On Thursday, during his visit to Tampa, Florida, President Biden criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over Medicaid, repeated his claim that Republicans intended to reduce Social Security and Medicare, and hinted that he would punish Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for labeling him a liar.
Taking aim at DeSantis, who he probably fears as much as former President Trump, Biden stated that more than 1.1 million Florida residents would be eligible for Medicaid if Gov. DeSantis agreed to extend it.
It was a deliberate political maneuver on his part to visit Florida and snipe at Republicans in DeSantis’ and Trump’s backyard before maybe launching his candidacy for reelection as president in 2024.
Republicans in Congress have repeatedly said that Social Security and Medicare cuts are not on the table. Still, President Biden keeps making this false claim hoping the American people would eventually believe it.
Falsely reiterating his previous claim, Biden stated that many Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare. Biden addressed that crowd and said if your dream was to cut Social Security and Medicare, then “I’m your worst nightmare.”
He kept brandishing a leaflet on which was printed a remark from Republican Florida Senator Rick Scott, who has said that he believes all laws should be put to the vote every five years. Biden is wrong to equate this with slashing Social Security and Medicare. The Daily Mail reports that before he gave his speech, he left pamphlets on the audience’s seats.
Scott, who presided over the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the last election cycle as its head, has always disputed that he intended for his plan to encompass entitlement systems like Social Security and Medicare.
Scott stated that nobody believes he wants to reduce funding for Medicare or Social Security; he added that he had never used that phrase before. Scott denied having ever made such a claim during a Thursday CNN interview. According to his original proposal, Congress has to explain yearly to the American public how they will ensure those programs don’t go bankrupt since they are on the approach of bankruptcy.
While in Tampa, Biden sarcastically said that maybe Scott had changed his mind or possibly he had seen the Lord. This was essentially an accusation that Scott was lying.
The president mentioned that some Republicans want to get rid of “Obamacare” as well. According to Biden, the Medicaid expansion included in the Affordable Care Act will have the federal government pay 90% of the cost, and the states will pick up the other 10%. The president said the only reason Medicare expansion hasn’t happened here is politics.
Biden said that Medicare expansion would have happened if Charlie Crist, whom DeSantis defeated in a landslide victory in November by almost 20 points, had been elected.
Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist based in Florida, told NBC News that Biden’s speech on Tuesday wasn’t your average State of the Union; it was a false and contentious partisan speech that indicated the unofficial beginning of his 2024 reelection quest. After the speech, he predicted that Biden would undoubtedly head to Florida. The modern Republican Party and the nation’s largest senior citizen population reside in the Sunshine State.
Many Republicans agreed with the Georgia conservative who shouted “you lie” at Biden during his State of the Union speech, so Biden implied that Greene deserved punishment for her actions. ‘By the way, the last person who said that before the Senate got censured by the Senate, by the Congress,’ Biden remarked.
For more news, try: