In a major speech set to be delivered Thursday in Chicago, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to detail her vision for helping middle-class families overcome affordability challenges, according to excerpts shared first with CNN.
“Our economic agenda is far from finished. There’s much more the President and I would like to do to support the middle class,” Yellen plans to say during the speech at the Economic Club of Chicago.
Treasury officials have billed the speech as one of the most significant Yellen plans to deliver this year and an effort to set the tone for her domestic agenda during 2024.
Yellen plans to balance the Biden administration taking credit for the economic recovery from Covid-19 with acknowledging that many Americans are frustrated with how expensive it is to buy a house, raise children and save money for college.
“It is still too hard to be a working parent. We need to get American families access to affordable child care and other support for their children,” Yellen is set to say, according to the excerpts.
In particular, Yellen will tout the expanded Child Tax Credit, noting that millions of children were “pushed back into poverty” after it expired.
“As these children get older, they should be able to get a good education, including through free community college, and receive training that prepared them for good jobs,” Yellen will say in the speech. “As they work, they should be able to afford quality housing near economic opportunities. And as they get older, they should be able to retire with dignity. We need to do more here too.”
Budget-busting child care costs and the historically unaffordable housing market have emerged as key issues facing voters in the 2024 election.
The combination of elevated borrowing costs and record-high home prices have made the US housing market historically unaffordable.
During a speech in North Carolina last week, President Joe Biden even highlighted a recent dip in mortgage rates and predicted further drops ahead.
“Costs are still high,” Biden said, “but inflation continues to fall, and mortgage rates are falling — they’re going to fall more.”
During the Chicago speech, Yellen plans to emphasize the administration remains squarely focused on lifting up the middle class.
“This story of the middle class is not separate from the state of the economy. It’s at the heart of it,” Yellen will say, according to the excerpts, noting that by middle class she is referring to a cross-section of workers from firefighters and nurses to factory workers. “President Biden and I believe that GDP growth is not meaningful if it is not shared; if it doesn’t impact the lives of these Americans.”
To make her point that Biden policies have significantly helped the middle class, Yellen will point to the record spike in median household wealth between 2019 and 2022, an increase in inflation-adjusted wages above pre-Covid levels and the rising purchasing power of consumers.
“Though some forecasters thought a recession last year was inevitable, President Biden and I did not,” Yellen will say. “Instead of contracting, the economy has continued to grow, driven by American workers and President Biden’s economic strategy.”
Voters remain skeptical about the White House’s economic agenda, as evidenced by Biden’s low poll numbers.
However, some recent surveys suggest Americans are starting to feel better about the economy as inflation has cooled and the job market remains historically strong.
Consumer sentiment has increased to the highest level since July 2021, according to the University of Michigan. By this metric, sentiment has surged 29% in the span of two months — the biggest such increase since 1991 as that recession ended.
