President Joe Biden on Thursday addressed the nation, touting his administration's efforts to have employers and industries require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Biden delivered his remarks from Elk Grove Village, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.

"We know there is no other way to beat the pandemic than to get the vast majority of Americans vaccinated," Biden said.

In September, Biden laid out a six-pronged plan to combat COVID-19 this fall.

Part of that plan included a new rule from the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated. That provision also requires workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work.

"In total, this Labor Department vaccination requirement will cover 100 million Americans," Biden said.

Biden has also signed executive orders requiring all federal workers to be vaccinated and all contractors working with the federal government to be vaccinated.

Since his directive was implemented within the military, Biden said vaccinations rates among active-duty members went from 67% to 97%.

Biden asserted that this continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated, which is having an effect on the economy.

"Increased vaccination results in as many as 5 million American workers going back to work because they feel safe they can go back to work," Biden stated.

Biden appeared hopeful that cases will continue to come down if more people get vaccinated. He said cases have dropped by 40% over the last month. He added that rates of hospitalizations and deaths have also fallen.

"We're headed in the right direction if we keep our eye on the ball," he said.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden is urging Republicans not to use the filibuster to block Democrats in the Senate from raising the U.S. debt ceiling.

“If you don’t want to help save the country, get out of the way, so you don’t destroy it,” said Biden during remarks delivered Monday. “We don’t have time to delay with elaborate procedural schemes, which Republican proposals require, scores of votes without any certainty at all, many of which have nothing to do with the debt limit at all.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling by Oct. 18, the U.S. could default on its financial obligations for the first time in history.

“At that point, we expect Treasury would be left with very limited resources that would be depleted quickly. It is uncertain whether we could continue to meet all the nation’s commitments after that date,” wrote Yellen in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week.

The secretary added that the Oct. 18 deadline is the department’s best estimate and the federal government’s cash flows are subject to variability, meaning the money could last longer or shorter.

During his speech, Biden explained that Republicans won’t vote to raise the debt limit, and they want Democrats to do it alone. However, Biden says the GOP is also threatening to use the filibuster to block the measure, meaning the Democrats would need to get 60 votes instead of 50 votes to raise the debt ceiling.

“This would block the Democrats from meeting our obligations and responsibilities to prevent Congress from raising the debt limit,” said Biden. “So, let’s be clear, not only are Republicans refusing to do their job, they’re threatening to use their power to prevent us from doing our job: saving the economy from a catastrophic event.”

Biden explained that raising the debt limit comes down to paying what the U.S. already owes, not anything new.

The president blasted the GOP for standing in the way.

“I think, quite frankly, it’s hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful,” said Biden. “Their obstruction and irresponsibility knows absolutely no bounds, especially as we’re clawing our way out of this pandemic. Democrats will meet our responsibility and obligation to this country. We’re not expecting Republicans to do their part. They made that clear from the beginning. We tried asking to no avail. We’re just asking them not to use procedural tricks to block us from doing the job that they won’t do.”

Biden also took some jabs at former President Donald Trump, saying the reason the U.S. has to raise the debt limit is in part because of the “reckless tax and spending policies under the previous Trump administration.”

“In four years, they incurred nearly $8 trillion in additional debt, in bills we have to now pay off,” said Biden.

Additionally, Biden warned of what could happen if the U.S. defaults on its debt. As soon as this week, Biden says Americans’ savings could be directly impacted by a failure to raise the debt ceiling.

“A failure to raise the debt limit will call into question Congress’ willingness to meet our obligations that we’ve already incurred. This is going to undermine the safety of the U.S. Treasury securities, and it will threaten the reserve status of the dollar as the world’s currency that the world relies on. American credit rating will be downgraded, interest rates will rise for mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, and borrowing,” said Biden.

Democrats had originally wanted to raise the debt ceiling in the same bill that extended government funding, but that move was blocked by Senate Republicans. Instead, a standalone government funding bill was passed and signed into law last week.

Both parties have voted to raise the debt limit in the past, with Democrats joining the Republican Senate majority in doing so three times during Donald Trump’s presidency, The Associated Press reports.

Now, however, the GOP has argued that Democrats have chosen to push through their political priorities on their own and thus are responsible for raising the debt limit on their own, reports the AP.

Noting that the U.S. economy has reached an "inflection point," President Joe Biden on Thursday laid out several steps he plans to take to "level the playing field" and lift up the middle class.

Speaking at the White House, Biden noted that corporations and the richest Americans have gotten wealthier in the past 40 years at rates higher than middle-class Americans.

"For a long time, this economy has worked well for those at the very top...while the middle class has been cut out of the deal," Biden said.

He noted that billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $1.8 trillion during the pandemic — a fact that he called "simply not fair."

Biden said his plans to uplift the average American would start by getting COVID-19 under control. He said he hopes his recent move to force more employers to enforce vaccine mandates would help bring case rates down.

"Everything, from our public health to our economy, depends on this," Biden said.

He also called for the extension of the child tax credits that were signed into law earlier this year, which provide parents with up to an additional $300 per child each month.

The president also advocated empowering the IRS to better monitor bank accounts to stop the wealthiest Americans from avoiding income tax.

"If you can make a million or a billion dollars, that's great. All I ask is that you pay your fair share," Biden said.

Finally, Biden called on Congress to pass both his proposed infrastructure package and budget plans, which his administration says will create millions of middle-class jobs and provide much-needed services for working families.

He cited recent extreme weather events like Gulf Coast hurricanes and Western wildfires as a reason to allocate more money to infrastructure.

"We can't wait to act," Biden pleads. "We need to rebuild with resilience in mind."

In closing, Biden told Americans that the pandemic had presented the country with an opportunity.

"We can build an economy that gives working people a shot," Biden said. "We can make the investments that are long overdue in this country."