Biden slams ‘MAGA Republicans’ in Virginia Beach again, saying they would cut Medicaid

President Joe Biden told a Virginia crowd that Republicans may have “found religion” in protecting Social Security and Medicare, but accused them of plotting cuts in health care for the poor and Obamacare.

Biden also hinted at the budget that is expected to be implemented on March 9, saying that people who earn less than $400,000 a year will not pay “a dime” for the tax increases he proposes.

He said the budget plan would explain ‘what we are going to cut, what we are going to spend, what we are going to do. Leave it on the table.

After blasting Republicans for weeks over a plan by Florida Sen. Rick Scott to “cancel” federal programs and require renewal votes in Congress, Biden is turning the tide to Medicaid. He said the Republicans will pull out old plans to cut it in order to meet their budget cut demands.

He pointed to his State of the Union address, where he stood up to both parties in defense of popular programs.

‘As I said, I believe in conversion. Maybe they found religion for Social Security and Medicare,’ Biden said at the Kempsville Recreation Center in Virginia Beach.

The president also reviewed his clash with Republicans during his state of the union address last month, capitalizing on jeers from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“I’ve been around for a long time at the State of Unions,” he said, drawing the approval of a crowd of about 600 people. “I never saw one where the president could openly negotiate with everyone,” Biden said.

‘Remember when Marjorie Taylor was yelling ‘Liar! Liar!’ he remembered.

He reveled in the bipartisan applause he received when he called to protect Social Security and Medicare. ‘Wasn’t it something? All stands up. They were all in front of the camera,” she said.

After his line about the GOP having “found religion,” Biden said, “I hope so, joking aside.” But I’ll believe it when I see it.

If Social Security has been a ‘third rail’ in American politics, Medicaid, which provides health benefits to the poor, has come under regular scrutiny by Republicans for possible cuts.

Biden also discussed the debt limit clash coming this summer and asked why Republicans would vote to raise the debt limit under Donald Trump but not during his administration.

‘If they paid the US debt back then, why the hell are they threatening not to pay it now?’ she said, pointing to the nation’s debt increase of around a quarter over the four-year period.

It’s just politics. And they don’t have to play politics with the lives of Americans and our nation’s economy.

Biden left DC for the short flight aboard Air Force One to Virginia Beach so he could take on the ‘MAGA’ House Republicans, whom he sometimes referred to as ‘my MAGA Republican friends.’

‘They say they want to reduce the deficit. His plans would blow up the deficit, increasing it by $3 trillion over the next 10 years,’ Biden said.

‘If they say they want to reduce the deficit but their plans actually exploit the deficit, how are they going to make the numbers add up? What will they cut?

Like White House officials who anticipated his attacks Monday night, Biden pointed to plans put forward by House Republicans, as well as a plan promoted by former Trump budget director Russell Vought.

‘This is the plan. He wants to end the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act,” Biden said, claiming that “deep cuts” would cause 70 million to lose “critical services.”

Biden said if Republicans try to find savings by “gutting” Medicaid and the ACA, “I will stop them.”

Biden was introduced by Robin Kessler, who spoke about losing his health benefits when he lost his job before the Affordable Care Act was signed into law.

His career as a nurse had him speaking out about his own struggles, when he was hospitalized twice for a brain aneurysm.

He spoke of the difficulties of being in a hospital under the care of a nurse.

You lie in the ICU, which I have done for a long time, and you look at those machines. And you know the line goes flat that it’s over. But you just get tired, you don’t care,” Biden said.

He talked about how a nurse took care of him when he was suffering.

‘I had a nurse named Pearl Nelson. She would come in and do things that I don’t think you learn in nursing school,” she said with a laugh. ‘She whispered in my ear, she couldn’t understand, but she whispered and leaned in. And she really breathes on me to make sure there’s a connection, a human connection.

The White House prepared Biden’s attacks in advance.

With Biden’s budget plan set to be released next month and Republicans yet to release one, the White House is targeting proposals from individual lawmakers, the House budget panel and an influential conservative faction.

“Many trillions in program cuts have been committed,” said Aviva Aron-Dine of the National Economic Council. “The bottom line is this: Republicans in Congress have committed to very deep cuts to programs that count on tens of millions of Americans,” she added.

Biden’s Republican-targeted trip comes on a day when his $400 billion student loan forgiveness campaign is the subject of a high-stakes Supreme Court hearing.

On a trip to Virginia Beach on Tuesday afternoon, Biden “will highlight the devastating impacts the Republican MAGA proposals will have on health care and families’ budgets across the country,” the principal deputy director for communications told reporters. of the White House, Kate Berner.

Biden has pledged to present his budget on March 9, leading to a season of tense negotiations with Republicans as extraordinary measures to prevent the country from exceeding the legal debt limit peter out.

Over a decade, Biden’s budget aims to cut $2 trillion in debt, which stands at $31 trillion.

With no current Republican budget to use as a contrast, the White House points to cuts proposed by Republicans from the House Budget Committee and a budget proposed by the conservative Republican Study Committee, which includes a majority of the Republican Conference of the camera.

“This year, individual members of Congress and the House Budget Committee have continued to point to the ACA (Affordable Care Act) or Medicaid as targets for cuts,” he said, also pointing to a budget proposed by former Trump budget director Russell Vought. who is allegedly advising the Republican Party.

Biden met in person with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who adopted the strategy of demanding spending cuts in exchange for any increase in the debt limit.

After a standoff during Biden’s State of the Union, McCarthy has said that Social Security and Medicare should be “completely off the table” during debt ceiling negotiations.

That leaves domestic programs if the GOP goes for cuts.

The White House was coy when first asked why Biden was running the effort in Virginia Beach, but later conceded that the state had seen a 7 percent drop in its uninsured rate since the Act was enacted. of Affordable Health Care.

Republicans are demanding cuts, with projections that the nation’s debt will remain more than 100 percent of GDP in the future.

The White House says the GOP plans would actually increase debt in the short term.

“They’ve also laid out an agenda that starts with increasing debt by more than $3 trillion with tax cuts because of big, wealthy corporations, and repealing prescription drug reforms enacted last year as part of the Cut Inflation Act. Aaron said. Dine said, arguing that health care would be “clearly on the chopping block.”

Biden is in a position to veto Republican plans to try to repeal his Cut Inflation Act or his funding for thousands of IRS employees, and the Democrats who control the Senate may kill off many of the Republican Party’s budget plans for the Camera.