Washington: President Joe Biden has said that it is time to grow the US economy from the bottom and the middle, asserting that America is in a competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century.

In his first speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, President Biden quoted the International Monetary Fund as saying that the US economy will grow at the rate of more than 6 per cent this year.

That will be the fastest pace of economic growth in this country in four decades, he said.

My fellow Americans, trickle-down economics has never worked and it is time to grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out, Biden said.

He said that in the hundred days since he took the oath of office, inheriting the worst pandemic in a century and the worst economic crisis in a decade since the Great Depression, America is on the move again.

The economy created more than 1,300,000 new jobs in 100 days, the US President claimed.

America is moving forward, but we can’t stop now. We are in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century. We are at a great inflection point in history.

We have to do more than just build back better We have to compete more strenuously than we have. Public investment in infrastructure has transformed America. The transcontinental railroad, the interstate highways, united two oceans and brought a new age of progress to the United States of America, he said.

Biden also advocated buying American products to support the economy.

As my dad would say all the investments in the American Jobs Plan will be guided by one principal. Buy American.

That does not violate any trade agreements. It has been the law since the 30’s, buy American. American tax dollars are going to be used to buy American products, made in America and create American jobs. That is what it is supposed to be and would be in this administration, he said.

Biden further said that the US economy is so rapidly changing that it is frightening.

people are most worried about. Can I fit in? Independent experts estimate the American Jobs Plan will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars to economic growth in the years to come. It is an eight-year programme. These are good paying jobs that can’t be outsourced, he said.

He said that life can knock people down, but in America, they never, ever stay down. Americans always get up. Today, that is what people are doing.

America is rising, choosing hope over fear, truth over lies, and light over darkness. After 100 days of rescue and renewal, America is ready for a take-off.

We are working again. Discovering again and leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world that there is no quit in America, none, Biden said.

The relations between the US and China, the world’s two largest economies, are at an all-time low. The two countries are currently engaged in a bitter confrontation over various issues, including trade.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration added seven Chinese supercomputer research labs and manufacturers to a US export blacklist in a spreading conflict with Beijing over technology and security.

The measure was the latest sign President Biden was sticking to the tough line taken by his predecessor, Donald Trump, towards the Chinese tech industries seen by Washington as potential threats.

Press Trust of India