Biden to deliver speech on the economy in Illinois

President Biden will travel to Chicago Wednesday to deliver a speech on the economy, the White House announced Friday.

Biden’s “major address” will be on “Bidenomics,” which is the president’s “vision for growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top-down,” according to the White House.

Biden faces the uphill battle of convincing voters that the U.S. economy is strong after he has spent the last year digging it out of a host of economic setbacks. 

His remarks in Chicago will come a few weeks after the news that inflation fell to its lowest rate since March 2021 and after the Federal Reserve opted to keep interest rates unchanged for the first time since January 2022. 

He has previously touted the strong labor market, with unemployment around 3.7 percent and millions of jobs added under his tenure. But the lower inflation and the Fed’s decision gives Biden an extra boost as he turns his focus to his reelection bid.

While in Chicago, Biden will also participate in a campaign reception. He has been traveling to Democratic strongholds, recently New York City and San Francisco, to fundraise ahead of his first 2024 campaign finance report in July.