This past Monday on Labor Day, when a good chunk of Americans spend the day off, Old Uncle Joe chose to go and speak at a Pennsylvania rally which was set up for and open to the members of one local United Steelworkers of America Local Union, but the overall turnout to his event ended up being quite lackluster overall by only drawing a worryingly small crowd.
The event was set up to happen in West Mifflin just outside of the hall of United Steelworkers of America Local Union 2227. Biden was born in the area in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“While some professional photos from the event concealed just how sparse the crowd was, others showed the paltry number of people who showed up to hear the president’s words,” read a report from The Daily Mail which pointed out that the “miniscule” crowd “could be described as being in the dozens.”
MASSIVE crowd for Joe Biden in Pennsylvania today! 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/VGd4mjV9KR
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 6, 2022
If Biden manages to lose the support of the unions in the state which he came from, he will most likely just have to give up on any dreams of holding the state for the 2024 campaign if he chooses to run again, as he only won the state originally by a very short 80,000 votes back in 2020.
In 2020, roughly 12% of the workers in Pennsylvania belonged to a union. That year, Biden was officially endorsed by United Steelworkers. When Biden kicked off his presidential run in 2019, he made the claim, “I’m a union man, period.”
Back in the middle of October of 2020, it was noted by The Wall Street Journal, “Since June, Mr. Biden has visited Pennsylvania 13 times, five of which have been focused on union issues. … The campaign is targeting union-heavy ZIP Codes in Pennsylvania with Facebook and YouTube ads touting Mr. Biden’s union endorsements.”
Just a few days after Biden took the election in 2020, he made the promise that “unions are going to have increased power” in his administration, expressing, “I want you to know I’m a union guy that’s not anti-business.”
All the while, many of the ironworkers out of south-central Pennsylvania have stated they have zero patience for Old Uncle Joe’s $500 billion student loan forgiveness plan and have spoken out in opposition of what they seem to think is an unfairness within the plan.
Groups of workers for the Donsco, INC. iron foundry issued their worries to Fox News concerning Biden’s intention to forgive $10,000 of borrowers’ student loans as long as they earn under $125,000 per year while those who were issued the Pell Grant will go on to get $20,000.
“It’s not going to affect the people that are here, the people that are actually out doing all the work,” exclaimed Jim Davis, a supervisor. “He said he’s going to help the people in the bigger cities because that’s what [he] wants.”
“A lot of those families are rich,” exclaimed Francisco Hernández, a cancer survivor who claims that he returned to work after retiring due to the issue surrounding inflation that has rapidly climbed under Biden’s watch. “They have the money to pay it off, so they get a break and they get to sit on their couch and their kids are stuck with a degree they can’t even use.”
“The sad part is the rich aren’t going to pay for this, we are,” he went on. “Everything is a gift, but that goes on the back of our debt and the taxpayers are the ones who have to cover it.”
“I think it’s a bad idea,” agreed another Ironworker, Tony Bell. “Donsco is always hiring people, these college kids can always come here on their time off and work and pay their debt back.”