President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden speak at Nash Community College
Thank you
Please have a seat
So hello everyone
Good morning
I think it's morning
I don't no afternoon I lost track
Anyway
Uh You know most people believe that success means one
thing getting a four year degree
But I teach at a community college outside of Washington
DC
And while my some of my students are working towards
their bachelor's degree probably like some of you that path
just isn't right for all of them
And Joe understands that for most people a high school
diploma alone isn't enough to find a great career
But that doesn't mean that there's only one path to
success
And that's why he's bringing together our entire government to
bridge the gap between learning and earning students can take
college courses in high school
Like some of you have told me that you've done
or enroll in registered apprenticeships they can train in growing
industries and find great jobs with associate degrees
Now a lot of these programs aren't new but here's
what is jobs through the Biden's administration's investing in America
agenda
We are strengthening our nation's infrastructure and creating millions of
jobs in growing industries like clean energy and manufacturing recently
um I met a young man in Texas who when
he finishes his manufacturing apprenticeship next year will be able
to take a job right away with a starting salary
of $50,000
Pretty good
Right
And then I met a 16 year old Welding student
in Seattle who told me he was making $25 an
hour
Thanks to the dual enrollment training he received at his
high school
This work pays well and often doesn't require four years
of college
That's the Biden education pathway
It starts with free high quality universal preschool and creates
a high school experience that prepares students for their next
steps
It provides two years of affordable community college and opens
up avenues if you decide to go to a four
year college and you're going to hear about how that
pathway is connecting students with great jobs right here in
North Carolina as well
This is the future of our workforce and in a
time when ok maybe sometimes we can't all agree
It's an area where we have so many values in
common because we all want hard working students to be
successful
Even if a four year degree isn't the right path
for them
We all want businesses to have the skilled employees that
they need through the Biden education pathway
We can fundamentally transform what it means to make a
living and make a life here in America
Thank you
Thank you
And now it is my pleasure to introduce an incredible
student and a free apprentice here at Nash and her
name is America America
Hello everyone
My name is America Alonzo Gomez
I am a student enrolled in the Center for Technology
in industry technology and innovation in high school
And I'm currently in the set for growth clean vehicles
program here at Nash Community College
My time here at NASH has been great and I'm
really enjoying this program here at Nash
We just uh completed art OSHA 10 lean six Sigma
Yellow Belt Certification
I am beyond excited for this program and I and
I entered this program to help bring fields that are
so important to this country and a to my community
to light energy and manufacturing are changing our very future
by generating renewable resources by creating resources that are replacements
for resources that are currently depleting at risk of depleting
It's so cool
I wanna I wanna make this future a better reality
Abraham Lincoln once said the best way to predict the
future is by creating it
And here I'm working with these others and to make
this future the best for everyone here and to be
able to make it for everyone
And with that being said it's my honor and my
privilege to be able to introduce the president of the
United States Joe Biden
Hello
Well thank you all for allowing us to come governor
Thank you for honors to be here
I think we have everyone in the city council here
and the County council and uh and uh Congress anyway
is uh North Carolina is a great state in America
Thank you for that introduction
I told America the hardest thing to do
At least for me when I was her age was
to introduce someone I think it's really needed
I know
Anyway I won't go into all that
But anyway folks uh I'm Joe Biden's husband
Uh And we brought some friends with us today
Governor Roy Cooper a terrific partner creating economic opportunity for
the people of North Carolina
Congressman
Don Davis
used to work in tobacco fields became an officer in
the United States Air Force a minister professor of the
doctorate member of the House of Representative
What's hell to call him Doctor Minister Reverend but he's
got it all
He's got it all
And he's got three sons with them
We're gonna take care of him
All these boys sitting next to him and Mayor May
Mayor Robertson
Thank you for the passport into the city
I appreciate it very much
And I wanna thank everyone in Rocky Mountain City Council
Nash County uh uh excuse me Edgecomb uh County
And they're here today because we believe in you all
the students here
We're proud of you and that's not hyperbole
Great things ahead of you
And there are a lot of training you're gonna be
getting
But you know Jill my wife has taught in community
college now for some years
And she's as a doctor and a professor there and
she has an expression he says that you know community
colleges are the best kept secret in America
And then she goes on to say and I she's
right that any country that out educates us will out
compete us any country that out educates us will outcompete
us
And we're in an incredible competition worldwide economically politically and
militarily
And you know uh just uh this best kept secret
is not being kept secret much anymore just in this
community in the community colleges
Since in North Carolina since 2021 private investors have invested
$16 billion in community private investors 16 billion that doesn't
count the billions of dollars we're investing from the federal
government and the programs we've had
The point is these investments were made in good paying
jobs all across North Carolina
Not just here
Let's remember where we were just a few years ago
And when I took office the community was economy was
reeling
We were in tough tough shape unemployment was extremely high
and across the country the pandemic it hit us very
hard
Millions were out of work and I'm not hyperbole millions
were out of work
But the problems we are facing started a lot earlier
than that for decades before the last administration Democrat and
Republican the middle class and working class folks families I
come from were being hollowed out too many good paid
manufacturing jobs are moved overseas
Why Because they're cheaper labor
So we started instead of sending product overseas we send
people our jobs overseas and they send product back to
us and factories closing down all over America
I look at a few guys and and and the
audience who uh go back a little bit may remember
what it does when a community has a factory that's
working where you had 1000 700 or 2000 people working
And all of a sudden it closes down the community
loses its heart
It just is absolutely gets as devastated what to do
How many people in North Carolina in my home state
of Delaware and around the country have had to walk
up to mom and dad and say mom I got
a I got a good high school education but I
gotta leave
There's no jobs there's nothing here
Well guess what It's coming back it's coming back big
time
No it really is
And so one of the things that uh that that
we're talking about here is what do we do to
make us once again the most competitive nation in the
world And uh you know uh we're here today because
Jill said we believe in y'all and that's not hyperbole
We believe in y'all
You know the uh we're in a position where things
ahead of you are thanks to the training you're gonna
get and investments we made gonna be good paying jobs
all across not just here in the east but all
across North Carolina entire state
Let's remember who we are
You know as I said just a few years ago
we were really in trouble but the problems we're facing
today started as I said a lot earlier than that
you know the bottom line of this
I ran for president I ran for president for a
basic reason
I hadn't planned on running again for president
I had run while I was vice president
And uh then uh Barack and I spent eight years
together and then the new administration came in and in
the meantime things changed in our life and our family
I lost my son we lost our son in Iraq
Anyway
I had planned on running
But one of the things that did make what I
really decided was we stopped paying attention to the neighborhoods
I came from you know I I come from a
neighborhood like maybe a lot of you in Scranton Pennsylvania
which closed down because of the mines closed down
And then we moved to a place called Claymont Delaware
where they had 4500 steel workers working in in the
factories that shut down completely all across the country
We're seeing things change and I came because I thought
we could fundamentally change the direction we're going in to
make sure the economy works for everybody
Feel a sense of pride in what we do
You you've heard me say it before but where in
the hell where in the heck is it written I
scream
Where is it written That America can't lead the world
again in manufacturing
Where is that written I was determined to make sure
it got unwritten because folks look here we are
And just in a few weeks after I became president
I wrote that we wrote the American rescue plan the
most aggressive economic recovery package since Franklin Delano Roosevelt it
delivered immediate relief to folks and most in need to
get our economy back on track
Next we I enacted what we told
We couldn't do
I was told by the press and everyone else that
we couldn't do a bipartisan bill
Well we've invested more money on roads bridges internet and
clean water et cetera
The largest investment in infrastructure since Dwight Eisenhower's interstate highway
system
And now we have the best economy in the world
We need the best infrastructure in the world
How can you be the best economy without the best
bridges roads ports et cetera
So to date we've invested nearly $5 billion.05 billion dollars
in 100 and 58 infrastructure projects just in North Carolina
$5 billion just in North Carolina including roads and beds
and public transit clean water high speed internet and folks
It's working after I had this idea
We uh so some of the other team didn't like
but they came along at least the minority of them
did a thing called the Chips and Science Act
We used to we used to invest 2% of our
gross domestic product in research and development
We got down to 20.7% China leading the world not
us
So we put together this whole program called that related
to investing in science to bring key parts of our
supply chain back to the United States like semiconductors
You know there's 300 semiconductors are growing on automobile
Well guess what when they when we had a problem
with the the uh the uh pandemic in Asia those
places shut down we had to stop making cars and
the price of cars and used cars went up skyrocketed
And the biggest reason for inflation now chip companies are
investing billions billions of dollars over 30 billion including over
in Chatham County where speed invested $5 billion in a
semiconductor manufacturing plan
It's gonna create 1800 new jobs to pay an average
salary of $77,000 a year
These jobs and the jobs they need at the plant
setting up electric vehicle system operating machinery running the the
the the facility are exactly the kind of jobs you're
being trained for here at this community college
Then we passed which was didn't get much help from
the other team
The Inflation reduction Act most significant climate legislation ever in
in the history of not just America but the whole
world over $368 billion for energy
And here's what happened companies companies are seizing the opportunity
For example Toyota is investing $6 billion in a new
plant over in liberty building lithium batteries for electric and
hybrid vehicles creating 2100 new jobs good paying jobs
All told all told we've attracted 470 billion almost a
half a trillion dollars in private investment all across the
country including $16 billion right here in North Carolina private
investment not the government private investment
And here are the results
We've created nearly 400,000 jobs in North Carolina
Remember gov when we first started together we were we're
losing jobs
We're hemorrhaging jobs here created 400,000 jobs in North Carolina
and here and by the way we've now in 2.5
years created 13.4 million new jobs
More jobs in two years than any president has created
In four years nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs brand new 800,000
manufacturing is back
Wanna make sure these jobs these jobs that give workers
free and fair choice
By the way to join a union if they wish
to do that I want to make sure wanna make
sure the skilled workers is ready to fit these jobs
Look you can't have advanced manufacturing without a highly trained
workforce
They don't go together
That's where you all come in here
At this college you're learning every aspect of advanced manufacturing
machining to robotics
So you can do everything from cell phone to rocket
ships literally not figuratively electric systems
So you can build everything from electric vehicle parts to
uh to the assembly lines
They're carried on automated packaging to ship goods and quickly
and safely all around the world
95% of the students who study advanced manufacturing at this
college get jobs right after graduation
And you know like Jill said community college is the
best kept secret in America for the longest time
No one wanted to talk about every time I'd raise
it for the last 12 14 years
I said uh and uh well here at Nash you
can see why it's important
And now now we want to build all that what
you're doing here all across America
We've invested a half a billion dollars in what we
call the good jobs challenge
Now that's goal to create good training jobs all across
the countries and industries of the future
Like clean energy here in North Carolina you accepted that
challenge led by the governor with a group called the
North Carolina Business Committee for Education A North Carolina A
N which graduates more black engineers than any other institution
in America
By the way we provided billions of dollars for H
BC US as well which is another story but we
created a coalition of community colleges partners including the I
B E W more than 40 employers different employers these
employers committed to hire at least at least 3000 trainees
to build solar panels electric batteries and clean energy technology
The folks the benefit of that is you're not only
getting a good paying job you're going to be doing
something to help save your country
Not no no kidding anybody
I have a lot of folks I came to work
with uh in the when I was president who uh
who thinks there's no such thing as global warming Anybody
doubt it
I have literally as President United States flown over more
territory where woods have been forced been burned to the
ground from New Mexico all the way up to Washington
State Montana
That equals the size of the entire state of Maryland
That's how much has been burned to the ground
And we're building more more partnerships like like in places
like Phoenix Arizona Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
We're investing in America workforce hubs all across America
Look Joe launched one just a few weeks ago
Folks I guess what I'm trying to say is I
think that it's important when you have a job that
not only your work conditions and your salary and your
benefits reflect how you're treated with dignity but where you
really feel like you're doing something that matters
What you're doing is gonna matter to people
It's gonna matter to your country
If we don't deal with global warming it's the only
existential threat that exists for humanity
All of the data shows that we don't stay between
1.5 degrees Celsius by the year 20 anyway we're we're
gonna be in trouble
Here's the bottom line
Manufacturing and innovation boom is happening all across America not
just in North Carolina but the support of people like
Roy Cooper and Don Davis with the leadership of community
colleges like yours back in 1964 President Johnson Linda Baines
Johnson came to Rocky Mountain and spoke and here's what
he said
He said the time has come for us to see
that every American gets a decent break and a fair
chance to make good
That's exactly what we're working to achieve
That's what this is about
I'm so sick and tired of my whole career of
what they used to call trickle down economics
If the folks at the top do well everybody does
Well my dad was a hard working guy busted his
neck
We lived we weren't poor
We lived a middle class life with four kids in
a three bedroom home with the grandpa living with us
And but the point was it was it was in
a decent fair neighborhood and we were just like everybody
else but I never saw any of that economic benefit
trickle down on my dad's kitchen table
So I decided not a joke and you're you're gonna
make me a profit and that is that we're going
to build this economy from the middle out and the
bottom up when that happens
Everybody does
Well the wealthy still do very well
I'm a capitalist so you can go out and make
a billion dollars have at it man
Just pay your fair share of taxes
So look we made a lot of progress
Now we've got to keep it going
We just have to remember who we are for God's
sake
We're the United States of America
This is not hyperbole
There's never been a thing
We've set our mind to as a country never been
a single major initiative
We set our mind as a country and we and
we worked together we haven't accomplished it
Let's not remember who we are with the United States
of America
So look let's get together and move this and I
promise you you're gonna you're not gonna remember who the
hell said this to you but 15 years from now
and this state is even better shape than it is
now and continue to grow
And we're the epicenter of economic growth in the world
You're gonna say I think I heard somebody say that
but it's because you when it happens it really is
There's nothing nothing nothing beyond our capacity and there's nothing
beyond your capacity
You just have to believe and be given half a
chance
I'm so damn proud to be with you all
So thank you very much and gov thank you for
what you put together
In the state
I think you're the best governor in the country
But thank you