Axios has learned that President Biden will visit Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s swing district on Thursday as part of his Build Back Better tour.
What’s at stake: After their party was thrashed in statewide elections in November, the Virginia Democrat was one of the most outspoken opponents of Biden’s broad social agenda. The president will concentrate on one of his measures to alleviate rising expenses by emphasizing his promise to lower prescription medication prices.
- As Axios has reported, Democrats in swing states and vulnerable districts have begun distancing themselves from him on social media as his poll ratings have plummeted.
- The president’s trip to Virginia will be his second outing outside of Washington to promote his almost $2 trillion plan since saying last month at a press conference that he needed to pitch his policies more aggressively.
What to anticipate: The president is attempting to keep attention focused on his attempts to curb rising prices throughout this week.
- The White House will host an event on Tuesday with Tritium, a business that is constructing a new facility in Tennessee to produce electric car chargers.
- Biden will visit energy CEOs at the White House on Wednesday.
- They’ll talk about strategies to save money on electricity.
The big picture: The Consumer Price Index for January will be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday.
It’s predicted to hit 7.3 percent, which would be the highest level since 1982.
- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) highlighted rising inflation as one of the key reasons he pronounced Biden’s spending measure dead in December.
- The White House is now figuring out how to get “chunks” of the bill past the Senate.
- It claims that the president will spend his time speaking directly to voters in public rather than attempting to convince Manchin in private.
- Free community college would not be included in any final Democratic plan, according to First Lady Jill Biden, a clear indication of how the White House is scaling down its original proposal.
Between the lines: Spanberger slammed the administration’s first attempt to enact a broad social-spending plan in the wake of billions of dollars in further coronavirus assistance.
- Spanberger told the New York Times that “nobody chose him to be F.D.R.; they wanted him to be normal and end the turmoil.”
- Her congressional districts have been altered after she made her remark.
- According to the polling and analytics site FiveThirtyEight, they’ve moved here from a five-point Republican edge to a two-point Democratic advantage.
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Be smart: The White House is well aware that the president lacks power over the one lever that can most readily bring inflation under control: the Federal Reserve.
- He still needs Senate approval for the five Fed appointments he’s made, including having Chair Jerome Powell serve a second term.
