President Joe Biden on Friday welcomed governors from throughout the United States to the White House during the National Governors Association Winter Meeting. Photo by Andrew Harrer/UPI | License Photo
Feb. 10 (UPI) — President Joe Biden hosted many of the nation’s governors at the White House on Friday as he urged bipartisan efforts to help best make use of funding provided by his administration.
During the winter meeting of the National Governors Association in the East Room of the White House, Biden said much of his agenda could not be put into place without bipartisan efforts, adding the next step now comes with spending the money in a way that will benefit each state and its residents.
“One of the things we have a chance to do this year is to prove that this isn’t a broken system,” Biden told the governors.
“I think we have a lot to cover and quite frankly I think the success for all of us — Democrats and Republicans — is in part gonna be measured by not what else we get done or pass, but whether we’re able to implement what we’ve already done.”
Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, chair of the NGA, said the Biden administration has already implemented “game-changing” legislation in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS law.
“As governors, we have to solve problems that affect each and every one of our states,” Murphy said in a statement ahead of the meeting. “There aren’t Democratic problems or Republican problems, but issues that affect real people — the residents of our states.”
Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox thanked Biden for his “sacrifice and the sacrifice of your family in serving our country.”
“As chief executives, we understand a little bit the pressure that you face, the hard days and long nights, the big decisions that you have to make,” he said.
Biden praised the government for coming together during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide economic relief and other key legislation.
“Governors helped a great deal,” Biden said. “Most of you were in a situation where your revenues were drying up because of the pandemic. Things were shutting down. [The American Recovery Act] pulled a lot of people out of deep trouble.”
Biden said the economy created 12 million jobs over that time, which helped keep the country on its feet fiscally.
“That has never happened before in such a short period of time,” Biden said. “[We have] the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. With your help, we went from 3.5 million people vaccinated to 230 million people vaccinated. The strength of local governments was the key to our recovery.”
Biden touched on possible controversies down the road, such as Republicans in Congress refusing the raise the debt ceiling if Biden does not negotiate spending cuts in government. Biden stressed how default to be harmful to local and state governments.
He also touched on Medicare negotiating its own drug prices as being a huge cost-saving mechanism for the government. While acknowledging some governors did not agree with the move, Biden said it will save Medicare $240 billion in the long run.
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Rubi Paris