© Brendan SmialowskiUS President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrive at a drive-in rally in Duluth, Georgia
President Joe Biden marked his 100th day in office Thursday with a trip to the crucial electoral state of Georgia to promote multi-trillion dollar spending plans that he says can transform the United States.
Addressing a drive-in rally at a Duluth, Georgia, car park, Biden praised the state for beating the odds last November and sending two Democrats -- Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff -- to the Senate.
Those two upset wins secured the narrowest of congressional majorities for Biden, allowing him to push through a $1.9 trillion stimulus package soon after taking office and begin planning for another $4 billion in spending on infrastructure, social safety nets and education.
© Brendan SmialowskiUS Senator Raphael Warnock and President Joe Biden talk after a drive-in rally in Georgia
"Your vote changed the world," Biden told the socially distanced crowd to honks and cheers.
In the brief, upbeat speech, Biden echoed many of his themes from a major address on Wednesday to Congress in which he declared the United States is "ready for takeoff" after the success of a mass Covid-19 vaccination program.
© Brendan SmialowskiPeople attend a drive-in rally by President Joe Biden in Duluth, Georgia
"I've never been more optimistic about America, America is on the move again," he said in Georgia.
Biden ran through his three mega-spending programs and said that getting them passed by Congress would result in "millions of good paying jobs" for ordinary Americans.
"Wall Street didn't build this country. You did. The middle class did and unions built the middle class," Biden said, reprising one of his favorite lines.
Arguing for higher taxation of top earners to offset the cost of his latest spending package -- the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan -- Biden said "it's about time the very wealthy and corporations started paying their fair share."
Earlier, the 78-year-old president -- a decades-long veteran of the Senate and a two-term vice president under Barack Obama -- visited former president and longtime ally Jimmy Carter, who is 96.
Biden has made a point since taking office of reaching out to members of the so-called "presidents' club," in contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump who broke with custom by openly scorning others who had been in the Oval Office before.
Biden was due to take his "Getting Back on Track" tour to Philadelphia on Friday and to Virginia on Monday. With congressional Republicans so far almost unanimous in opposing Biden's spending plans, Democratic leaders are hoping that a much warmer reception from voters will force legislators into action.
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