Healey Invites Biden & Kim to Tour Viking Yacht, Learn How the Economy Works

GOP challenger says recent Biden comments highlight how career politicians and D.C. insiders don’t have a clue about how the real world works

For Immediate Release

Moorestown, June 22, 2022 – Successful business owner and Republican candidate for Congress in NJ-03, Bob Healey, today invited President Joe Biden and Congressman Andy Kim to join him for a personal tour of Viking Yacht’s manufacturing floor so the pair could hear firsthand from the men and women building boats and get a real-world lesson in how the economy works.

Healey’s challenge comes on the heels of President Biden’s comments to reporters gathered on a Delaware beach this week that: “If you’re going out and buying a yacht, it doesn’t help the economy a whole lot.”

“Joe Biden and Andy Kim are creatures of Washington – President Biden for longer than I’ve been alive and Andy for most of his adult life – and it’s why neither of them have a clue how the economy works, nor how working families put food on the table or put their kids through school,” said Healey.  “President Biden’s tired ‘tax the rich’ rhetoric – which Andy Kim parrots every time he gets a chance – ignores the fact that when someone buys a high-end boat, that boat is built by working men and women who make a living on the floor of our manufacturing plant right here in South Jersey.  Moreover, that boat owner – at least as it relates to Viking – are going to need to buy supplies from a bait and tackle shop owned by a small business person and they are going to need to house that boat at a dock owned and staffed by a small business person.”

Healey said Biden and Kim would do well to visit his plant and personally speak with and listen to the men and women – people of every race, color, and creed – and understand that plans to raise taxes on so-called luxury items has a direct impact on the working and middle class.

“My guess is they will turn down my offer, but it is a serious one,” said Healey. “I invite the President and Congressman to come to our facility and ask any of our 1600 employees what yacht manufacturing has meant for their families. President Biden and Andy Kim need to hear these stories and understand them, so we don’t repeat the same mistakes of the past, like when disastrous tax policy in the 1990’s led to our workforce being slashed and good people being out of work.  Before Biden and Kim repeat those mistakes, they should look the people they will be hurting in the eyes and tell them why.”