Barbara Humpton, President and Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Corporation
- Tom Linebarger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cummins
- Enrique Lores, President and Chief Executive Officer, HP
- Josh Silverman, Chief Executive Officer, Etsy
- Brad Smith, President and Vice Chairman, Microsoft
- Wendell Weeks, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Corning
