Biden campaign appears to Kamala Harris to strengthen minority assist ahead of 2024

Julia Johnson

August 01, 02:16 PM August 01, 02:20 PM

President Joe Biden's 2024 reelection marketing campaign is relying on Vice President Kamala Harris to assist converse his system to black and Latino voters, who convey low enthusiasm amid economic struggles.

Harris has been deployed over the final few weeks to make many speeches to best black and Latino groups across the region. Very last thirty day period, she spoke at historically black sorority Delta Sigma Theta’s 56th national convention, to UnidosUS, a distinguished Latino civil rights group, in Chicago, Illinois, and most not long ago to the NAACP's party in Boston, Massachusetts.

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The back again-to-back again gatherings arrive as Biden's team looks to get back help among critical minority groups that ensured his victory in 2020. These usually are not necessarily the only groups that Harris is rallying assist from. The marketing campaign sees the vice president as a particularly productive coalition builder amid younger voters and females as very well, which is only supplemented by her id as a black and Indian female. Additional, though Harris is just not thought of young, she is about 20 years Biden's junior, placing her in much nearer proximity to youth voters.

The transfer is premised on the campaign's purpose of enjoying to the strengths of Biden and Harris. For example, speeches to labor unions and suppliers thus considerably have been helmed by the president.

Biden and Harris's early gatherings with these groups are component of a bigger strategy to coalesce every single component of the Democratic and unbiased electorate about the president early on right before he heads into a basic election with the Republican nominee in 2024.

Harris's purpose, significantly when it arrives to nurturing Biden's aid with minority People, continued Tuesday as she headed to Orlando, Florida, to discuss at the African Methodist Episcopal Church Quadrennial Convention. She was expected to renew criticism versus Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who is presently operating for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

She recently attacked Florida's new black heritage instructing specifications, expressing "they want to replace heritage with lies, [and] center university students in Florida to be instructed that enslaved persons benefited from slavery." DeSantis pushed back again wholeheartedly in opposition to her claim, accusing the vice president of lying.

Biden's 2024 campaign requires to be certain enthusiasm amid critical minority teams in purchase to win reelection. Nonetheless, his acceptance amid black and Latino Individuals has declined due to the fact he took place of work in 2021, according to FiveThirtyEight. While he noticed a dip in acceptance between black voters, he noticed an even steeper decline with Latinos.

Furthermore, voter turnout was reasonably lessen among black voters in the 2022 midterm elections.

In Ga, which has turn out to be a key battleground point out in latest several years, Biden's battle with black Americans is obvious. According to Bloomberg, black voters in the next-most significant Black population in the state, Atlanta, Georgia, are emotion the sting of inflation.

“Right now, they are not working and jumping that he is the candidate and would favored to have observed a different voice,” said Billy Honor, arranging director at the New Georgia Undertaking.

Voters in the populous, black metropolitan region are sensation especially enable down by the state of the overall economy and even more by the disappointment of Biden's university student personal loan forgiveness plan, which was squashed by the Supreme Court docket.

The campaign, while, is assured that it can rebuild enthusiasm amid this team. In the operates is an aggressive media campaign that Biden's workforce expects to attain minority voters and address their considerations.

A person vivid spot for the marketing campaign arrived in the variety of the New York Moments/Siena Faculty poll unveiled Tuesday. Biden's acceptance among black Us citizens enhanced by 7 percentage details considering that Oct of 2022, achieving 60%. His approval from the Latino community, on the other hand, fell by 7 factors.

Biden tries to break through as GOP primary brawl starts

Naomi Lim

April 17, 04:00 AM April 17, 04:01 AM

President Joe Biden was hoping to underscore his record with the public before announcing a highly anticipated reelection campaign.

But declared and undeclared Republican presidential candidates, including former President Donald Trump, are hogging the political spotlight as the 2024 primary enters the spring, though not always to Biden's disadvantage.

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Biden acting presidential compared to "the dumpster fire engulfing the Republican Party" is a proverbial political split-screen "I’d take any day of the week," according to former White House principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz.

"President Biden is not going to get as much attention as his [predecessor] does for getting indicted, and that’s OK because this contrast is why Democrats have prevailed in the last three election cycles," Schultz told the Washington Examiner.

But Schultz encouraged reporters assessing a president's success by their media coverage to engage in "some self-reflection" as Biden returns from a five-day trip to Northern Ireland and Ireland.

"The journalists who ask if Biden is going to get drowned out are the same journalists breathlessly covering Donald Trump wall-to-wall," he said.

Democratic strategist Tracy Sefl contended Biden's accomplishments, such as the partisan American Rescue Plan Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, will be promoted "in a more subtle way" amid "the Trump-GOP food fights."

"What I mean by that is, for example, a voter may be inundated with news about the latest Republican outrage, but they‘ll be listening to the coverage while driving home from a doctor’s appointment in their newly affordable electric vehicle over a local bridge that’s been fully repaired," she said.

But fellow strategist Mark Mellman disputed the assumption Biden is not commanding the public's attention, despite the White House taking advantage of preplanned trips across the country to attract local news coverage while national and international outlets were focused on Trump's indictment.

"[Presidents] always have competition, apathy and disinterest most important, but President Biden will always have the opportunity to talk to the American people," he said. "On any given day, Trump’s grave legal perils may well dominate the news. But President Biden has access to the public every and any day."

At the same time, Biden's trips to Minnesota and North Carolina were overshadowed by Trump speculating about being indicted in New York before Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg advised the former president he was proceeding with charges.

For Duke University Polis Center Director Mac McCorkle, Biden's trip to semiconductor manufacturer Wolfspeed in Durham, North Carolina, to launch his "Investing in America Tour" and discuss his economic agenda was not "buried," but he did recall MSNBC leading with Trump's potential indictment instead.

"If it's Trump in the general [election], it's still going to be a referendum on Trump in many respects, so I just don't know that there's anything that Biden can do about it," he said. "And I'm not sure he has to do anything about that."

But University of Minnesota Center for the Study of Politics and Governance Director Lawrence Jacobs pointed to Biden's 43%-52% approval-disapproval rating after his visit to the Cummins Power Generation Factory, north of Minneapolis, where the president also cited his clean energy achievements.

"Plenty of bad news now: inflation, possible decline of [the] economy, massive intel breach, etc.," he said. "Ducking coverage in 2023 [is] probably better than having headlines on bad news."

The White House has been trying to strike a balance between criticizing the Republican field without amplifying any presidential hopeful's message. But Biden aides do not seem to mind relitigating abortion access, entitlement reform, and gun control, with Democrats attributing their outperformance in last year's midterm elections to their positions on those issues.

As the Republican contenders attack one another on Social Security and Medicare, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was ready with a statement scrutinizing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for signing a bill into law that will further restrict Florida's abortion ban from 15 to six weeks into a pregnancy.

"At every opportunity following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, from the Kansas ballot initiative in August to five abortion ballot initiatives in November to last week’s elections in Wisconsin, the message has been clear: Americans demand the freedom to make their own decisions about their own bodies without government interference," she wrote Friday.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates similarly criticized "MAGA Republicans" for attending this weekend's National Rifle Association's convention in Indianapolis. Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH), former Arkansas GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and multimillionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy addressed the conference in person. DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley recorded video remarks.

"Unlike MAGA House Republicans, President Biden is acting to keep kids safe by providing communities with funding for well-trained school resource officers and appropriate school physical security improvements, among other school safety strategies that communities may choose for their schools," Bates wrote in a statement. "But we can’t stop there. We have to keep weapons of war off our streets and out of our schools, and take other commonsense steps to keep guns out of dangerous hands."

Biden budget reveals president's top priorities to voters ahead of 2024

Cami Mondeaux

March 09, 08:10 AM March 09, 08:10 AM

President Joe Biden is set to release his budget proposal for the next fiscal year on Thursday, targeting four key areas as he courts voters ahead of his expected reelection campaign.

Biden is expected to release the long-awaited budget around noon during a visit to Pennsylvania as he unveils some of his top campaign priorities to the critical swing state. The budget release is largely symbolic, as it’s unlikely that Congress will approve the proposal in its current form, but it serves as campaign fodder as Biden teases a reelection bid.

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Here are the four key areas Biden will target in his budget proposal:

Higher taxes for the wealthy to reduce deficit over next decade

One of Biden’s key proposals is to implement higher taxes for the wealthiest taxpayers as a way to reduce the federal deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade.

Biden will announce a 25% tax increase on households that are worth more than $100 million as a way to tax unrealized capital gains that often go overlooked, according to the New York Times. By doing that, the White House hopes to raise about $360 billion in revenue over the next 10 years.

He’ll also call for higher taxes for oil and gas companies, eliminating subsidies that have allowed the industry to benefit from so-called “special tax treatment.” Biden will also propose to reverse Trump-era tax cuts for high earners and corporations, raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.

Biden’s not expected to request much funding to go toward COVID-19, signaling the president is ready to phase out its emergency response over the coming months.

Decrease costs for families

Biden is especially expected to target families in his budget proposal, seeking to reduce costs in a number of areas. His budget proposal is expected to pour funds into child care and education, seeking to allocate $22.1 billion into early care and education programs.

Biden will also increase pressure to reduce the cost of insulin, seeking a maximum cap of $35 a month — reviving past debates and backing Republicans into a corner over the matter. That proposal builds on previous efforts by Biden to cap insulin prices for Medicare beneficiaries in his Inflation Reduction Act, seeking to extend that to all Americans.

Extend Medicare and Social Security benefits

Biden’s budget will seek to extend Medicare and Social Security protections for 25 years without cutting any of the program’s benefits or increasing costs. The president hopes to achieve those goals by “modestly” increasing tax rates for taxpayers earning an annual income of more than $400,000 from 3.8% to 5%, according to a memo sent by the White House earlier this week.

His proposal would also seek to close loopholes that allow some high-income earners to avoid paying the 3.8% Medicare tax. In doing so, Biden’s plan would extend Medicare’s benefits until 2050 without cutting benefits.

The budget proposal comes as lawmakers are considering ways to salvage Medicare and Social Security benefits amid concerns the programs will go insolvent in the next few years. Biden has repeatedly accused Republicans of seeking to cut Medicare and Social Security benefits, hoping to use the attack as fodder in the 2024 election cycle.

“The Unity Agenda”

Biden is expected to request a defense budget of more than $835 billion in Thursday’s proposal, marking one of the largest peacetime defense budgets in U.S. history.

He’ll also press lawmakers to invest in what he considers a “unity agenda,” proposing to pour money into cancer research, mental health services, and combating the opioid epidemic. Biden may also revive efforts to increase funding for community college, following through with previous proposals that have failed to make their way through Congress.

Biden launches opening salvo in debt ceiling fight against GOP with budget release

Naomi Lim

March 09, 05:45 AM March 09, 05:45 AM

President Joe Biden's budget may be an aspirational document with no chance of clearing a GOP-controlled House, but it is also a political document as he braces for what is likely to be a bitter fight with Republicans over the debt ceiling before next year's elections.

Biden hopes to use this as an opening argument against the Republicans before the debt ceiling battle begins in earnest.

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Biden, who has repeated how budgets underscore values, will announce his fiscal 2024 framework in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday, an event overshadowed by the looming debt ceiling.

Biden has pledged not to negotiate with Republicans over raising the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, contending the country's credit rating is too important to risk a default. And despite the prospect of a deadline, far-reaching economic consequences, and the president's desire to be a bipartisan deal-maker, Biden should "hold firm" in that strategy, according to Democrats such as former consultant Christopher Hahn.

"The House Republicans have members who are extremely vulnerable, and if the hard-liners in the party continue to play chicken with the full faith and credit of the United States, the 18 GOP members who hold seats in districts Biden won in 2020 will surely blink," the former Chuck Schumer aide and Aggressive Progressive podcast host told the Washington Examiner. "Or at least enough to increase the debt ceiling."

Biden has Republicans "in a bind" because he "rope-a-doped the GOP into taking Social Security and Medicare off the table during the State of the Union," former Democratic operative Sandy Maisel added. Republicans shouted the president down during his address when he suggested lawmakers, including Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), hoped to reform the entitlement programs.

"[On Thursday,] he will put forth his budget proposal, which progressives will think is too accommodating," Maisel said. "Biden will challenge the GOP to come up with an alternative."

"That, I assume, will either be so vague as to be meaningless — cut the waste, which, of course, cannot be isolated — or painful to lots of voters," the Colby College visiting politics instructor and onetime candidate went on. "That will put Biden in a much better position to negotiate than he would be if he said he was ready to talk before the GOP had to put anything forward."

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has vocally disapproved of Biden's strategy, calling on his colleagues to "stop the madness and start acting reasonably and responsibly to get our government's financial house in order." Manchin sat down with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in January to discuss the debt ceiling. The president met with McCarthy a few weeks later in February at the White House.

“There's always times to have arguments and disagreements," Manchin said last week on the Senate floor. "But the looming debt crisis cannot. It cannot basically have the disruption that we have and the discourse and political toxic atmosphere that we have here. We've got to come together for the sake of our great country."

But while Biden is posturing, so too are Republicans. The House Republican Study Committee, for one, has distilled GOP priorities and identified possible presidential concessions, such as lowering fiscal 2024 discretionary spending to the fiscal 2022 level of $1.5 trillion, in addition to introducing a discretionary spending cap for up to 10 years, as well as reallocating unused American Rescue Plan Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and Inflation Reduction Act spending, before the House Budget Committee is due to respond to Biden on April 15.

Previews of Biden's budget promote how it will decrease the federal debt by $3 trillion over a decade. He has also detailed his ideas for Medicare. Specifically, the president is pitching extending Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund “by at least 25 years" by increasing the Medicare tax rate for people earning more than $400,000 from 3.8% to 5% and redirecting $200 billion in savings created by the Inflation Reduction Act's prescription drug negotiation provisions to the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund. He is additionally expected to ask for $835 billion in defense spending and a 5.2% pay raise for federal employees.

Bipartisan Policy Center Senior Vice President Bill Hoagland, a budget expert, praised Biden for trying to decrease deficits but asserted that was "not going to reduce the level of debt to [gross domestic product] by a significant amount."

"Just to stabilize the level of debt to GDP at where we are today, I think they need well into the $6 to $8 trillion mark," he said.

Hoagland described Biden's Medicare taxes as "pretty much dead on arrival with a Republican Congress." Instead, the veteran Senate Republican staffer advocated broader simplification of the tax code, combined with efforts to decrease Medicare's growth rate. For Hoagland, nondefense discretionary spending will have to be reduced by "a good 15% to 20%" if the president's total discretionary top line is $1.7 trillion to meet Republicans' $1.5 trillion demand.

"I'm worried about this," he added. "You do have to negotiate; you have to find some sort of a compromise. And that's why I think that setting some sort of a cap on '24 discretionary spending will certainly allow for Republicans to claim that they have saved some money and to move forward."

The White House has been pushed on Biden's emphasis of the budget, traveling to Pennsylvania, a critical presidential and Senate battleground state, to present it. Rather, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has argued that Biden prefers to outline his agenda "in a transparent way."

"The thing that makes us really speak to this even more is because they have talked about ... cutting some programs that are incredibly — two programs and more — that are incredibly important to the American people: Social Security, Medicare, ACA, Medicaid," Jean-Pierre said of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

"That's what they're saying they want to move forward with," she went on. "And the president is saying, 'You know what? I'm going to continue fighting for the American people. I'm going to continue fighting for taxpayers who have paid into these programs since they started their first job, some of them as teenagers.'"