Blog

Jul 04, 2023

Remarks by President Biden in Cabinet Meeting

Cabinet Room 2:33 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: All right, well, good afternoon.

Cabinet Room

2:33 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: All right, well, good afternoon. This could have been the week that a catastrophic — catastrophic devault [sic] — default happened, putting millions of people's jobs in jeopardy. But, instead, we prevented the default, and our historic recovery continues. And, you know, through a bipartisan agreement here, we proved once again that American democracy can function, and I think it's impossible for it to be able to function unless you can have compromise and consensus. And we got a lot of that done. And we got another piece of good news on Friday. We learned that our economy produced 339,000 jobs last month. That's up to 13.1 million jobs since we came to office. And today, I’m here with my Cabinet continuing to focus on getting the job done for the American people and continuing to invest in America. Invest in America is more than just a slogan. We’re investing in the American people, in our infrastructure, our manufacturing. We’re investing in jobs in every — almost every community across the country. And for the first time in a long time, America is actually investing in itself, and it's beginning to pay off. Today, we’re going to discuss the progress we’re making Investing in America and the steps each agency around the table here is taking to build upon that progress and finish the job. Because we’re not finished yet. We got more to do. We’ll also review the bipartisan budget agreement signed last — I guess I signed it last Saturday, I think it was — to reduce the deficit by nearly $1 trillion on top of the $1.7 trillion we already reduced in the first two years of — of our administration. And — and after my predecessor — the last guy that — to sit in this chair — he actually increased the — the national debt by $8 trillion in four years. And the agreement — this — our agreement protects Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans care. And it protects the economic progress, like the $470 billion in that private investment we’ve attracted to the United States and in the United States in manufacturing, clean energy, and our historic investments in — to fight climate change. And it also protects the progress we’ve made in lowering costs for insulin and other prescription drugs and home energy bills as well. Our administration, led by the folks in this room, is focused on implementing the laws we’ve passed and continuing to invest in America. And we’re focused on securing our border, combatting the climate crisis, and protecting the fundamental rights of Americans. And one more thing. Just today, we’ve launched a new website. It's called Invest.gov. You can go online and find the projects we’re delivering on, both the public and private. There's 32,000 investment projects and billions of dollars in private sector projects that are — communities all across America are already beginning to experience. And we got a lot of work to do. I’m going to ask Natalie, quickly, to explain, while you’re all here, how it works. We don't have the ability — it's not — we don't have a laptop to type over (inaudible). We’re just going to show you. She’ll explain the rest of what's going on. Nat. MS. QUILLIAN: I think you explained it quite well. This shows all of the inv- — infrastructure investments on this map. And then if you toggled over, you can see all the private sector investments as well. And then you can go by your state and find what's happening in your community. THE PRESIDENT: You can go by — you can go down to every city, town, anywhere on the map and find out exactly how much has been invested so far, what the investment is for, and how it's going to affect your community. And so people will know. You can check it out and what's going on. So, anyway, thank you all for taking the effort to come in. And I’ll see you in a little bit. (Cross-talk.) Q Mr. President, what's your message to Russia on the dam explosion in Ukraine? THE PRESIDENT: We’re not leaving. Q Sir, what's your message to Russia? THE PRESIDENT: We are not leaving. We’re going to help Ukraine. Q Mr. President, why no statement on the anniversary of D-Day? It's such an important day in America's history and the history of our country. THE PRESIDENT: That's coming. Q Do you have a comment on the PGA Tour merger with LIV? Do you support it? THE PRESIDENT: I plan on being in the PGA. Q Thank you, Mr. President. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. 2:38 P.M. EDT