President Joe Biden told a Virginia Beach crowd that Republicans may have ‘found religion’ by wanting to protect Social Security and Medicare – but accused the GOP on Tuesday of planning cuts on health care for the poor and Obamacare.
Biden also tipped his hand on the proposed White House budget that’s expected to be rolled out on March 9th, saying people earning less than $400,000 per year won’t pay ‘a penny’ on tax hikes he’s proposing.
He said the budget plan would spell out ‘What we’re going to cut, what we’re going to spend, what we’re going to do. Just lay it on the table.’
After pounding Republicans for weeks over a plan by Florida Sen. Rick Scott to ‘sunset’ federal programs and require renewal votes in Congress, Biden is shifting the terrain to Medicaid. He said Republicans would be pulling out old plans to cut funding in order to meet their budget-cutting demands.
President Joe Biden continues to take his budget attacks on Republicans on the road, this time hitting them for planning cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act programs
He pointed to his State of the Union address, where he had both parties on their feet in defense of the popular programs.
‘Like I said, I believe in conversion. Maybe they found religion for Social Security and Medicare,’ Biden said at the Kempsville Recreation Center in Virginia Beach.
The president also revisited some of the uglier moments of clash with Republicans during the speech – making hay out of Georgia firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her heckling.
‘I’ve been around for a lot of State of the Unions,’ he said, earning approval from a crowd of about 600. ‘I never saw one where the president got to negotiate in the open with everybody,’ Biden said.
‘Remember when Marjorie Taylor was yelling ‘Liar! Liar!’ he recalled.
He reveled in the bipartisan ovation when he called for protecting Social Security and Medicare. ‘Wasn’t it something? They all stood up. They were all on camera,’ he said.
After his line about the GOP having ‘found religion, Biden said: ‘I sure hope so, all kidding aside. But I’ll believe it when I see it.’
If Social Security has been a ‘third rail’ in American politics, Medicaid, which provides health benefits to the poor, has come under renewed scrutiny by Republicans for potential cuts.
‘What are they going to cut? That’s the big question,’ Biden said. ‘For millions of Americans, health care hangs in the balance.’
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) gave a thumbs down and yelled ‘Liar!’ at President Joe Biden while he was delivering the State of the Union address.
Biden reiterated that people earning less than $400K a year won’t ‘pay a penny’ in new taxes
Healthcare workers and guests wave at President Joe Biden after his remarks at the Kempsville Recreation Center on February 28, 2023 in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Biden also spoke about the debt limit clash coming this summer, and asked why Republicans would vote to raise the debt limit under Donald Trump but not in his administration.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has called for the government to be on a path toward a balanced budget, but he has yet to offer an outline of which spending he would cut. The president has been using the absence of a GOP plan against them, choosing to highlight past proposals.
‘If they paid the American debt, then why in God’s name are they threatening not to pay it now?’ he said, pointing to the increase of the nation’s debt of about a quarter during the four-year-period.
‘It’s just politics. And they’ve got no business playing politics with the lives of American people and our nation’s economy.
Biden pointed to GOP proposals to cut healthcare benefits, which was also promoted by former Trump budget director Russel Vought.
‘That’s the plan. He [Vought] wants to end Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act,’ Biden said, claiming ‘deep cuts’ would cause 70 million to lose ‘critical services.’
Biden said if Republicans try to find savings by ‘gutting’ Medicaid and the ACA, ‘I will stop them.’
Biden was introduced by Robin Kessler, who spoke about losing her health benefits when she lost her job before the Affordable Care Act was law.
Keller’s career as a nurse got him talking about his own health struggles when he was hospitalized for two brain aneurysms in 1988.
‘You lie there in the ICU, which I’ve done for a long time, and you look at those machines. And you know the line goes flat that it’s over. But you just get tired, you don’t care,’ Biden said.
The president went on to talk about his nurse, Pearl Nelson, who cared for him while recovering from surgery at the Walter Reed Medical Center in 1988.
‘She’d come in and do things I don’t think you learn in nursing school,’ he said to laughter from the audience. ‘She’d whisper in my ear, I couldn’t understand, but she’d whisper, and she’d lean down. And actually breathe on me to make sure there was a connection, a human connection.’
Biden also suffered a pulmonary embolism while recuperating and did not return to the Senate for several months, according to ABC News.
The president has pledged to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid and defend Social Security from reductions in spending, saying that his goal is to bring down medical costs for families ‘so you have a little bit of breathing room.’
‘That’s what all Americans deserve: peace of mind,’ Biden said. ‘That comes from knowing that an illness, if it strikes or an accident occurs, you can get quality medical care and recover and heal.’
However, with Democrats controlling the Senate and Biden in the White House, there is virtually no chance of major GOP health care legislation being enacted.
The greater challenge is whether lawmakers can find common ground, as the government needs to raise its legal borrowing authority by this summer in order to keep operating.
Biden repeatedly went after ‘MAGA Republicans’ in the run-up to the November elections
The White House pointed to cuts proposed by House Budget Committee Republicans, chaired by Jodey Arrington, R-Texas
They also referenced a Republican Study Committee Budget. The group includes a healthy majority of the House GOP
