President Biden boasted to union workers in Virginia on Thursday that during his first two years in office, 750,000 manufacturing jobs were created in the U.S., slamming anyone who says America cannot lead the world in manufacturing again.
The president traveled to Springfield, Virginia, to speak at the Steamfitters Union Hall, taking shots at Republicans and boasting about the economy.
As Biden touted his accomplishments as president, he said unemployment is the lowest it has been in over 50 years.
He also said during the first two years in office, the U.S. saw the ‘strongest year’ of job growth, creating 11 million jobs, 750,000 of which were in manufacturing.
‘Where in the hell is it written that says America can’t lead the world in manufacturing again? Where is that written?’ Biden asked, raising his voice. ‘I don’t know where it’s written and it’s not going to be written on my watch.
‘You see, I’m getting criticized internationally for focusing too much on America. The hell with that,’ he added.
Job growth was a major point of Biden’s speech on Thursday, despite thousands of job losses because of the Keystone XL project getting shut down.
Earlier this month, four labor unions representing workers on the Keystone XL pipeline project were silent when asked about a federal report showing the significant economic consequences of shutting the project down.
Those labor unions – the Laborers International Union of North America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, The International Union of Operating Engineers and the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters – had an agreement with the pipeline’s operator TC Energy in August 2020 to represent thousands of project workers.
Months later, in January 2021, Biden nixed the pipeline’s federal permits as part of his climate agenda, and in June 2021, TC Energy withdrew from the project.
The cancelation of the pipeline project resulted in the loss of between 16,149 and 59,468 construction jobs that would have lasted about two years and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-$9.6 billion, according to a report from the Department of Energy that was released in December 2022.
Keystone XL had been slated to be completed early this year and transport an additionall 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the U.S. through an existing pipeline network, according to TC Energy.
