President Joe Biden gestures as he gives remarks on providing additional support to Ukraine’s war efforts against Russia on April 28, 2022 (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden pledged Tuesday to make a fight against inflation his top domestic priority while rebuking Republican economic proposals he said miss the mark — zeroing in on Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott.
The president’s remarks at the White House came after Scott earlier in the day called on Biden to resign because, he said, the chief executive is “unwell, unfit for office, incoherent, incapacitated and confused.”
“I think the man has a problem,” Biden retorted after told by a reporter about Scott’s broadside.
In his speech, Biden directly called out Scott for releasing an 11-point plan that Biden said represents the “ultra MAGA agenda” by a Republican Party that he finds increasingly extreme in its views on everything from tax policy to entitlement programs.
“Their plan is to raise taxes on 75 million American families, over 95% of whom make less than $100,000 a year in total income,” said Biden, who at one point mistakenly referred to Scott as being from Wisconsin. “They’ve got it backwards in my view.”
Biden instead touted his proposal to institute a minimum tax on billionaires and corporations, noting that “55% of the largest corporations paid net-zero in federal taxes on $40 million in profits.”
“That just isn’t right,” he said.
Biden also rejected a plank in Scott’s plan that calls for all federal legislation to sunset within five years. Scott’s proposal says that “If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”
Biden said that would put Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in peril and turn the safety net programs into bargaining chips that Republican lawmakers could hold “hostage” in exchange for other proposals.
“Now if I hadn’t seen it in writing, I’d think somebody is making this up,” Biden said. Read more
