At Subcommittee Hearing, Oversight Democrats Champion the Biden-Harris Administration’s Economic Policies for Working Class Americans

Washington, D.C. (September 26, 2024)—Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Vice Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs, led Subcommittee Democrats in examining how the Biden-Harris Administration has rebuilt the nation’s economy by investing in domestic jobs and lowering costs for working class families, following the Trump Administration’s failed economic policies.

“The truth of the matter is that the United States has amongst the lowest inflationary rates of any industrialized country in the world right now, and it is because of the American Rescue Plan, because of the historic legislation that the Biden-Harris Administration has put into place and that the previous Congress under Democratic leadership passed, that we were able to stop some of the more devastating impacts of the pandemic and the devastating impacts of the previous administration,” said Vice Ranking Member Stansbury in her opening statement.   She added, “We know that these programs help lift American people out of poverty, and we know that they stimulate the economy.”

The hearing included testimony from Mr. Brendan Duke, Senior Director, Economic Policy, Center for American Progress; Paul Winfree, Ph.D., President & CEO, Economic Policy Innovation Center; Ms. Patrice Lee Onwuka, Director, Center for Economic Opportunity, Independent Women’s Forum; and Mr. Chuck DeVore, Chief National Initiatives Officer, Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Committee Democrats examined how the Biden-Harris Administration restored the nation’s economic strength following the Trump Administration’s mismanagement.

• Rep. Shontel Brown noted that under the Biden-Harris Administration, “our unemployment rate is historically low.  Even the stock market is at record highs. President Biden and Vice President Harris have brought 800,000 manufacturing jobs back to the American people.”  Rep. Brown further stressed:  “Thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act, America is now on track to manufacture 30% of the world’s semiconductor chips.  Just a few years ago, under Trump, how many were we supplying? Zero.”
   
• Rep. Stansbury highlighted the success of the American Rescue Plan, which “helped millions of Americas get through one of the largest economic disturbances in American history, but also through one of the largest pandemics in which the former president was telling people to swallow bleach.”

Committee Democrats detailed how the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies significantly benefitted working and middle-class Americans.

• Rep. Brown noted that the Biden-Harris Administration’s American Rescue Plan “help[ed] people keep their businesses open” and “kept people from losing their homes.”  She also touted the PACT Act, “which helped veterans who put their lives on the line so that people like me can enjoy the freedoms that far too many of us take for granted.”  She noted that the Inflation Reduction Act was “the largest investment in our climate, in human history,” and the CHIPS and Science Act invested “tens of billions of dollars in technology, which has yielded more investment from private companies that is helping to develop everything from chips to cars to computers to all the things that we use every day.”  Finally, she celebrated the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was “the largest investment in our roads, railway, and bridges, where communities like mine have been struggling with disinvestment for decades and because of these big bold policies, our economy is now the envy of the world.”
   
• Rep. Stansbury highlighted that President Biden “had a vision for bringing back American jobs to this country” which he fulfilled by “pass[ing] the CHIPS and Science Act, which is one of the most important modern manufacturing builds.”  In addition, she highlighted that the Biden-Harris Administration is “creating thousands of jobs and helping to bring manufacturing back to our rural communities, including in mine.”   

Democrats explained how, instead of serious policy solutions, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are promoting extreme, economically harmful proposals that would cost the American people thousands of dollars each year.

• Rep. Brown asked economic expert Brendan Duke to explain how Trump’s proposed tariffs would raise costs for everyday families:  “The former president has proposed massive tariffs on all sorts of goods.  Everything, tariff, everything.  What would be the economic consequences of this Project 2025 Trump plan to raise costs on American families?”  Mr. Duke explained, “Wall Street analysts think it’ll put inflation back in the threes or fours. It’s low twos right now […] It’ll cost the typical family $4,000 to $6,000, way more than anything they got in tax cuts from Donald Trump. […] It’s a Trump sales tax.”
   
• Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton highlighted that:  “As President, Mr. Trump failed to deliver on promises he made during his first term, leaving us with an economy in shambles.  Even before the pandemic, he failed to grow the economy by 4% each year like he promised.  He came into office saying he would pay off the national debt, but it surged under his watch—long before COVID hit.”  Mr. Duke agreed, explaining that Trump “failed to live up” to his promises and argued that “a key thing is that over half of the increase in the national debt since 2000 has come from continuing the Bush Tax Cuts and continuing the Trump Tax Cuts.  So he directly contributed that, and apparently just this week, he mentioned paying off the debt with crypto somehow.  So, I mean, again, he’s making even more outlandish promises than last time even.”
   
• Rep. Stansbury, pointed out that one of the witnesses invited by the Majority, Dr. Paul Winfree, is the author of a particularly troubling chapter of the MAGA Manifesto, Project 2025.   Dr. Winfree devoted a section of his Project 2025 chapter on the Federal Reserve on “Free Banking”—a radical monetary system whereby the Federal Reserve would be eliminated and any bank would be able to mint its own currency to be used instead of the dollar—a failed system last in place in the 1800’s.  Ms. Stansbury entered Project 2025 into the hearing record, explaining, “It is the playbook that was put forward by the conservative community for the next administration.”  She later added, “the policies that are being espoused in that document are extreme.”