In Budget Battles With Republicans, Biden Stands Defiant: 'I Will Stop Them'
President vows to fight over debt limit, affordable healthcare
If Republicans think they can hold the nation's debts hostage, or force deep cuts to such affordable healthcare programs as Medicaid and Obamacare, President Biden promises to stand in their way.
As he has since his State of the Union address about a month ago, Biden's been traveling the country talking about his plans and defending Democratic priorities.
He visited Virginia Beach Tuesday, where he not only got feisty with congressional Republicans, the president previewed the federal budget plan he intends to roll out next week.
Biden is fighting budget battles with Republicans on two fronts: House Republicans who don't want to raise the federal government's debt ceiling until the president acquiesces to deep cuts in federal spending, and those Capitol Hill Republicans like Sen Rick Scott of Florida, who want to “sunset” various popular federal programs like the Medicaid healthcare program for low-income Americans and those under the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as “Obamacare.”
The federal government officially hit its debt limit in January, requiring Congress to approve an increase just so that the government can continue to pay the bills it's already accrued in past years.
Should Congress fail to increase the federal debt ceiling, the federal government will eventually fall into default and cause a national and global economic meltdown.
The government has begun taking “extraordinary measures” to prevent default, although those measures will run out in June.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans want to use this opportunity to hold the debt limit hostage to coerce draconian spending cuts in exchange for a vote to raise the limit.
Biden, however, continues to hold firm that there will be no such negotiations.
“The federal government has never, ever once reneged on that debt. We’ve never questioned our credit. And guess what? Let’s remember the last administration increased the federal debt by 25 percent. The 200-year debt — in four years, they increased it by 25 percent. Two hundred years,” Biden said Tuesday. “And, folks, how did Congress respond? Well, quite frankly, they did the only responsible thing: They paid the debt. They voted three times to keep paying America’s bills to pay the debt without preconditions; without a crisis.
“If they paid the American debt then, why in God’s name are they threatening not to pay it now?” the president asked, to applause.
Separately, Scott has called for “sunsetting” all federal laws, including those which authorize popular programs.
Biden noted that, under intense political pressure, following his State of the Union Scott exempted Medicare and Social Security from his proposal.
But that still leaves juicy targets for Republicans, according to the president.
“Although I noticed he didn’t say ‘never mind' about Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. They’re still on the chopping block even in Senator Scott’s plan,” he said. “Look, make no mistake: If MAGA Republicans try to take away people’s healthcare by gutting Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, I will stop them.
“Folks, here’s the bottom line. The work that we’ve done to get more people affordable healthcare and bring down costs is going to reduce the deficit significantly. It’s making a real difference in people’s lives,” Biden added. “It means more security, more dignity for millions of families.”
Biden plans to lay out his proposals for federal spending on March 9.
“When I introduce my budget, you’ll see that it’s going to invest in America, lower health costs, and protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare while cutting the deficit more than $2 trillion over the next 10 years,” he said, to applause. “But, by the way, I want to make it clear I’m going raise some taxes. Many of you are billionaires out there. You’re going to stop paying at 3 percent. Not a joke.
“The idea that a billionaire — we used to have 600 or so in the United States of America; now there’s 1,000. The idea that they pay at a rate that is lower than the rate of a police officer, a schoolteacher, a nurse, is bizarre,” he added. “You’re going to see the people making less than $400,000, as I said from the very beginning, will not pay an additional single penny in any tax.”
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