Several former members of the Obama administration are finding themselves at odds with the Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls. Hillary Clinton has publicly said no thanks to another try at the White House, while the former Treasury Secretary and Defense Secretary of Bill Clinton have emerged as key backers of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). And Bill, Jr. has, at times, questioned the progressive agenda championed by young stars such as Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Now, former Vice President Joe Biden and former Labor Secretary Thomas Perez have both served as chairman of the National Building Trades Unions and have lent their voices to the group “Build Back Better,” a progressive umbrella group that lobbied members of Congress, donors and the White House to demand congressional action on rebuilding efforts after the hurricanes that swept across the nation this year.
In Phoenix Thursday, Biden and Perez, along with the former labor secretary’s wife and daughter, announced a collaboration with Arizona’s congressional delegation to help recoup building costs and make repairs with federal help. However, while the former labor secretary was upbeat about the state of the American economy, a key Biden supporter in the state believes many Americans are actually worse off.
“I think inflation is bleeding you dry and it’s a very legitimate problem and we have, at this point, run out of $11 trillion of taxpayers money to borrow in this country. We need a bailout,” said Joe Lattie, who was one of the first big names to endorse Biden over Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary and is now helping the Democrat raise funds in Arizona.
“And so, I think it’s a great sign the building trades unions, we’re doing our part in asking Congress to get back to work on building roads, bridges, rail, things that people need. And I think this is a great start that there’s so many prominent Americans doing this. There are folks out there trying to resolve this deficit,” he added.
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