from the port of los angeles this runs 20 minutes.

as we used to say in the united states senate i hope you excuse the point of personal privilege but i think that saul must be related to one of my close friends. you think i am kidding. i have to tell you what, thank you sal. everybody, before i begin i want to say a few words very briefly about the january 6 hearing that was highlighted last night. the insurrection was one of the darkest chapters in our nations history. a brutal assault on our nations history. and we heard about it last night again. it is important that the american people understand what truly happened. and to understand that the same forces that led january 6 rain

today. it is about our democracy itself. we have to protect our democracy, i know it sounds corny to say it. i have to admit to you, i never thought that it was going to be this straightforward a challenge before. the rule of law matters. we are seeing how the battle for the soul of america has been far from one. we can allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy. i did not get to watch them last night but i tell you what, that there is a lot going on. to the reason i am here. thank you sal and thank you to gene in the port of los angeles.

and thank you to the mayor of the city of los angeles and the mayor of long beach who i expect will soon be the congress men of long beach. every body management, labor, collective leaders as well as we also had governor newsom pushing hard as well. we had two excellent senators, and in that, you have always look good. thank you nanette for the fire you bring. and alan lowenthal has been working at this for a long time.

we can't give up, we have to turn this corner. and john, you are the real deal. thank you for sticking up for me. we have a labor secretary, marty walsh from boston. he always has your back. i had an uncle who used to say you are in labor from belt buckle to shoe sole. i would like to speak about my top economic priority, fighting inflation. i understand americans are scared about inflation.

we have never seen anything like putin's tax. our economy has unique strengths that we can build on. the job market has been the strongest since world war ii. we added another 90,000 jobs last month, 8 million since i have taken office. unemployment rates are at near historic lows. americans are getting better jobs with better pay. families are carrying less debt, they have more savings than they have had and we are doing it all by gutting the federal deficit by $1.7 trillion this year and 320 billion last year.

my maga friends talk about deficits while they increased it. this is the largest decline in american history. because of the progress, we can tackle inflation at a better position than many countries in the world. make no mistake about it, i understand inflation is a real challenge to american families. today's inflation report confirmed what americans already know, putin's price tight is hitting americans hard. inflation outside of energy and food, moderated the last few months.

we needed to come down much more quickly. we intend to lower the prices for the american people and the congress has to act. one of the key ways to fight inflation is by lowering the cost of moving supplies through the supply chain. the american people understand the supply chain. if you can't get the material needed to build the product, whether it is an automobile or whatever it is it makes it difficult to move it. that is why i have been focused on ports. last fall, ports were congested due to the destruction caused by the pandemic. we brought together port operators, shipping companies to ease bottlenecks. as a result, 97% of all the

packages were delivered on time. you all did it. on time with minimal delays. delivery times were actually quicker than they were before the pandemic. today there are fewer than 40% containers then there were last november. this may was a strongest month and the port of los angeles is history, the strongest month and is history. we are helping funding improvements because of what my friends in the congress have done, we passed the infrastructure bill and we are finding major new initiatives on the docks. port of long beach is moving more quickly.

communities can breathe cleaner air because you are using electric machines. we are continuing to expand the capacity of the ports because of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. it is time we took a different approach to trucking. last december, we brought together industry and labor to address problems facing truck drivers. we had double the amount of licenses delivered to drivers. the result, we had a record number employed truckers this year. truckers wages went up even after accounting for inflation. we will keep up it. general steve lyons is a four-star general.

he handled transfer -- transportation demand on tanks and aircraft. he was retired and he helped us identify the challenges that arrived at our ports. this is about reducing costs for families. i have to admit to you, every once in a while something you learn makes you really angry. if you had the person in front of you you would want to pop them. there are nine major ocean line companies that shipped from asia to the knighted states. they formed three consortiums. these companies have raised their prices by as much as

1000%. everything that comes from asia they have raised it by 1000%. that is why i have called on congress, they have raised their prices while raking in 190 billion in profit. a sevenfold increase, 190 billion. they will crack on these companies and lower the cost. speaker pelosi are leading this effort. it is a big deal. people at home are trying to make it paycheck-to-paycheck and wondering why nine shipping

companies are doing this. they are having to drive to what they need in their home is related to the supply chains which comes from abroad. i'm doing everything in my power to take down putin's price hike. 200 40 million barrels to boost supply and keep the price from rising even more. we have helped europe's reliance on russian oil and natural gas assistance to europe compared to last year. i am working closely to help europe get grain that is already in their silos right now. there are 20 million barrels of

grated their silos right now. russia is blocking the export of grain and we are trying to get it out and around to the rest of the world. there is more than one way to solve this problem. we are continue to work to get those prices down by dealing with other items. my dad used to say, it is all about the standard of living. how much you have left in the paycheck at the end of the month. how much is left to do the basic things. we add up all the things that people need to take care of their kids to turn the heat on, the air-conditioning on and all the things in between. there's a lot of ways we can reduce their cost-of-living while we are trying to get a handle on the grain and gas. we laid out a plan, to lower

prescription drug costs. that will fundamentally affect the well-being of every family. those of you who know someone who has type two diabetes, it costs an average of $647 a month. you know how much it cost to make that bottle of insulin? $10. the charging is outrageous so we should be able to have medicare do what they do when they deal with the v.a.. the v.a. says we will only pay you so much for this. medicare should be able to negotiate the price for it. we could put a cap on insulin for $35 a month.

we could begin by lowering the price for high-speed internet. working was serving providers, potentially lowering high-speed internet bills $30 a month. you may be paying more for gas, the point is we are doing everything in our power to lower the cost for families. congressional republicans have a different approach. you would think that i was making this up. rick scott tried to change his words yesterday after he introduce this in his campaign. he realized that raising taxes on working families was a problem.

everybody should pay a tax, every body. here's the truth, one concrete plan that i worked out. it would raise taxes for working families $1000 a month. while we have corporations that didn't pay tax for the past two years. they don't want to tax them at all. they don't want to tax billionaires. he had to walk back from his plan on health care. he says what we have to do now that we have the affordable care act function eight, he wants to eliminate it again. one of the best things that republicans are pushing now,

medicare, social security and medicaid go on the chopping block every five years. at the end of five years, they have to be affirmatively voted back in business. medicare, social security, medicaid. never forget, people paid for their social security. and you know what will happen? what they will do, they will take it apart. they will cut it back. that is the whole objective. it is not right. i disagree. this is not your father's republican party. i work with a lot of honorable republicans. this is the maga gang.

they have a fundamentally different view of the role of the government and who should pay what. and i can work with anyone to deliver real solutions. because of the strong foundation we have built. we will work with anyone to overcome the global inflation we have seen. i count recovery as going from where we are today in terms of the economy to stability, to make it stable and as strong as can be. but for inflation, buffer gas and food. we have to keep coming together to find common ground to solve problems like we have done with ports and trucking. continue to build on the extraordinary progress we have made. i mean that literally, i am so

sick and tired of trickle-down economics. it does not work. when the middle class is doing well and they do well because of labor. when the middle class is doing well, the poor have a way up in the wealthy do well. they have never been hurt when the middle class is doing well, never. it is about time we start to gather and remember who we are and get a lot of this done. it is no better place to start than the port of los angeles. foreign shippers need to understand that the ripoff is over. thank you. thank you. [applause] >> are you gonna go after them? pres. biden: exxon made more

money than god this year. they had 9000 permits to drill. why aren't they drilling? because they make more money not drilling for oil. the price goes up. and number two, the reason they are not drilling is because they are buying up their own stock in making no new investments. i always thought republicans were for investing. start investing, start paying your taxes. thank you. [applause]

[indiscernible] watch for our live for good violence. our live coverage starts at noon eastern on c-span also on our

free mobile app c-span now or online at c-span.org. c-span is your unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies are more including sparklight. the greatest town on earth is the town you call home. at sparklight it is our town tune. that is why sparklight is working round-the-clock is doing our part so it is a little easier to do yours. along with these other television providers giving you of front row seat to democracy. coming up on washington journal, professor emeritus at the university of maryland on the economy and president widens economy. on the march for our lives youth congress talks about the march