Biden, Yellen lead blitz to celebrate Inflation Reduction Act

President Joe Biden is leading an administration-wide effort to mark the first anniversary of the Democrats’ landmark climate and drug pricing legislation whose implementation officials are counting on to fuel the president’s reelection bid.

Biden will travel to Wisconsin on Tuesday and host an event at the White House on Wednesday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Las Vegas and Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Seattle as part of the push to highlight the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits and worker training programs. Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Small Business Administrator Isabel Guzman, and senior adviser Mitch Landrieu will also take part in the 10-state blitz.

The legislation contains hundreds of billions of dollars to fund clean-energy projects and address climate change, while making sweeping changes to health-care policies and the tax code. But seven in 10 Americans surveyed in a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released earlier this month said they had heard little or nothing about the law. Less than a third of those surveyed said they were aware of provisions providing tax credits for heat pumps, solar panels, wind turbines, or the purchase of electric vehicles.

Surveys suggest that despite cooling inflation and jobs gains, Americans remain deeply skeptical of Biden’s handling of the post-pandemic economy. A majority said they believed the economy was getting worse and just 37% said Biden has done a good job on economic matters, according to a CNN survey released earlier this month.

Biden said he regretted the name of the legislation, saying last week the title didn’t draw enough attention to its impact on the overall economy.

“I wish I hadn’t called it that, because it has less to do with reducing inflation than providing alternatives where we generate economic growth,” Biden said Thursday at a fundraiser in Park City, Utah. “And so, we’re now in a situation where if you take a look at what we’re doing in the Inflation Reduction Act, we’re literally reducing the cost of people being able to make their – meet their basic needs.”

Parts of the Inflation Reduction Act have also rankled key union allies ahead of next year’s presidential election. Autoworkers have raised concerns subsidies could encourage consumers to buy electric vehicles from companies that threaten union jobs.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump last month criticized Biden’s efforts to push the public to buy more electric vehicles in a bid to win the endorsement of the powerful United Auto Workers union.

The UAW is currently locked in contentions negotiations with the so-called Big Three automakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. The union endorsed Biden in 2020, but has yet to back a candidate for 2024.

Still, White House officials say they remain confident that the legislation can buoy the president as he seeks to capture another term.

“We’ll see, I think, Americans start to feel and see what it is that we have been able to do in Washington, D.C. – some in a bipartisan way – clearly, with the president’s leadership – to get those things done,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week.