Yellen's Las Vegas stop shows Bidenomics can be a tough sell
By Andrea Shalal
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) — Daemein Hargrove, 21, recently dropped plans for a four-year college degree to sign up for an apprenticeship program in Las Vegas that he says has given him higher pay, good medical benefits and a pension.
It was made possible by a surge in solar investment fueled by President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which helped spark some $110 billion in new clean energy projects since it passed a year ago.
Hargrove says the job, and his membership in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union have enabled him and his wife to move into an apartment. They're now starting to think seriously about buying a home and starting a family.
«There have been a lot of good things over the last couple of months, at least for me,» Hargrove told Reuters. But he's also shouldering gas costs of $500 a month as he commutes to a massive solar site 45 minutes outside of Las Vegas.
He's not sure he'll vote in 2024, when Biden is up for re-election, he said.
«To me, it just feels like it's out of my control,» he said, speaking about U.S. politics in general.
As the 2024 election season draws closer, Biden and his team are travelling the U.S. to talk about the recession-defying economy, and the impact of the president's clean energy tax breaks, union support and infrastructure investment. They're studiously ignoring a growing list of indictments against former president and chief rival, Republican Donald Trump.
Even as Americans like Hargrove feel the benefits, it's not clear this approach will deliver Biden the votes he needs in 2024. Many 2020 Biden voters say the economy is worse than it was then, or that they have not heard of Biden and Democrats' big investment bills at all, recent
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