Comment on this story
comment
President Biden has begun warning voters of the risk of government shutdowns, benefit cuts, debt defaults and general chaos if Republicans take control of Congress, in an 11-hour bid to delay the debate on inflation and the economy.
Biden, who took office on a promise to work across the aisle and fight some of the divisions that dogged his predecessor, has relied on the argument that Republicans pose a serious threat to financial peace and stability represent the country. With control of Congress — and with it the president’s agenda — at stake in the final days before the Nov. 8 election, Biden and other leading Democrats are using fears of disorder to avert their liabilities to the economy a political weapon.
“Listen carefully: Republicans have made it clear that if they gain control of Congress, they will shut down the government, refuse to pay our bills, and it will be the first time in our history that America becomes insolvent — unless I cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said Monday in a speech before the Democratic National Committee. “There is nothing, nothing, that will create more chaos, more inflation and more damage to the American economy than this.”
With less than two weeks to go before the election, Biden has agreed on a closing message that goes beyond touting his achievements and defending his record in the economy, as he has been doing for months. Instead, he paints an increasingly dystopian picture of life under divided government, should “Ultra-MAGA” or “Mega-MAGA” Republicans come to power, and seeks to capitalize on Republicans’ own promises, congressional votes on budgets and Using debt to force Biden into big spending cuts.
During a speech this month at a Volvo factory in Hagerstown, Maryland, Biden spent more time criticizing the GOP than talking about his own economic plans, lamenting that voters still didn’t know anything about the Republican platform in the economy knew. With razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate, Democrats risk losing control of both if a handful of seats go to the opposing party.
“When it comes to the next Congress, this isn’t a referendum — it’s an election,” Biden said, a refrain he’s repeated several times in recent weeks.
Biden’s new tone reflects the Republican candidates’ success in blaming the president and his party for high food and gas prices and perceived increases in crime and immigration. Polls and analysts are increasingly forecasting a strong Republican showing on Nov. 8, prompting Biden to seek ways to change the momentum with increasing urgency.
While Biden’s attacks intensified as the election drew nearer, the strategy of calling out Republican economic plans dates back several months to this spring, when Biden overturned the release of an 11-point policy document from Republican Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), saying a Biden aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal strategy.
Scott, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, plans to tax low-income Americans who don’t pay federal income taxes and “suspend” all federal laws every five years, potentially jeopardizing mandatory spending programs like Medicare and Social Security.
Biden branded such policies as part of the “Ultra-MAGA” agenda — a nod to former President Donald Trump’s motto “Make America Great Again” — and attempted to confuse his own efforts to get things done with the proclamations of “extremist” Republicans to contrast. White House advisers say the embassy has been able to connect with voters and credit it with helping Biden win a string of legislative victories this summer.
The president is now stepping up his attacks in part because Republicans have continued to advance new positions that the White House believes would be unpopular with voters, a Biden aide said.
Biden’s warnings of a potential US debt default are perhaps his harshest yet, after several senior Republicans raised the prospect of using the debt ceiling as leverage in future policy negotiations. Under the current system, Congress must approve the debt even for commitments already made — and if it doesn’t, economists say the resulting default would rock the economy.
“They will threaten the fundamentals of the American economy if we don’t meet their demands,” Biden said Friday.
Biden — who often tells audiences he’s “not making this up” — has implored voters to look closely at what Republicans have said about the economy.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who could become Speaker if the GOP wins the House, last week suggested his party would be willing to use a debt limit vote as a bargaining chip to pass policy changes force.
Rep. Jason T. Smith (R-Mo.), a top contender to head the House Ways and Means Committee, said voters expect Congress to use “every tool” to fight inflation, the economy strengthen and achieve other goals. “The debt ceiling is absolutely one of those tools,” he said in a statement to The Washington Post.
While Republicans have taken a range of policy positions in recent weeks, Biden has escalated his criticism and made darker predictions about what would happen if Democrats lost control of Congress.
He said the GOP would blow up the deficit with tax cuts for the wealthy, raise inflation by rolling back its signed anti-inflation bill and target steep cuts to popular programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Republicans have said Biden is merely trying to change the subject from his own shaky economic record and the steep inflation Americans have experienced under his watch.
The White House notes that during Biden’s tenure, the economy has created millions of jobs, the federal deficit has shrunk significantly, and Democrats have passed legislation tackling prescription drug, energy and other costs. But these arguments had limited impact on concerned voters.
Few GOP candidates have responded directly to Biden’s attacks, perhaps a sign they don’t feel vulnerable on an issue where voters generally trust Republicans more than Democrats.
Doug Heye, a Republican strategist who worked for House GOP leaders during the debt ceiling fights between Congress and former President Barack Obama, said Biden’s warnings of impending disorder ring hollow given that so many Americans are already grappling with the historic struggling with inflation.
“This doesn’t seem to matter to voters,” Heye said. “He still speaks of ‘in theory’ versus ‘in practice’ when what families have been going through in recent years has been messy for them.”
The shift in Biden’s rhetoric comes as a growing number of Democrats have urged party leaders to send a clearer economic message ahead of the midterm elections. This year, Biden and many Democratic candidates believed the Supreme Court ruling rolling back abortion rights, the Jan. 6 committee hearings that revealed threats to democracy, and other issues would be more crucial to voters if they did went to the elections.
But those issues have faded somewhat from the headlines, while the economy continued to be a source of anxiety for voters, prompting more Democrats to urge the White House to tailor its messages to counter Republican arguments about inflation and a possible recession.
“While the abortion issue must remain at the forefront, I believe it would be political misconduct on the part of Democrats to ignore the state of the economy and allow Republican lies and distortions to go unanswered,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt. ) wrote month in an op-ed for the Guardian. Sanders argues that Republican policies encourage a huge wealth gap between the super-rich and everyone else.
White House advisers say Biden will continue touting his economic record while calling out Republicans on their proposals and claiming the two messages are mutually reinforcing. The president also plans to continue to draw contrast between himself and his enemies on other issues ranging from abortion to democracy to civil rights, an adviser said.
Biden has campaigned for the presidency because of his ability to work bipartisanly and has passed a number of bills with Republican support. But as the election approaches and many Republican candidates continue to deny the 2020 election results, he has been more willing to portray the opposition as a party of extremists.
That summer, Biden denounced “MAGA Republicans,” saying “they are a threat to our democracy itself” and accused them of moving toward “semi-fascism.” In a speech last month, he clarified that he wasn’t talking about all, or even most, Republicans.
In the weeks since Biden’s attacks on the economy have shifted, the president has cast a wide net by describing the risks he thinks the country would face if the GOP were successful in November’s election.
“We need to remind people what Republicans are for, this new Republican Party,” Biden said Friday during a reception for Lt. gov. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democratic nominee for Senate. “It’s not your father’s Republican party, like I said. This is a different group of people.”
Comments are closed.