On Friday, President Biden appeared during a Democratic National Committee event. His speech during the event was perceived by many to resemble more a presidential campaign speech rather than the speech of a president, despite the fact that Biden has not yet officially announced his bid for 2024. When Biden first entered the room with Vice President Harris on his side, they were greeted with chants of “four more years.”
Throughout his speech Biden was heavily critical of the Republicans, stating that while they ran their entire midterm campaigns on inflation, all they appeared to be doing was making “it worse.” He also spoke negatively about the Republican’s newest bills, one of which sought to limit the President’s access to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while the other was aiming to impose a 30 percent sales tax throughout the nation.
Biden said that he would not allow any of these bills to go through and that he would “veto” them. He added that he was also going to veto any attempt made by the Republicans to cut Social Security, and Medicare or even impose a nationwide ban on abortions. He continued by saying that the modern-day Republican party does not resemble the Republican party of a few decades ago. Instead, they are just trying to “destroy the progress we made.”
Despite his criticisms, the President said that he looks forward to negotiating with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) following their meeting. He added that the White House maintains that the debt ceiling should be raised without any conditions. However, Republicans have maintained that an increase in the debt ceiling should be paired with government spending cuts.