Another View: Bay Area congressman makes case for Biden’s reelection

As a member of the Biden-Harris 2024 national advisory board, I have spent the past year traveling the country talking with voters and hearing their concerns about the 2024 election. Americans are deeply worried about the cost of groceries and rent, the burden of student loan debt and the skyrocketing cost of health care and prescription drugs.

As a progressive, I disagree with President Joe Biden in several areas, including the urgent need for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and the release of all hostages. I was in Michigan last week where I spoke with voters about the dire situation. I understand the heartbreak and frustration people are experiencing.

Biden has signaled that he is working on a cease-fire deal. I hope that he will heed our calls to protect civilian life in Gaza, end the war and ensure the release of hostages.

But there is a clear choice in this election. A Donald Trump presidency will mean less diplomacy and more violence in the Middle East. It will only prolong the suffering of millions of people.

It will also mean a continuation of economic policies that benefit the wealthy and hurt the middle class, including tax cuts for corporations and an unstrategic trade war that already cost 300,000 American jobs.

A Trump presidency will jeopardize abortion rights, the rights of LGBTQ+ people and basic freedoms for millions of Americans. And, as we saw on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump is a major threat to our institutions of democracy.

Aside from the threat of what a Trump presidency would mean for our country, here is what Biden has accomplished in this first term that makes me confident that he should be reelected.

After extreme conservatives on the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Biden stood firmly in support of reproductive health care. The president signed executive orders to protect reproductive rights, including abortion, contraception and patient privacy. He has said that if a national abortion ban was passed by Congress, he would veto it.

For decades, pharmaceutical companies have made huge profits at the expense of ordinary Americans. By signing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden took historic action to lower the cost of prescription drugs and invest in tackling climate change.

The IRA allows Medicare to negotiate the price of high-cost drugs for the first time ever. The law also caps a month’s supply of insulin at $35 per month and includes the largest climate investment in U.S. history.

The president has taken steps to reverse the disastrous neoliberal policies of the past three decades that have cost the country 5 million manufacturing jobs and 70,000 factories. He signed the CHIPS and Science Act, which I co-authored, that led to companies announcing nearly $300 billion in manufacturing investments in the United States and creation of good-paying jobs in communities that have been left behind.

Thanks to funding from this law, Micron is constructing a semiconductor plant in Clay, N.Y., that is expected to create 50,000 good-paying jobs. Intel and Applied Materials, which are both headquartered in my Silicon Valley district, are building semiconductor facilities to ensure technologies are made in America.

The law also includes the largest investment in science since the Kennedy administration that will establish tech hubs across the country and expand investments in the National Science Foundation to advance research.

The president has also delivered on his promises to help the millions of people who lack clean drinking water and to repair thousands of miles of roads, bridges and highways. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has already provided 21 million low-income households with free or discounted high-speed internet service.

The president’s record may speak for itself, but his allies need to make the case this campaign.  President Biden has stood firmly for reproductive freedom, for economic opportunity for the middle class, and for policies that create jobs and bring down costs. He will continue to build on the success of his first term and veto extreme proposals from Republicans in Congress, including a national abortion ban that Trump has privately supported.

For the sake of our economy, fundamental rights and our health care system, it is critical that President Joe Biden is reelected.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has served in Congress since 2017. His district is in the heart of Silicon Valley.