President Biden said Thursday that so-called MAGA Republicans are failing while making the pitch for his own economic agenda and achievements under the banner of “Bidenomics.”
“You hear from our friends on the other side, the MAGA Republicans, what’s wrong with America. Everything’s wrong with America. They keep telling us America’s failing,” the president said in remarks at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Md. “Well they’re wrong: They’re failing. America’s not failing, America’s winning, and there’s one reason for it: you.”
At the event, which looked a lot like a campaign speech, the president said that his agenda is about “investing in America and investing in Americans.”
He has been working to sell Bidenomics, which is his vision for building the economy from the bottom up and the middle out and moving away from trickle-down economics. But the idea hasn’t really taken off yet with the voters, who are still seeing high prices on gas and other goods.
“Remind me to get those gas prices down again, I promise ya,” Biden said.
The White House earlier Thursday rolled out a memo that warned against so-called MAGAnomics, arguing that Biden’s and former President Trump’s differing economic agendas will “define the fall budget debates.”
Biden, during his speech, took out a copy of the budget of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest conservative caucus in the House. The group proposed cutting $16.3 trillion in spending in over a decade.
“Their plan, MAGAnomics, is more extreme than anything America’s ever seen before,” he said, asking if audience members at the community college had a copy.
“I’m the only president who hands out the oppositions’ economic plan,” Biden said. “Since I’ve come to office all they’ve really done is attack me and my economic plan.”
Biden said the RSC plan cuts taxes for the very wealthy and cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while raising costs for families.
The RSC is pushing back on the claims that it supports cuts to those programs. It does not include any age increases for Medicare eligibility, but does include some “modest adjustments to the retirement age.”
Under their model, the retirement age would be increased at a rate of three months per year — but not for current or near-retirees — starting in 2026, until it reaches 69 for those turning 62 in 2033.
Much of the group’s model budget opposes so-called woke policies, including opposing gender-affirming health care for transgender youth and beyond, boosting protections for religious institutions and taking aim at critical race theory.
“For all the time they spend attacking me and my plan, here’s what they never do, they never talk about what they want to do,” Biden said.
He also took direct swipes at Trump, targeting him about job creation under his administration versus the Biden one. He brought up, as he has done in several recent speeches, that Trump is one of two presidents who left office with fewer jobs than when he entered.
“One was President Hoover and the other was Donald Hoover Trump,” Biden said. “My predecessor promised to be the greatest job president in history. Well, it didn’t really work out that way. He lost 2 million jobs in the course of his presidency.”