Biden to celebrate progress of American economy in Thursday remarks

(WASHINGTON) — In remarks on Thursday at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., President Joe Biden will celebrate the progress of the American economy, but stop short of declaring victory, senior advisors told ABC News on a call previewing the remarks.

Biden said in a post on X that he will speak about what the first key rate cut since 2020 and falling inflation “means for Americans.”

“President Biden is going to speak to a new milestone, inflation and interest rates are falling at the same time, employment, wages and GDP are rising,” White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told reporters. “I want to be really clear, this is not meant to be a declaration of victory. It’s meant to be a declaration of progress, significant progress. The President believes it’s important to mark this moment for the country by laying out how far we’ve come, while also outlining the work we still have to do.”

Zients added that Biden will lay out the three big pillars of his economic playbook: the historic response to the COVID-19 crisis, the administration’s work to address global inflation and efforts to build an economy that invests in all Americans.

But Zients added that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are still looking ahead to the work that is not finished, pointing to the cost of childcare and housing as two of the biggest areas.

“The president knows this is no time for a victory lap, which is why he will talk about the work ahead every single day, the president and vice president, both, on what more can be done to make the economy stronger, create more jobs and, importantly, lower costs, the President will lay out how we build on the progress that we’ve made across these three and a half years, and what’s at stake,” Zients said.

National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard also talked about the Federal Reserve’s Wednesday rate cut announcement and how recent data is a good sign, but also noted that costs are still high for American families.

“The president will note this hard won progress, but emphasize that we must continue to work together to tackle long standing affordability challenges for middle class families,” Brainard said. “America needs more housing. That’s why it’s critical to move forward on ambitious plans to bid to bring housing costs down by building millions of new affordable homes and providing incentives for states and localities to remove outdated obstacles to building it’s essential we continue to enable more workers to participate in the labor force and to make it easier and more affordable to raise a family.”

One White House official on the call was asked about whether the administration was concerned about rising unemployment in response to Wednesday’s rate cut, but the official brushed off the concern, saying that the Fed’s data shows “the labor market remaining solid,” and adding that unemployment has “remained the lowest on average of any administration in 50 years.”

A reporter also asked whether rising tensions in the Middle East could be a setback in the fight against rising inflation. The different White House official said that it is one of the “geopolitical risks that we consistently monitor.”

“But our assessment, you know, right now is that the economy is in a healthy place, and that the kind of range of risks, while we continue to monitor them are do not pose a significant risk to the to the outlook,” the White House official added.