James Taylor is kicking off the White House’s Inflation Reduction Act celebration.
The six-time Grammy Award winner, 74, sang “Fire and Rain” in front of the White House on Tuesday afternoon. Taylor was seated in a navy-blue blazer and a gray hat as he strummed his guitar in front of the cameras and audience.
Taylor has shared his opinion on politics in the past. Under former President Barack Obama’s terms, the musician shared that he believed Obama was the greatest president of all time.
“I’ve been watching politics since (Dwight) Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and Obama is my favorite, favorite president,” Taylor said in an interview in 2016. “I am just thankful for every day that he’s in office. I am so proud that he represents my country and I think he represents me — I think he represents the America that I know.”
ANALYSIS SUGGESTS INFLATION REDUCTION ACT WILL REDUCE ANNUAL INFLATION BY ONLY 0.1 PERCENTAGE POINTS
The pop icon performed “America the Beautiful” at Obama’s second inauguration in 2013 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the former leader in 2015.
Obama isn’t the only politician Taylor has supported. The singer said he was in support of Hillary Clinton during her run for office in 2016.
“And aside from the fact that she’s a woman running, she’s the right person. … The whole point — black or white, male or female, gay or straight, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist — it doesn’t matter what these other connections are,” he said. “Our country needs to come together and the question is, ‘Is this public servant someone who will bring us together?’ And I think she is.”
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President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August, saying “the American people won, and the special interests lost” with the new legislation.
“With this law, the American people won, and the special interests lost,” Biden said at the time. “This administration began amid a dark time in America … a once-in-a-century pandemic, devastating joblessness, clear and present threats to democracy and the rule of law, doubts about America’s future itself — and yet we’ve not wavered, we’ve not flinched, and we’ve not given in.”
Biden said, instead, the law will “deliver results for the American people.”
“We didn’t tear down. We built up. We didn’t look back. We look forward,” Biden said. “And today, today, offers further proof that the soul of America is vibrant. The future of America is bright, and the promise of America is real. And just beginning.”
The bill, which was passed by the Senate in early August and by the House of Representatives shortly after, costs an estimated $437 billion, with $369 billion going toward investments in “Energy Security and Climate Change,” according to a summary by Senate Democrats.
The Associated Press and Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
