President Biden name-checks Pittsburgh in speech to Congress
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President Joe Biden invoked the Steel City in his speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, asking why wind turbine blades can’t be made in Pittsburgh rather than Beijing, China — essentially challenging U.S. businesses to bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas.
President Biden: "There is simply no reason why the blades for wind turbines can't be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing." #JointAddress
LIVE UPDATES: https://t.co/qBYRxyCHrI pic.twitter.com/91A9eCYMO1— ABC News (@ABC) April 29, 2021
Local reaction came from a wide variety of sources.
From Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald:
Thank you, @POTUS Biden. We will not just build the turbine blades in Pittsburgh …. we will build them better. Joe Biden always has Pittsburgh in his heart.
— Allegheny Co. Exec. (@ACE_Fitzgerald) April 29, 2021
From North America’s largest electrical workers’ union:
. @POTUS: "There is no reason wind turbines can't be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing."
— IBEW (@IBEW) April 29, 2021
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accused Biden of taking away American jobs with the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline project:
The Real State of the Union: Joe Biden chose Paris over Pittsburgh.
Rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement.
Blocked the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, eliminating 11,000 jobs.
Blocked new oil and gas leases and drilling permits. pic.twitter.com/1InphRUtE5
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) April 29, 2021
The Pennsylvania branch of the Republican National Committee also accused Biden of pursuing policies that “destroy American jobs,” including the Keystone cancellation as well as:
• Blocking new oil and gas drilling on federal lands.
• Rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement.
• Proposing an infrastructure package which the nonprofit Tax Foundation estimates could eliminate up to 159,000 jobs.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto weighed in:
We are here and we are ready Mr @POTUS – our economic development strategy to Reimagine Appalachia @newdeal4us requires a strong federal partner https://t.co/F7aVSZIUoJ and it allows us to meet our requirements of the Paris Agreement while creating 400,000 jobs. @ginamccarthy46 https://t.co/QjNY35JJ23
— bill peduto (@billpeduto) April 29, 2021
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, said Biden has squandered his first 100 days in office catering to left-wing “wish lists” and ignoring bipartisanship.
“Tonight’s announcement of a new, dramatic, and costly expansion of the welfare state — paid for by massive tax increases — is yet another example of this hyper-partisan approach that the Biden administration has deployed since January,” Toomey said in a news release.
And journalist Matthew Yglesias took issue with Biden’s sentence structure on Twitter:
My industrial policy take is that Biden should have found an alliterative pair rather than Pittsburgh vs Beijing.
Build the windmills in Dayton rather than Dalian! Phoenix, not Foshan!
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 29, 2021