President Joe Biden hit a trifecta during his visit to a wind tower turbine manufacturing plant in Rep. Lauren Boebert’s home district in Colorado on Wednesday: He managed to rib Boebert and fellow MAGA extremists in Congress, tout the increased investment in manufacturing created through the Inflation Reduction Act, and link clean energy policies to job creation.
Biden visited the Pueblo, Colorado, factory of CS Wind, which describes itself as the world’s largest wind turbine tower manufacturing plant. In April, the South Korean firm announced plans to expand its Pueblo plant and hire at least 850 new workers by 2026. CS Wind directly attributed its new $200 million investment in the plant to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which includes tax incentives for clean energy projects, according to a White House statement.
The Pueblo stop was part of an Investing in America Tour that the Biden-Harris administration kicked off last month to show how “investments in infrastructure, clean energy, and manufacturing are creating jobs and opportunities in communities across the country.”
In his 23-minute speech on Wednesday, Biden called out Boebert and other MAGA lawmakers for opposing the Inflation Reduction Act. In the background, cranes were decorated with banners reading “Bidenomics/Investing in America.”
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Biden said:
“When I took office, I vowed I’d be president for all Americans, whether you live in a blue state or a red state, whether you live in rural or urban areas. And … we’re delivering on that promise. “But, folks, we haven’t gotten a whole lot of help from some members of Congress — on the other side of the aisle in the United States Congress. “The historic investments we’re celebrating today is in Congresswoman Boebert’s district.”
At the mention of Boebert’s name, Biden paused for a moment and made the sign of the cross, drawing laughter from the audience. He continued:
She’s one of the leaders of this extreme MAGA movement.
She, along with every single Republican colleague, voted against the law that made these investments and jobs possible. … And then she voted to repeal key parts of this law. And she called this law a “massive failure.”
You all know you’re part of a massive failure? (Laughter.) Tell that to the 850 Coloradans who get new jobs in Pueblo at CS Wind thanks to this law. Tell that to the local economy that’s going to benefit from these investments. …
I got around the plant today. To those who I got to talk to, you’re changing America. You’re changing America.
It all sounds like a “massive failure” in thinking by the congresswoman and her colleagues.
Biden’s remarks drew attention in the national media. The Washington Post wrote:
Biden’s visit was aimed at creating a contrast between what he portrays as his efforts to strengthen the economy and what he paints as Republicans’ embrace of chaos and conspiracy.
The House Republican conference in the past two months has deposed a speaker, struggled to elect a new one and twice flirted with a government shutdown. …
The Biden campaign is also seeking to portray Trump and other potential Republican presidential nominees as extremists. But regardless of whom the president’s GOP opponent is, the campaign has signaled that it will hold up the House GOP, with its attention-grabbing cadre of hard-right conservatives, as part of what he is running against.
And The New York Times wrote:
The tour on Wednesday amounted to a choreographed political appearance for Mr. Biden, designed to both highlight investments in an eroded manufacturing base as well as to hit back at the president’s most vocal opponents as his polling has sagged in the 2024 race.
But what’s perhaps even more significant is the widespread coverage that Biden’s appearance in Pueblo garnered in the Colorado media. The headline on the Denver Post story read, “At Pueblo wind tower factory, President Joe Biden cites economic progress: ‘We’re investing in Americans. And it’s working.’”
And the Colorado Politics website wrote:
Tony Salerno, the plant manager who introduced Biden, thanked the president and CS Wind for investing in the Pueblo plant. Salerno, who has worked at the plant since 2013, said it struggled in 2021 and credited CS Wind and the Inflation Reduction Act for turning things around.
“We had recently been through a layoff and our future was questioned,” said Salerno, who noted the factory's acquisition by CS Wind. "The factory began the process of expansion, and it has provided countless members of this community with good-paying jobs.”
Colorado Politics also noted that before his speech, Biden toured the factory, where employees demonstrated some of the processes for making wind turbine towers.
In his speech, Biden also mentioned some of the other clean energy jobs that the Inflation Reduction Act helped create in Colorado. The Danish firm Vestas plans to invest $40 million to expand its Windsor plant, which it says will create roughly 1,000 more jobs in northern Colorado, and Swiss solar manufacturer Meyer Burger intends to build a facility in Colorado Springs, which is expected to bring in around 350 jobs. Biden said:
It’s simple. As I’ve said for a long time: When I think climate … I think jobs. Jobs. That’s what climate is about—not only saving lives and saving the environment, but jobs.
And the president also touted his administration’s efforts to build the country’s infrastructure.
We’re also making the most substantial investment in American infrastructure since President Eisenhower built the interstate highway system. We’re investing in roads, bridges, ports, airports, clean water, affordable high-speed Internet.
And for those who say that Biden does not have any plans for his second term, the president concluded his speech by talking about economic inequality and his proposal to tax billionaires at a minimum 25% rate, which he said would raise $440 billion over the next 10 years:
One thing I said after we passed all these major pieces of legislation was that the next big battle is going to be whether the very wealthiest among us began—and the biggest corporations begin to start paying their fair share. ... Let me be clear: The speaker, Donald Trump, and the MAGA Republicans here in Congress are committed to protecting their outrageous tax cuts for those at the very top. And they’re going to continue to oppose investing in all those programs that help people, whether it’s in education, health care, or whatever. …
You know, we had about 750 billionaires in America before the pandemic. Now, there are a thousand. You know the average rate those billionaires pay in their federal taxes? Eight percent. …
That’s why I’m proposing a billionaire minimum tax …
Imagine what we could do if we just made these billionaires pay their taxes like everyone else. We could use it to strengthen the Social Security and Medicare system instead of cutting them like … Trump and Boebert want to do.
Biden’s visit was not billed as a campaign event, but it just happened to take place in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, which Democrats consider one of their top pickup opportunities as they try to regain control of the House, which Republicans control by the narrowest of margins.
While Biden was in Pueblo, Boebert was back in Washington firing off a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, attacking both Biden and Adam Frisch, the Democratic opponent who almost unseated her in 2022. Colorado Politics cited some of Boebert’s taunting posts:
“I hope there’s not a silver alert that goes out for him” during his trip. The alert can be sent for missing elderly people with dementia. ...
"Working-class families in Pueblo and across the 3rd District deserve so much better than the Bidenomics pushed by Joe Biden and Aspen Adam," she said, referring to her Democratic opponent who once served on Aspen’s City Council. ...
"Joe Biden is taking a break from his lavish vacations to come to Pueblo to talk about what he calls 'clean energy,'” she said in another post on X. ... "He should be coming here to apologize for his all out war on fossil fuels and his Green New Deal agenda which have cost the great people of Colorado’s 3rd District dearly."
But there was a piece of good news on Thursday for Boebert, who had to be removed from a Colorado theater in September for vaping and groping her date during a performance of the musical “Beetlejuice.” The entertainment website Deadline reported that production has wrapped on “Beetlejuice 2.” It’s scheduled for fall release in 2024, just weeks before Election Day.
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