PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — President Joe Biden visited Philadelphia on Friday. He arrived at 30th Street Station and spoke at about 2 p.m. at an event marking Amtrak's 50th anniversary, while making a pitch for his jobs and infrastructure plan.
The president did a little jog as he approached the podium, clearly happy to be celebrating Amtrak. He famously rode it every day while he was in the Senate.
The president seemed very comfortable standing among rail cars in the train yard, referring to Amtrak officials and employees on hand as “family.” His jobs and infrastructure bill would also make him their benefactor.
Mr. Biden said he always fought to keep funding for Amtrak, because of its importance to the environment and the economy.
"A single day without the Northeast Corridor, for example, would cost the economy $100 million," said the president.
With that in mind, he called Amtrak the "bargain of bargains." That’s why, he said, the $80 billion planned for Amtrak in his jobs and infrastructure bill is an investment that will pay dividends.
"It’s economical and it’s environmentally a life saver," he added.
The boost to rail service is part of the president’s plan to spend more than $2 trillion on infrastructure.
His plan for Amtrak calls for reparing tunnels and bridges on existing routes, and adding new ones in 160 communities.
"It’s going to provide jobs, and it’s going to accommodate jobs," Mr. Biden said.
"Towns and cities in danger of being left behind will be back in the game."
Mr. Biden was surrounded by friendly faces at the event: Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and local Congress members including Philadelphia Democratic Representative Dwight Evans. He said he’ll work for the infrastructure bill.
"I’m very optimistic, because you’re talking about the future," said Evans.
"I think his odds are really good because infrastructure is one of the areas that has bipartisan support," said Delaware Democratic Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester.
She is optimistic about the bill’s chances, but the full-court push the Biden administration is doing on the bill shows it is not going to be an easy sell.
“This is the largest jobs plan since World War II,” Biden said in his address to Congress Wednesday night about his multi-trillion dollar plan.
“It creates jobs to upgrade our transportation infrastructure. Jobs modernizing our roads, bridges, highways. Jobs building ports and airports, rail corridors, transit lines.”
He was set to meet with Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn and Board Chair Tony Coscia, the day before the transit agency officially turns 50. For many of those years, Biden, then a senator, would ride back and forth between Delaware and Washington, D.C., earning the nickname "Amtrak Joe."
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The president says his proposal goes beyond just building things. Other aspects of the bill include funding to expand broadband internet, retrofit homes and businesses and modernize schools.
The president would also like to see $400 billion go toward expanding access to home care. The Biden administration says that type of spending would help home care workers, who are disproportionately women of color, by raising their wages and expanding their benefits.
“In the 21st century, infrastructure isn’t just steel and concrete. It’s people. And it’s time we start paying people who come to our homes and care for people that love them and gonna take care of them,” Biden said while visiting Georgia on Thursday.
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Republicans are questioning such investments being part of infrastructure spending and how the country would pay for such a plan. The Biden administration maintains much the spending can be paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy.
GOP lawmakers came up with a $568 billion proposal of their own. The two plans are very far apart. Republicans and Democrats are not even agreeing on what constitutes infrastructure. And that figure is only a quarter of what the president is looking for, but he says he’s open to compromise.