Joe Biden Touts Housing Plan and Economic Policies in Nevada and Arizona Tour

(CTN News) – As he toured Nevada on Tuesday, former president Joe Biden promoted his plan to lower housing costs, taking aim at high rents and blasting Republican presidential challenger Donald Trump.

“We need affordable housing,” Biden said in Las Vegas. “For too many people, the dream of owning a home feels out of reach.”

“Make America great again,” said Biden, touting a proposed minimum tax on billionaires, saying, “We could invest in childcare, a whole range of things we could do.”

Then he went to Arizona, a battleground state that could be huge in the November rematch. “This isn’t a referendum on me, it’s between me and Donald Trump,” he said.

As the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, Joe Biden has a 1 percentage point lead over Trump among registered voters. He’s been traveling to battleground states since he sharply criticized Trump’s politics in his State of the Union address. He laid out his plans for implementing those ideas if he’s given a second, four-year term this month.

Housing costs are contributing to voters’ sour views about the economy, and Trump’s administration was blamed for not doing enough about them.

Biden’s economic policies have stung voters nationwide, with prices accelerating in January, even though the annual inflation rate was the smallest in three years. Trump has lambasted Biden for his economic policies and inflation. A new “freedom city” would be built on federal land, partly to provide new housing.

“Joe Biden’s failed economic policy is driving high interest rates and skyrocketing cost of living,” said Rachel Lee, a RNC spokesperson.

To free up housing inventory at the lower end of the market, Biden’s housing plan, which would need congressional approval, could be tough to get in an election year.

First-time homebuyers would get a $10,000 mortgage relief tax credit, and people selling “starter” homes would get a $10,000 tax credit.

According to the White House, his plan also calls for tax credits to build more housing, efforts to stop “rent gouging by corporate landlords,” and an expansion of low-income housing tax credits.

As the National Association of Realtors settled antitrust litigation last week, Biden urged brokerages to “lower commissions.”

Biden spoke at a Mexican restaurant in the Phoenix area to launch a Latino voter engagement group after stops in Reno and Las Vegas.

Joe Biden needs Latino and Black votes to win close swing state races that will determine who wins in November.

As a result of his support for Israel in the Gaza war, the president has got angry with young voters and Arab Americans. As a result, Democrats voted “uncommitted” in Michigan, Minnesota, Hawaii, and North Carolina primary elections in the past two months.

Since “uncommitted” isn’t an option in Arizona’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, the Abandon Joe Biden campaign urged voters to vote for Marianne Williamson. He got the delegates he needed last week to win his party’s nomination.

A study estimates that Muslims make up about 1% to 1.5% of Arizona’s 8 million population, and Joe Biden won Arizona in 2020 by just 10,457 votes. The Latino population in both Western states is over 30%. Biden won Nevada by 33,596 votes.