WASHINGTON – President Joe BidenThe Cabinet meeting is spreading nationwide this week to promote the ways the government has worked to reduce costs, a coordinated effort that focuses on a top issue for voters.
As part of the tour, 18 Cabinet members and senior White House officials will host more than two dozen events in 15 states in the days leading up to the first presidential debate between Biden and the former president. Donald Trump.
The stops include presidential battleground states such as Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada and Pennsylvania, and local officials in tough districts will be in attendance.
For example, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will hold events in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada focused on energy costs. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will discuss efforts to lower housing costs in Minnesota. Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su will discuss efforts to increase workers’ wages in Georgia.
Officials will also address conferences including those of the Communications Workers of America, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
The White House efforts complement the Biden campaign’s efforts to convince voters that the incumbent president would help the economy if re-elected, a policy issue where polls have shown Trump with an advantage. The officials will discuss specific steps the administration has taken on issues such as food costs, student loans and health care costs that Republicans have opposed.
“We hear a lot from Republicans in Congress. They would like to shed light on inflation, but they have not made any proposal,” Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, said in an interview on MSNBC on Monday.
It comes days after Biden released a new direct-to-camera television ad targeting the price pressures voters face. The president cited his middle-class upbringing to say he understands that “many American families struggle every day to make ends meet.”
“I know what it’s like to struggle,” he said. “That’s why no one, especially a billionaire like Donald Trump, will stop me from fighting for lower food and rent costs.”
The Trump campaign has hammered Biden on inflation again and again. Before Biden unveiled a new plan to protect undocumented immigrants married to Americans from deportation, Trump’s campaign put the focus back on the economy. Biden “doesn’t care that law-abiding taxpayers, crushed by inflation, are forced to pay for free food, housing and health care for illegals,” Trump’s campaign said in a statement.
The Cabinet tour started Monday and ends next Thursday, on the day of the first Biden-Trump debate.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
