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Joe Biden Credits Elizabeth Warren With Helping Craft His New Economic Plan

Former Vice President Joe Biden is explicitly crediting Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with helping develop his new plan for rebuilding the U.S. economy, a sign that Warren has been able to influence the policy positions of the presumptive Democratic nominee as his campaign continues to vet potential vice presidential picks.

“I am grateful to so many ― including my friend Elizabeth Warren, labor unions, and other progressive partners for their help in putting together this bold new set of policies aimed at healing our economy and ensuring good, dignified jobs for American workers,” Biden wrote in an email to members of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a Warren-allied progressive group, that is scheduled to go out later Friday. “In the face of Donald Trump’s egregious mismanagement of the public health and economic crises, there has never been a more important moment to reinvest in good-paying jobs for workers across our country.”

Biden’s plan, which he began to roll out Thursday during a speech near his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, includes $400 billion of federal procurement spending on products manufactured in the United States and a $300 billion investment in government research on electric vehicles and other advanced technologies. The Biden campaign says the spending will help create more than 5 million new jobs.

Elements of the plan are similar to proposals Warren released during the primary, including pushes to increase government procurement of American-made products. But while Warren aimed to spend $150 billion a year on clean energy technology, Biden plans to spend $300 billion on a wider variety of products.

“This money will be used purposefully to ensure all of America is in on the deal, including communities that have historically been left out — Black, brown and Native American entrepreneurs, cities and towns in every region of the country,” Biden said in the speech. “This will be a...

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