Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2023

June 27, 2023

Well, first of all, thank you. You know, people indicate that putting on a fundraiser is no big deal. It's a giant deal. You've had Secret Service running through the house. [*Laughter*] You've had all kinds of people. Yes. Your neighbor is saying, "What the hell you're blocking the roads out there for?" [*Laughter*]

So thank you, thank you, thank you. And I want to thank everyone here. And I know that there's a great concern about the situation in Israel. I'm happy to take some questions on that. But I just want you to know that, you know, I've often said, from the time I came to the United States Senate, I've beenâand Stu knowsâan incredibly strong supporter of the State of Israel.

I've often said: If there weren'tâ[*inaudible*]âwe'd have to invent one. My dad was what a lot of those of you involved in the community would call a righteous Christian. Our dinner table was a placeâthis is the God's truthâwhere we wouldâmy dad worked late toâhe ran an automobile dealership. Didn't own it, but he ran it. And he'd come home for dinner every night. And at our house, dinner was a place where you'd ask questions and incidentally ate.

And my dad would rail against whatâwhy we didn't bomb the railroad tracks, the camps, why we took so long to allow the ships to come in, et cetera. And he talked about a phrase that was used often then and still: that silence is complicity. And I mean thisâthis is a fact; everybody knows this about my dad, when he was alive and at home.

And my dad talked about the fact thatâthe idea thatâand by the way, Chris Dodd's dad was part of the Commission to investigate what happened in the concentration camps. And he'd talk about why we didn't do a lot at the time.

And you know, one of the interesting things is that he used to talk about how it was impossible for the Israelis toâexcuse meâthe Germans not to know what was going on. And so he convinced me before heâlong before he died: The one thing I've done, I've taken every one of my children to Dachau and every one of my grandchildren, because I wanted them to seeâI wanted them to see those beautiful homes along the fence line with the beautiful roofs and lovely homes, and they'd pretend they didn't know. But they knew. And I wanted my kids to understand howâhow that happened.

Now, I've taken every one of myâmy three childrenâBeau was alive at the timeâas well as my grandchildren. I have eight grandchildren; I have two to go. They're too young. But, by the way, they're even trying to change a little bit of what Dachau looked like at the time. It's much more sanitized than it was.

But the point I'm trying to make is, there's been an unbreakable bond we've had with Israel. Our relationship is defined by a genuine friendship. It's defined by a shared interest and shared democratic values. And America is the only nation, in my viewâand some of you heard me say this beforeâthat was founded on an idea. Every other nation has been founded based on geography, ethnicity, religion, and whatever.

We're the only one thatâI apologize to the press for hearing me say this so many timesâbut we're the only nation in the world founded on an idea. Nothing else unites us but that idea. And it's one that we say that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rightsâlife, liberty, et cetera.

We've never fully lived up from it, but we've never walked away from it. We've never walked away from it.

And one of the things that concerns me isâyou inadvertently mentioned when you were introducing meâand that is that democracy is at stake. Democracy is at stake not just here but around the world. And I called a meeting of all the leading democraciesâwhich we've done. We have fewer democracies today than we had 15 years ago.

And one of the things that I think is important to keep our focus on is that I've been stunned at the damage done by the last administration to us internationally and globally. I mean, I've been stunned how deep it goes. His "one America"âhis, you know, "America only" policy has been disastrous. This is a guy who wanted us to pull out of NATO. This is a guy who thought Putin was an admirable guy. This is a guy who thought we could deal withâit just went on and on and on.

So what I've doneâI've spent a great deal of my time, in a bizarre way, trying to put the world back together againânot because I'm so special, but I just happen to be President. So I've met with over 89 heads of state so far, and I'veâtrying to make sure that they understand we're not that nation. We're not the nation that existed.

I'll tell you a really quick story. When I showed up for the first Gâ7 meeting back when I was just elected in February in London, the Gâ7âI sat down with all the otherâother major democracies and their major economies. And I said, "America is back." And one of the memberâone of the heads of state turned to me and said: "For how long? For how long?"

And then another one said, "Joe"âhe would call me "Mr. President"; we call each other "Joe" now. But he saidâI saidâhe said, "Mr. President, what would you do if you woke up tomorrow morning and read in the London Times that a thousand people broke into the House of Commons, broke the doors down, killed two bobbies, andâto overturn an election that was occurring in the House of Commons? What would you think?"

And I never thought about it quite before. But that's how the worldâthe rest of the world wonders. They wonder about are we really back.

And one of the things that you've just seen what's happened in Russia, with Wagner andâ the groupâand Putin: The fact is that Putin was certain that he was going to be able to break up NATO. And Stu knows this: He was positive this was going to be the effect.

So I've spent over 180 hours directly meeting with the group and/or individually, as recently as on the telephone and Zoom with each of the heads of state in Europe this past couple of days, because they look to the United States to decide what we're going to do, how we're going to proceed.

My generic point is this: We have a lot to do, but we have enormous opportunities in terms of American foreign policy. We put together withâthe Japanese have been wonderful. They've been wonderful. They've increased their budget. They'reâthey are engaged in a European war by saying that "We can't allow it to happen."

We findâand you know, I became friends with the Prime Minister of Japan. And he indicated to me he was going to make things better with South Korea. He did it. He told me what he was going to do. And I strongly supported it, the idea. South Korea and Japan have hadânot had a relationship.

So there's a lot happening around the world. We've also put together a thing called the Quad in the Indian Ocean and in the South China Sea, affecting theâall that security surrounding whatâwhat theâwhat Xi Jinping is very worried about: being isolated.

Well, that's not the purpose. He asked me why I'm doing what I'm doing. I've beenâspent more time meeting with Xi Jinping than any person inâthat holds a government office, mainly because it started when I was Vice President.

We knew he was going to become the President. And what happened was: Barack couldn't be talking to him and dealing with him, but I did. And I traveled with him over 17,000 miles in the United States and in China. I know him well.

The point is, he called me and said: "Why are you doing the Quad? You're trying to surround us and hurt us." I said: "No, we just don't want the international rules ofâto change relative to airspace and sea space, and you're trying to do that. We're not going to go along with it."

My generic point is that we're uniting the rest of the world in a way that it hasn't been united before. We have a long way to go. I don't want to overstate it, but I don't want to understate it either.

And we talk about China being this great power. China has enormous problemsâenormous problems. I'm not going to get into it right now. But the idea that they are going to be able to do things that they thought they could do is not accurate.

Domestically, I wasâI ranâand I'll be very brief. I ran with a specific objective. I was sick and tired of trickle-down economics, the fundamentals of economics. They didn'tâthey weren't working for America. They weren't working for America. Not much trickled down to my dad's â my dad's kitchen table in terms of helping him. And so I thought it was really important. And I thought the key to the United States powerâ[*inaudible*]âin economic growth and stability was when the middle class was growing.

When the middle class does well, everybody does well. The wealthy do very well. The poor have a way up, and the middle class is just fine. And so I've spent a lot of timeâand I'm making the speech tomorrow on what theâwhat the Wall Street Journal referred to as "Bidenomics." Well, it's working. It's working. We've created 17â13.2 million jobs in 2 yearsâmore jobs than any President ever has created in 4 yearsâever. We've also reduced the Federal deficit by $1.7 trillion. No one has ever done that. The reason it's working is because we're engaging everyone.

And by the wayâand I know I get criticized for being so pro-labor. I make no apologies for it. The reason I'm so pro-labor is because, you know, these are people who are feeling left behind. They're feelingâbut they alsoâand they'reâand they're clean now.

And here's the deal. You have a circumstance where, you know, to beâto get a license to be an electrician, you've got to spend 5 yearsâ5 yearsâ5 years as an apprentice getting partial pay. And they don'tâpeople don't realize that.

And I met with the Business Roundtable. Told themâand they said why am I so pro-labor? I said: "What did you say to me when I was working with the Secretary of Commerce on theâas Vice President? What do you need most?" We interviewed three hundredâand I thinkâfifty- eight corporate heads. They said, "We need a better educated workforce." I said, "Why aren't you educating them then?"

I said, "I come from a State of DuPont. More corporations incorporated in my State than every other State in America combined. And the dayâand they were the eighth largest corporation when I got elected. Eighth. And guess what? When they bought a new enterprise, they trained their workers. You guys don't spend any money training your workers. You expect the government to do it. So why in the hell are you against my effort to increase education funding?" And they all looked at me like, "Hmm, never quite thought of that."

But my generic point is, it's changing. The idea that any President could be endorsed within a week by the environmental movement, all of it; by the AFLâCIO, all of them; by the women's

organizations, all of them; and by significant elements of corporate America in one week, because we're doing something right.

We're notâIâthe only thing we have disagreements on these days is taxes. I think everybody should pay your fair share. When you've got a millionâyou've gotânow we have a thousand billionaires. I'm a capitalist. If you can make a million bucks, make it. It's okay by me. Multimillionaire? Good. It's good for the country. But pay your taxes. Not 8 percent averageâ8 percent. A cop pays more than that. A firefighter pays more than that. We've got to make sure that people know. That's the one thing that we stillâwe haven't done very well.

Lastly, I also thought it was really important to deal withâas my dad used to sayâmy dad was a well-read man who never got to go to college. And my dadâyouâour dinner table was a place where you sat down to have conversation and incidentally eat. And I'm not joking. I'm not joking when I say that. And one of the things that he said wasâhe used to say: "Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, 'Honey, it's going to be okay.'" And he meant it. He meant it.

Well, one of the things we've been able to do, for exampleâhe'd also say that, "At the end of the month, do you have any breathing room?"

We talked about inflation. And I'll end with this. We have inflation down for 11 months in a row, notwithstanding some of the dire predictions of theâof recessions next month. Hadn't happened yet. I don't think it will because the basis of the economy is so strong nowâso strong. But we'll see. I could be wrong.

But here's the point: My dad used to make the point that it wasn't whether the price of gasoline went up and food went up and all those thingsâwhich are badâand housing. But it was about: Do you have any money left at the end of the month?

And guess what? What's the biggest bill most people over 65 pay? Health care. Health care.

Why is it that you haveâwe have the best drug companies in the worldâsame drug company making an important product sold here in the United States and around the worldâsame exact productâyou can buy it more cheaply in Toronto and you can buy it more cheaply in Germany, Londonâin London, you canâFrankfurt, Germany. Why? Why is that? Because right now, it's the only industry we can't bargain with. Only industry we can't bargain with. And you pay billions of dollars a year in Medicare expenses. Billionsâtens of billions a year.

Well, guess what? In my negotiations with the Speaker of the House when they shut down the Governmentâthat issueânot "trying to"âbut trying to avoid shutting down the Government. Iâhe wantedâthey wanted to get rid of what I just passed. Well, what we just passed was: Medicare can negotiate the price of what it cost.

For example, any of youâI'm sure all of you know someone who needsâwho has type 1 or 2 diabetes and needs insulin. Well, guess what? The average cost of insulin for a month is 400 bucks a month. And you know how much it costs to make? Tenât-e-nâdollars. Ten. The guy who invented insulin didn't patent it because he thought it should be available to everybody. It cost 12 bucks to package itâa total of 12 bucks.

So guess what? We just had Medicare negotiate it. The price of insulin is now, for on a monthly basis, $35. Thirty-five dollars.

And I can go down the list. We're going toâI alsoâeight different drugs aâa year can be negotiated as well. If you go to theâfor example, the VA, they negotiated all their prices. You want to sell us drugs or insulin? You comeâyouâwe negotiate the price with you.

My generic point is, at the kitchen table, if you were able to deal with a little money at the end of the yearâyou got a little money at the end of the year. I can go down the list.

For example, when my staff thought I was crazy when I said: "We ought to deal with junk feesâjunk fees." Well, guess what? You know we haveâand most peopleâit deprives people of their pride. You want to take your grandson or daughter to see your mom on the Eastâon the West Coast, you're going to be surprised when you find you pay almost double the price to have your child sit next to you. You're not told about that.

Old bank overdrafts, you know how much it isâ[*inaudible*]? Fifty-five billion dollars a year. Okay? They're one of theâand I won't name them, but you could check it outâone of the CEOs had a yacht called "Overdraft." My word, it's now sunk. [*Laughter*]

But my generic point is, it's just about treating people with decency. Just let people know what's going on. And that's what we're doing.

And one of the things that have started andâfor example, I usedâand remember in the beginning you said: "Biden you can never get anything done bipartisanly. Not possible." Well, guess what? We did. We did. We passed the act thatâyou know, dealing with veterans exposed all those burn pits.

We oweâwe have a lot of sacred obligation and only one truly sacred obligation: Equip those folks we send to war and take care of them and their families when they come home. Well, guess what? Not anymore. They're going to have to be paid for those losses because of exposure to those burn pits. Why wouldn't we do that?

We used to be number one in the world in infrastructure. We're now number 18. How in God's name do you runâhow do you have the most powerful nation in the world with a second rate infrastructure? I'm notâI think it's actually we're number 10.

And the same thing withâwe justâjust go down the list. We used to invest more in research and development than any country in the world: 2 percent of our GDP. Know what it is now? Point seven-tenths of 1 percent. How do we lead the world?

Computer chips. We were the guys that went outâwe invented the semiconductor. We invented it. Inventedâwe made it sophisticated. We used to have 40 percent of the market; we now have 10 percent in the market.

If you decided it was better to buy it overseasâ"Buy America"âpeople are criticizing me for the Buy America is a provision passed in the thirties. It's totally consistent with all of our international trade. If a President is given money to put a new deck of an aircraft carrier, he's allowed to say, "We're going to have American labor and AmericanâAmerican products on it."

Well, guess what? I've said that. Democrat and Republican Presidents of the past didn't say that. They made exceptions saying you can only haveâyou need 10 percent or whatever.

Well, guess what? Manufacturing is back. We have created 800,000 jobsâ800,000 manufacturing jobs. A major article today in Bloomberg, you ought toâI'll leave a copy behindâaboutâno, I'm seriousâmajor article andâby a Syracuse paper saying how we're bringing back all of manufacturingâthink of all the placesâand youâwe've been campaigning a lot together, Stuâthink of all the places where in a place like inâin the Midwest or in Western Pennsylvania orâwhere all of a sudden, the factory that's been around employing 2-, 3-, 5-, 700 people for years and years gets shut down. Why does it get shut down? Because labor is cheaper overseas, we export the jobs and import the products. Not anymore. Not anymore.

Oneâwe're going to put $495 billion in private investment, just since I've become President, in infrastructure, as well as new endeavors. Almost $500 billion.

This idea that when our Government is settingâwe did a survey: Are you more likely as a corporate entity to invest in a project where the government has an interest or not? Eighty-five percent said more likely.

So my point is, we're creating thousands and thousands and thousands of good-paying jobs.

And the middle class is growing. And it's only now becoming clear.

I was asked earlier by a group of editors I met withânot editorsâcolumnists. And they said, "Why are you talking about it now so much?" A simple reason: We couldn't start it offâwe started it off, we passed all this, but no one knows what it meant. None of it was happening. Now we have 35,000 infrastructure projects underwayâbipartisan infrastructure projects.

Guess what? McConnell needed a bridge across the Ohio River. It cost a billion dollars to fix itâ$1 billion. But it affects the commerce of the entire Midwest area, so we're building a new bridge. I indicated I was going to be President for everybody, whether they voted for me or not.

You know, the point is that there's a lotâfor example, I know I'm a big Amtrak guy. So Iâ [*inaudible*]âAmtrak, everybody kind of rolls their eyes. I get it. I've traveled 1,200,000 miles on Amtrak. Commuted every single day for 35 years.

Here's the point: If you think about it, there is a tunnel going through Baltimore underneath the bay there, and there's one in New York as well. Those tunnels areânothing has been done on one of them since 1906.

I'm probably the only non-Amtrak worker that's walked through that tunnel. There are lightbulbs hanging down. There's flooding going on. There is a lot of problems. You have to slow down to 30 miles an hour to go through there with the train.

We're fixing it. It's cost a lot of money, a billion dollars. But guess what? It's going to save billions of dollars because now you'll be able to go through it 100 miles an hour.

We learned one thing for sureâcertain: If in fact you could travel from point A to point B faster on a train than your vehicle, you leave your vehicle home. It has profound impact on dealing with the environment, which I'mâthe last thing I'll mention. Oh, no, I won't; I'm going to get a question on the environment, so I'm going to wait on that. I think I'm getting a question about it.

Anyway, my point is, I am really optimistic. I'm optimistic about the notion that I think the AmericanâI'm confident the American people are decent and honorable people. They've just been confused as hell.

And thereâand when I made that speech when I was running in 2020 at theâatâup at theâin Philadelphia, and IâI made the speech about democracy was at stake. And with all due respect to the press, they said, "What the hell is he talking about that for?"âby and large, notable exceptions. But, "why is he talking about that?"

Well, guess what? Sixty-six percent of the American people agree with me. They're worried about theâliterally, I'll end with thisâdemocracy in America. What's happening? Not a joke.

What's happening?

We talked about the Supreme Courtâgreat news today. And there is great news. I think Roberts is beginning to have an impact on the close calls.

But think about what's happened, what we've done in terms of individual rightsâindividual rights, everything from gayâLBGTQ rights all the way through to rights relating to having an abortion. You know, I'm determined to bring back *Roe *v. *Wade*. And my objective to do that is to get the Statesâhalf the States to decide that, because now the Court said, you know, it's State issue.

And the thing I love, they said, "And we'll see what women can do." They're going to find out. [*Laughter*] They're going to find out. But my point is, in addition to all this, the world is changing so rapidly. It's understandable why people are concerned.

Last point: The pandemicâI think we're going to findâand I wrote about this early onâa profound impact on the psyche of the American people. A profound impact.

Mental health concerns are higher today than they've ever been in history of America. Look what's happening. Third graders are 7 to 18 months behind in their education. Across the board, schools, teachersâlook, these guys wanted to cut 100,000 teachers in the negotiation that happenedâ100,000 teachers. Try being a teacher in a classroom.

Did you ever think you'd live in a country where books are being banned? No, I'm not joking. ThinkâI mean, think about the things that are happening.

So people are confused. We've got to let them know who we are. Let them know who we are, what we're for, and what we're against. And I think we'll be okay. But with that, I'm going toâas my mother would say, "Hush up, Joey." And I understand I've got some questions coming.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:46 p.m. at the residence of Michael and Susie Gelman. In his remarks, he referred to former Sen. Christopher J. Dodd; former Presidents Donald J. Trump and Barack Obama; President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia; Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan; President Xi Jinping of China; former Secretary of Commerce Penny S. Pritzker; Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin O. McCarthy; Senate Minority Leader

A. Mitchell McConnell; and Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts. He also referred to his grandchildren Naomi K. Biden Neal, R. Hunter, Natalie, Finnegan, Maisy, and Beau Biden, and Navy Joan Roberts. The transcript was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on June 28. Audio was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.

Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Campaign reception in Chevy Chase, MD. Locations: Chevy Chase, MD.

Names: Biden Neal, Naomi K.; Biden, Finnegan J.; Biden, Natalie P.; Biden, R. Hunter; Biden,

R. Hunter, II; Biden, Roberta M. "Maisy"; Dodd, Christopher J.; Kishida, Fumio; McCarthy, Kevin O.; McConnell, A. Mitchell; Obama, Barack; Pritzker, Jay R. "J.B."; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Roberts, Navy Joan; Trump, Donald J.; Xi Jinping*.*

Subjects: China, President; COVIDâ19 pandemic; Education, global competitiveness; Federal deficit and debt; Group of Seven (Gâ7) nations; Indo-Pacific, economic and security cooperation; Infrastructure improvements; Insulin cost controls; Japan, Prime Minister; Japan, relations with South Korea; Job creation and growth; Junk fees imposed on consumers, prevention efforts; Labor movement and organized labor; Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons, equality; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; Maryland, Democratic Party event; Maryland, President's visit; Medicare and Medicaid programs; Mental health programs and services; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Prescription drug costs, reduction efforts; Quadrilateral Security Dialogue; Rail infrastructure, improvement efforts; Research and development; Russia, President; Semiconductor manufacturing; South China Sea, maritime boundary disputes; South Korea, relations with Japan; Speaker of the House of Representatives; Tax Code reform; Teachers; U.S. servicemembers, environmental exposures in war zones; U.S. Supreme Court opinion overturning 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.

DCPD Number: DCPD202300576.