Making America Great: Making Sense of the Expansion and Implications for the Economy, the Middle-Class, and the Affordable Care Costs

Over the past nearly two years, we have made enormous progress. My administration, working with Democrats in Congress, is building an economy that grows from the bottom up and middle out.

The unemployment rate is 3.5% – a 50-year low. We have created 10 million jobs, including almost 700,000 manufacturing jobs. On my watch, “Made in America” isn’t just a slogan, it’s a reality.

We have more work to do. Inflation – driven by the pandemic and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine – is a global challenge. Many people with jobs are still struggling to pay for groceries, gas and rent. That’s why I’m so determined to lower costs for families.

We need to make it easier for hard-working Americans to survive. That’s why I took action to ease the burden of student debt for families recovering from the pandemic. Republicans criticized the move, but I will never apologize for helping working- and middle-class Americans as they recover from the pandemic. Especially not to the same Republicans officials who voted for a $2 trillion tax giveaway that mainly benefitted wealthy Americans and the biggest corporations.

Gas prices are decreasing because of actions we have taken. They’re down $1.20 since their peak this summer and just this week they fell another 10 cents. That’s adding up to real savings for families.

Republicans in Congress are doubling down on mega, MAGA trickle-down economics that benefit the wealthy and big corporations. They’ve laid their plan out very clearly. It would make inflation worse and raise your costs.

The power to negotiate drug prices has been granted by my administration. We capped out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for seniors and capped seniors’ monthly insulin payments at $35 a month. Big Pharma and scores of lobbyists spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to prevent health care savings for Americans. They failed.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/american-people-face-a-choice-joe-biden/index.html

The Importance of Corporate Taxes and Social Security: The Case for Putting a Republican Party to the Test – It’s Predictable

Democrats are making sure the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share in taxes. In 2020, 55 of the wealthiest corporations in America paid zero dollars in federal income tax. No longer. I signed into law a 15% corporate minimum tax. And, I’m keeping my campaign commitment: no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a single penny more in federal taxes.

Republicans have even said that if they win control of Congress they may refuse to raise the debt limit and force our country into default unless we yield to their demands to cut Social Security and Medicare.

The Republicans in Congress want to ban abortion, but this is not your father’s party. I would veto it right away, and if we elect more Senate Democrats and keep the House, I’ll move to codify Roe v. Wade in January.

Democracy is being put to the test in America. We are learning that democracy is not guaranteed. You have to defend it. Protect it. You can choose it.

I am pretty confident that the American people will vote in record numbers again in 2020, and I am sure that they will make it plain that democracy is a value that both defines us and makes us Americans.

We have faced some of the most difficult challenges in our history over the last few years, but we did not relent. I am more confident in our future. In 14 days, the American people will decide whether we keep moving forward or go backwards.

McCarthy said that all they talk about is Medicare and Social Security. We have to make sure we strengthen those, despite the president not wanting to look at it.

The Issue of Negotiating the Abundance of the Smallest U.S. Government: An Indiana Republican Rep. Greg Pence and the Problem Solvers Caucus

It’s a recipe that – some fear – could take the nation to the brink of a potentially cataclysmic default, especially since some positions against raising the limit at all seem intractable.

“No,” Rep. Greg Pence, an Indiana Republican, said when asked by CNN if he would vote for a debt ceiling increase if it included “every” one of his priorities. “That’s what I hear back home.”

McCarthy said that Biden would never want to be irresponsible and childish and not negotiate because of the economic implications of the country. Let’s not play political games, we have a timeline here. We both know we have certain jobs, so we can find savings for the American people.

Others are looking at possible contingency plans as well. The House’s bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus is working on a proposal that would in part try to set a ratio for the allowable amount of US debt compared to the country’s gross domestic product – and develop a plan for budget cuts if that level is breached. The group is consulting outside budget experts to help draft the proposal.

There are always going to be a few who will vote against everything. Nancy Mace is a South Carolina Republican. “That’s why it’s important to negotiate. We are a divided Congress, and we got to act that way.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/politics/debt-limit-negotiations-republicans/index.html

The conservative delegation to the House of Representatives to the Working Group on Budget Issues: Plan to meet with Arrington, Roy, and McCarthy

Social Security takes up 21% of the $5.8 trillion the federal government spent in the last fiscal year, while health care programs accounts for 25% of the budget. The rest of the budget goes to a range of discretionary domestic programs, including 13% for defense and national security.

The conservative crew met Friday morning and Monday to discuss ideas for spending cuts that could achieve a balanced budget within 10 years, and plan to unveil a blueprint outlining their vision in the coming weeks, according to a member involved in the talks.

Ringleaders of the group like Rep. Chip Roy of Texas have been in regular communication with McCarthy, and the group wants to meet with GOP leaders and House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington of Texas as discussions intensify.

The South Carolina congressman said that the House will have a plan for what it will be fighting for. “Not touching Social Security, not touching Medicare … Every agency is being looked at on discretionary. We are putting it out for the American people. And it will shock people. … I think people will like what they see.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/politics/debt-limit-negotiations-republicans/index.html

Defending the Debt Ceiling: The Case for a Responsible Way to Rebuild the Nation’s Credit System and to Ensure the States Have a Budget

“I want us to be the adults in the room. There are two things that could be a crisis, Massie told reporters. “Take that off the table. It would give you time and allow you to relax.

Yet with GOP defense hawks and appropriators vowing to protect defense spending, that limits the pool of money on the discretionary side of the budget where they can cut from.

While McCarthy is trying to build conference-wide consensus on what they will propose in exchange for raising the nation’s borrowing limit, some appropriators acknowledged they may wind up on the sidelines of the debate.

“I will be either the beneficiary, or victim, of however that comes out, because we will be getting a (topline spending number) for my subcommittee,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, told CNN. I will be directly affected.

“I think most everyone is in the camp of ‘can’t default.’ The congressman from Arkansas said that the country’s full faith and credit is important. Even if we raise the debt ceiling without any restraint, it is not an acceptable outcome.

McCarthy promised to put a bill on the floor before the end of March that would force the treasury department to prioritize payments if the debt ceiling is not raised.

Massie said one idea he has been advocating for is passing a continuing resolution “as soon as possible” that funds the government at 99% of its current levels and pairs it with a debt ceiling increase, just so they have a backup plan in case they are unable to come to an agreement on the debt ceiling or funding the government.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican involved in that effort, said that their plan would be a fallback in case talks between the White House and McCarthy collapse.

The statement carried echoes of the push by the White House and the Senate to force Republicans to come up with a plan in order to avoid a government shut down.

McCarthy appeared on CBS. The Californian said on “Face the Nation” that he wanted to find a reasonable and responsible way that we can lift the debt ceiling.

McCarthy’s pledge, which is backed by former President Donald Trump, provides a window into the complex political dynamics House Republicans confront as they press for negotiations while still working to coalesce around a proposal to put on the table.

White House officials have closely monitored – and wasted no time responding – to House Republican preferences they see as both non-starters on the policy front and politically advantageous.

There are still questions about whether House Republicans can get the 218 votes they need to raise the debt ceiling, given the opposition they’re facing in the conference.

Joe Biden at the State of the Union: “It’s my objective to phase out Social Security,” a spokesman told Wisconsin lawmakers

Still, the focus on Medicare and Social Security even as McCarthy has moved to take changes off the table underscores the view inside the White House of the political salience of the programs.

White House officials point to the framing of “strengthening” the programs as a euphemism for structural changes they oppose. Absent a clear House Republican proposal, that has become a central line of attack in a debate that is still in its early stages – with potentially dramatic consequences ahead.

The populist message of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech to Wisconsin was a preview of the argument he will have against Republicans in the state in the years to come.

Biden was willing to continue the fight when he hit the road in order to keep the argument about social safety net alive. The argument highlighted Biden’s attempts to shift his message away from the “extreme MAGA” and “mega-MAGA” talking points of the 2022 midterm election.

The Republicans heckled Biden several times during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night despite a few shushes from the Speaker. In moments throughout the address, Republicans in the House chamber shouted at Biden, protesting his approach to a wide range of issues such as immigration, Social Security and Medicare spending and the debt ceiling.

A senator named Mike Lee was yelling about liars and a house on fire last night. … He said that they played a video of him saying, “I’m here right now to tell you one thing you’ve probably never heard from a politician: it’s my objective to phase out Social Security.”

Joseph Biden: From the House of Representatives to the House, and what he said about the MAGA Republicans,’ “

Biden was asked if he was expecting the kind of reaction he received after his speech in the House chamber.

Biden said that he was from the people that did it. “The vast of majority of Republicans weren’t that way, but you know, there’s still a significant element of what I call the ‘MAGA Republicans.’”

As for last night’s “conversion” of some Republicans, he offered skepticism during his speech: “I sure hope that’s true. When the budget is laid down with the proposed cuts, I will believe it. But looks like we negotiated a deal last night on the floor of the House of Representatives.”

Biden tried to make a larger point for working together with Republicans, saying that his first two years in office had been great.

“People sent us a clear message: Fighting for the sake of fighting gets us nowhere. He began to argue against his Republican colleagues after saying that they were getting things done.

He once again urged Congress to raise the debt limit, warning against the “chaos” he said Republicans were suggesting.

Biden also fired back at a television commentator he heard aboard Air Force One lamenting his focus on junk fees: “Junk fees may not matter to the wealthy people, but they matter of most folks like the home I grew up in. They add hundreds of dollars a month to make it harder to pay your bills or afford that family trip. I know how unfair it feels when a company overcharges you and think they can get away with it.”

The Case Against Biden and the Reforms Of Social Security And Medicare: A View from Week One of his White House Conversations with Scott

Should he decide to run for president, Donald Trump and the Democrats will use his statements against him to strengthen their arguments against the privatization of Medicare and the raising of the retirement age.

I think Ryan is doing a good job trying to reform entitlements. Premium support is not a voucher, he was quoted as saying. You can use your own income to supplement the plan.

I would embrace proposals like Paul Ryan and others that would give market forces in there, more choice, and make it so that it isn’t just going to be bankrupt once you have it.

As a Tea Party fiscal conservative, DeSantis received the support of groups like the Club for Growth, and the Eagle Forum.

DeSantis has yet to announce he if he running for president in 2024, nor has he spoken publicly about his position on the entitlement programs as the governor or Florida, preferring to focus on culture war issues.

On Thursday, the president visited Florida to emphasize his support for protecting Medicare and Social Security in the state whose population utilizes these programs more than any other. A senior White House advisor told CNN that the Florida visit will allow Biden to take the fight to Sen. Rick Scott, author of a plan to have Congress sunset Social Security and medicare every five years.

He said that people who are low income should have the same coverage as they already have. People like me who have been successful will not have to pay more. I will have premium support that will guarantee a certain amount of coverage.

“If you want something over and above that, if you want a Cadillac plan or something, then I do think it should be driven by the consumer rather than imposed on the taxpayers,” he added. “And I just think that that makes sense.”

He believes that the program should be restructured to make it financially sustainable and for people in his generation.

After getting elected, one of DeSantis’ first interviews as a newly sworn-in member was on CNN on January 4, 2013, where he said he hoped Congress would take on restructuring entitlements when asked about Social Security and Medicare.

The retirement and health care programs are being targeted by Biden and his White House over their proposals from specific Republican senators.

The videos are authentic, though Biden didn’t tell his Wednesday speech audience in Wisconsin they are from more than 12 years ago – an event in 2010, when Lee was running for the Senate but before he was first elected. And as Lee noted in Wednesday tweets responding to Biden, Biden didn’t mention that Lee added at the same 2010 event that current Medicare beneficiaries should have their benefits “left untouched” and that “the next layer beneath them, those who will retire in the next few years, also probably have to be held harmless.”

The plan’s official text, which remains online on a dedicated website, says “all federal legislation,” period, should be sunset in five years – not all recent legislation, all crazy legislation or all legislation except for the laws that created Social Security and Medicare. McConnell said last year the plan wouldSunset Social Security and Medicare within five years.

Biden may have been trying to create an false impression by mentioning the sunset proposal in the State of the Union in which he talked about the fight over the debt ceiling. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has stated that Medicare and Social Security will not be cut as part of the current debt ceiling negotiations with the Biden administration.

Scott has accused Biden of having cut billions from Medicare in last year’s inflation reduction act and has thrown a false claim into the debate. The Inflation Reduction Act did not hurt Medicare benefits; rather, the act allowed the government and seniors to spend less money on drugs and thus more on healthcare for older people. Scott and the Republicans used the claim of a Medicare cut as a campaign tactic during the elections last year.

Biden cited Johnson’s remarks this week. Johnson said on a Green Bay radio show in August that they have to turn everything into discretionary spending so they can fix programs that are broken or are going to be bankrupt. As long as things are automatic, we just continue to pile up debt. When Johnson faced criticism for those remarks at the time, he stood by them and said that was his consistent longtime position.

It’s impossible to definitively fact-check this particular dispute without Johnson specifying how he wants to “fix” and “save” the program. His office did not respond to a CNN request for comment.

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates noted in an email to reporters on Thursday that, though Johnson accused Biden this week of lying about his stance on Social Security, Johnson also said in interviews this week that Social Security is a “legal Ponzi scheme” and that “Social Security might be in a more stable position for younger workers” if the government had proceeded with Republican President George W. Bush’s controversial and eventually abandoned proposal in the mid-2000s to allow workers born after 1949 to divert a portion of their Social Security payroll taxes into private accounts in which they could buy into the stock market and make other investments.