President Joe Biden touted his record on the economy in a Feb. 15 speech at a union hall in Lanham, Maryland, as speculation mounts as to whether the 80-year-old former senator will seek a second term.
“Inflation is coming down, take-home pay for workers has gone up over the [past] several months. We’ve got more to do, but I’m telling you, the Biden economic plan is working because of y'all,” the president said to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) members in attendance.
Biden made the case that legislation passed under his leadership is spurring long-range economic improvement in the country.
In line with this, he discussed the construction of electrical charging stations across the United States through $5 billion in funding made available by the November 2021 infrastructure bill.
“Any charging station installed in the United States of America, guess what, it’s going to have to be made in America, the products,” he said.
“Now, America’s exporting project [products] and creating jobs at home,” the president said, adding that “communities are beginning to get proud again” thanks to his economic policies.
The speech came as Biden gears up for an expected announcement of a reelection bid, though it’s unclear exactly when he will formally announce it. No Democrat has declared an intention to challenge Biden for the presidency in 2024.
On Feb. 9, Biden told Telemundo that he was “just not ready” to declare his 2024 candidacy.
Debt Ceiling Debate
Biden said he would lay out a proposed budget on March 9, taking the opportunity to criticize the GOP’s spending plans.“If you add up the proposals the Republican friends, my Republican friends, have offered just so far—they’ve offered these now—it would add more than $3 trillion to the debt over 10 years,” Biden said.
He said that his March 9 budget will be structured such that “no one making less than $400,000 a year ... will not [sic] see a penny increase in their taxes.”
“You’ll see that my budget will invest in America, lower costs, protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, cut the deficit by $2 trillion in 10 years,” he said.
Biden’s speech comes amid a debt ceiling fight between Republicans and Democrats.
He accused Republicans of threatening to “[take] the economy hostage” over the debt ceiling limit.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Feb. 6 delivered a speech in which he argued that the debt ceiling fight must lead to spending discipline, including through its encouragement of bipartisanship.
“The runaway spending of the last few years, it’s over. Now, we must return Washington to a basic truth: Debt matters,” he said.
Phillip Swagel of the Congressional Budget Office said on Feb. 15 that its latest projections suggest that the United States will no longer be able to borrow with the help of “extraordinary measures” between July and September of this year.
“The cumulative deficit over the 2023–2032 period that we now project is $3 trillion larger than we projected last May, mainly because of newly enacted legislation and changes to the economic forecast that boost interest costs and spending on mandatory programs,” he said, adding that the rise in mandatory spending was largely the result of Medicare and Social Security.
“As the cost of financing the nation’s debt grows, net outlays for interest increase substantially.”
Biden said that “if anyone tries to get rid of Social Security or Medicare,” he will veto the move, referencing Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) plan to sunset the entitlements and all other legislation every five years, requiring them to be reauthorized.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a Feb. 9 interview: “It is clearly the Rick Scott plan. It is not the Republican plan. And that’s the view of the speaker of the House as well.”
McCarthy didn’t respond by press time to a request for comment on Biden’s speech.
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