President Joe Biden's speech on Tuesday afternoon in Virginia Beach focused on health care as Republican lawmakers urge him to negotiate over spending levels ahead of next week's budget release.
Biden spoke to a crowd of about 600 people at the Kempsville Recreation Center for about 30 minutes.
During his remarks, he talked about his administration's priorities and contrasted them to Republicans. Biden said the GOP could try to cut health care programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and Obamacare.
“What are they going to cut? That’s the big question,” Biden said Tuesday. “For millions of Americans, health care hangs in the balance.”
Biden also took aim at GOP lawmakers who are part of the "Make America Great Again," or MAGA, movement. He said they're willing to cut funding for health care and would allow the U.S. government to default on its debt by not raising the debt ceiling.
Rep. Jen Kiggans, the GOP congresswoman from Virginia Beach, said that Biden came to spread "partisan rumors,” since Republican lawmakers have already ruled out cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
“The president has shown that his talk of bipartisanship is simply political theatre,” said Kiggans, who has worked as a geriatric nurse. "Healthcare should never be used as a partisan publicity stunt.”
The president is due to release his budget plan on March 9, promising to trim the national debt by $2 trillion over 10 years. He's pledged to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid and defend Social Security from reductions in spending.
In the absence of a specific GOP plan, Biden administration officials are sketching worst-case scenarios for what Republicans might do, based on past statements, including what the White House warns could be deep cuts to Medicaid, which covers roughly 84 million people and has grown by 20 million since January 2020, just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Administration officials also said potential cuts to the Obama-era Affordable Care Act could jeopardize coverage for more than 100 million people with preexisting medical conditions and imperil free preventative care and cut back prescription drug coverage.
However, with Democrats controlling the Senate and Biden in the White House, there is virtually no chance of major GOP health care legislation being enacted. The greater challenge is whether lawmakers can find common ground, as the government needs to raise its legal borrowing authority by this summer in order to keep operating.
Biden has said the debt limit should be raised without conditions because it reflects previous spending commitments while McCarthy is pushing for negotiations on the debt that would include spending cuts.
White House officials are trying to draw attention to the lack of an overall blueprint from the GOP. Republican leaders kept their distance from an earlier proposal by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., that would have left Social Security and Medicare up for renewal every five years, along with other federal programs. Scott has now revised his plan to exempt Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits and other essential services.
There are some Republican lawmakers who want to repeal Biden’s 2022 climate change and health care law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law capped insulin costs at $35 per month for older adults on Medicare and enabled the government insurance program to negotiate on prescription drug prices. It also beefed up funding for the IRS and created incentives to move away from fossil fuels.
A majority of adults in the U.S. already say that health care is not handled well in the country, according to a poll last fall from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
And about two-thirds of adults think it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all people have health care coverage, with adults ages 18 to 49 more likely than those over 50 to hold that view. The percentage of people who believe health care coverage is a government responsibility has risen in recent years, ticking up from 57% in 2017 and 62% in 2019.
And about half of U.S. adults think that Medicare and Medicaid should play a larger role in paying for living assistance. But that would mean more government funding, not less.
Following the president's remarks, Congressman Bobby Scott released the following statement:
"I am grateful that President Biden visited Hampton Roads earlier today to let our community know about all the work that Congressional Democrats and the Biden Administration have done to expand access to health care and lower the costs of care and prescription drugs. President Biden again made it clear that this Administration will continue fighting to lower costs for families and protect Social Security and Medicare. President Biden and Congressional Democrats’ agenda stands in stark contrast to the extreme MAGA agenda of House Republicans who have used their new majority to protect corporations, the wealthy and well-connected. They also seem more than willing to bring the nation to the brink of an economic disaster by not honestly working with the President and Congressional Democrats to raise the debt ceiling, which was increased four times under President Trump without fanfare.
“Unfortunately, I could not join the President during his visit because as the Ranking Member of the Committee on the Education and the Workforce, I was introducing the bipartisan Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a critical bill that will ensure workers the unfettered right to form a union and collectively bargain - legislation that President Biden has said is one of his top priorities. I am looking forward to moving this bill forward to level the playing field for America’s workers and continuing our fight to lower costs for families in Hampton Roads and across the country."
