Joseph R. Biden Jr. will propose on Thursday a $300 billion increase in government spending on research and development of technologies like electric vehicles and 5G cellular networks, as part of an effort to more aggressively challenge President Trump on economic policy.
Joe Biden holding a sign: Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. speaking about the Affordable Care Act at the Lancaster Recreation Center in Lancaster, Pa.© Hannah Yoon for The New York Times Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. speaking about the Affordable Care Act at the Lancaster Recreation Center in Lancaster, Pa.
Mr. Biden’s announcement will come at a speech in Pennsylvania that will be the first of several steps to detail an expanded economic agenda, beyond what he proposed in the primaries, to invest in American manufacturing and to reduce racial wealth gaps, aides said on Wednesday evening. Mr. Biden, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, will also call for a new “Buy American” effort, directing an additional $400 billion in federal procurement spending to products that are manufactured in the United States, aides said.
Mr. Biden’s campaign is riding high in the polls but his advisers, as well as Republican strategists, still see the economy as perhaps the area of greatest vulnerability against Mr. Trump. The president’s campaign — and the president himself when on message — has tried to argue that he oversaw a booming economy until the coronavirus pandemic brought about an “artificial” slowdown. Recent polls show the economy as an enduring strength for the president, even as Mr. Biden outpaces him over all, both nationally and in battleground states.
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