President Joe Biden visited Earth Rider Brewery in Superior today to highlight the recently announced $1.05 billion federal grant to replace the Blatnik Bridge and additional infrastructure projects.

Tim Nelson, founder and owner of Earth Rider Brewery, introduced President Joe Biden to the crowd.

“Simply put the bridge is critical to my business,” explained Nelson prior to the President’s introduction. “The rebuilding of the bridge will be critical to my business’ growth and the growth of the local economy that matters to the people here.”

Taking the stage, President Biden quickly turned the economy and how he sees the American people reacting to the current state affairs.

“Just last week, we saw the biggest jump in 30 years and how positive consumers are feeling about the  economy,” explained the President. “Things are finally beginning to sink in. We passed a lot of really good legislation. We knew it was going to take time for it to begin to take hold, but it’s taken hold now and turning the economy around.”

The President going on to say that he just learned that American have filed for 16 million new business applications since the start of his presidency.

“Thanks to the American people, American now has the strongest growth, the lowest inflation rate of any major economy in the world,” said Biden.

The President then turned to infrastructure and emphasized why he feels its important to invest heavily.

“Our infrastructure used to be the best in the world–rated the best in the world, but, over a period of time, we stopped investing in America,” said the president. “Two years ago, I came to Wisconsin –to almost this very spot, to talk about the historic bipartisan infrastructure law that I signed with the support of your elected officials.”

President Biden described the law as the most sweeping investment to rebuild America in the nations history and said $6.1 billion has already been invested in Wisconsin and that $5.7 billion has been invested in Minnesota.

The President then highlighted the recent announcement of the investment in the Blatnik Bridge replacement project.

“It’s a vital link of our nation’s economy”, explained Biden. “Every year, 950,000 trucks use the bridge to carry 3.4 billion tons of goods all the way across America and into Canada. Folks, every day 33,000 big vehicles cross that bridge. The flow of people is so critical to small businesses that rely on it.”

The President continued, “It’s outdated in design. Tight curves have led to higher than average car accident rates [and] traffic congestion for decades. People talked about replacing this bridge, but it never got done until today.”

“This investment is going to make a huge difference; less traffic, fewer car accidents, faster commutes to your jobs and schools and quicker response time from fire trucks and first responders when every minute counts,” said Biden.

President Biden said the replacement project could also bring 10,000 new construction jobs to the area and that the construction material used for the project would be made in America.

President Biden then went on to highlight additional infrastructure efforts.

“40,000 infrastructure projects have been announced all across America and, with the support of these great governs and congressional delegation, we’re doing other big things,” said the President. “For example, we’re making sure every American, including all of you here, have access to affordable high speed internet. Today in Wisconsin and Minnesota, we’re investing $2.5 billion in high speed internet and we’re going to save, I’m going to say, more than 600,000 families in these two states up to $30 a month in internet bills.”

The President also that more than $1 billion was being invested to provide clean water, replace every lead pipe, and clean the Great Lakes.

A revision of the American tax code was also discussed.

“There are 1000 billionaires now. You know what their average tax rate is? Eight percent,” explained President Biden. “That’s why I proposed the billionaire minimum tax of 25%. If the billionaires and big corporations pay even close to their faire share we could strengthen social security and Medicare, bring down the cost of childcare, elder care, [and] working class and middle class people would all be better off.”

In closing, the President brought things back to the Blatnik Bridge.

“This bridge is important, but the story we’re writing is much bigger than that,” said Biden. “When you see the shovels in the ground and cranes in the sky –the people hard at work in these projects, I hope you feel a renewed sense of pride- pride in your community – pride in what we can do – pride in America-pride knowing we can get big things done still together in America.”