Biden portrays GOP as threat to economic recovery in campaign-style speech
Naomi Lim
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President Joe Biden underscored economic growth during the last three months of 2022 in a campaign-style address portraying Republicans as a threat to his post-pandemic recovery.
Gross domestic product increased by an annual rate of 2.9% in last year’s fourth quarter, beating expectations, Biden repeated Thursday in Springfield, Virginia. Inflation also eased to 6.5% last month, and jobs continued to be created, he told workers at a steamfitters union hall.
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“We’re moving in the right direction,” Biden said. “And now we’ve got to protect those gains that our policies have generated — protect them from the MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives who are threatening to destroy the progress.”
“Why in God’s name would Americans give up the progress we’ve made for the chaos they’re suggesting?” he added. “They seem determined to be the party of chaos and catastrophe.”
The White House has amplified Republican “chaos” after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s messy speakership election, with aides pointing to their efforts to repeal IRS funding, which Democrats contend is an in-kind tax cut for the wealthy, and their proposal to introduce a 30% national sales tax in lieu of other levies. The attacks sound similar to those aimed at Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) last year after he unveiled his idea to reevaluate Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid every five years.
For Biden, his emphasis on the economy is partly a response to once-reliable Democratic voters in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, starting to support Republicans as the two parties prepare for protracted negotiations over raising the country’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling.
“The very notion that we would default on the safest, most respected debt in the world is mind-boggling,” he said.
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During his remarks, Biden also announced his “Invest in America” Cabinet, comprising his secretaries of commerce, energy, health and human services, labor, transportation, treasury, and EPA administrator, as well as his infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu and Senior Adviser John Podesta.
“The president is charging the Invest in America Cabinet with ensuring that his economic plan is generating private sector investment and continues to drive our economic progress for years ahead,” a White House staffer said.