Lauren C. Moye, FISM News
Despite no official announcement of a 2024 presidential run, President Joe Biden’s speech at a Democratic National Committee event in Philadelphia on Friday evening gave every impression that he would be running again.
From the blue Biden and Harris backdrop and joint appearance of the president and Vice President Kamala Harris to the attack on “extreme MAGA republicans,” Biden’s appearance at the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) winter meeting looked like a campaign stump. Democrats have shown signs of rallying around the 80-year-old president for 2024, illustrated by the chants of “four more years” in the room on Friday.
“We have more to do,” Biden said. “We’re just getting started.”
However, Biden has not yet officially announced a re-election bid.
That didn’t stop Biden from attacking the Republican party.
In particular, he criticized GOP efforts to pass a national 30 percent sales tax and to abolish the IRS. The number given is exaggerated from the actual 23 percent rate proposed in the Fair Tax Act. It is also an exaggeration that Republicans as a whole are behind the Fair Tax Act reintroduced by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), which has not yet been voted on in the House.
“It’s not going to happen. I’m going to veto the sucker,” Biden said to his supporters.
He also said he would veto bills that would limit a president’s ability to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, cut Social Security and Medicare, or impose a national abortion ban.
As noted by Willie Tubbs about another recent Biden speech, the threats of veto are an “exercise in rhetorical melodrama” considering U.S. legislative procedures require bills to first pass in the House and the Senate before landing on the President’s desk. Additionally, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said Social Security and Medicare are off-limits when considering federal spending cuts.
The president’s disingenuous rhetoric allows him to create a strawman of the Republican party to boost his supporters’ morale.
We’ve come too far to let MAGA Republicans cut Social Security, cut taxes for billionaires, or impose a 30% national sales tax.
If any of these bills somehow pass, I will veto them.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 30, 2023
His DNC speech last night was no exception.
“These aren’t conservatives. They are disruptive people. They intend to destroy the progress we made,” he said.
Finally, Biden once again criticized the GOP for refusing to raise the debt ceiling without reaching an agreement on spending cuts.
“If Republicans want to work together to find real solutions … I’m ready,” he said. “I’m not going to let anyone use the full faith and credit of the United States as a bargaining chip.”