President Joe Biden delivered what the White House labeled a “major economic speech on Bidenomics versus MAGAnomics” on Thursday, with the speech coming as polls show most Americans disapprove of his handling of the U.S. economy.
“You’re hearing from our friends on the other side, the MAGA Republicans, what’s wrong with America,” Biden said in a speech at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC.
“They keep telling us America is failing. Well, they’re wrong. They are failing,” the president said. He attacked Republican tax plans to benefit wealthy Americans and corporations, and defended Social Security and Medicare.
Ahead of Biden’s comments, Jared Bernstein, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said Republican lawmakers support “unfair taxes” and “higher costs on families,” and said Biden would “highlight what’s at stake for families as well as budget debates. will be central in the coming weeks and months.”
Divided Washington appears to be on track for a partial government shutdown after September 30, when the federal government’s new budget year begins. Analysts at Height Capital Markets on Thursday raised their probability of a shutdown from 80% to 90%, citing demands from the House Freedom Caucus, a hardline Republican group, that look “unfulfillable.”
To see: House Freedom Caucus is talking tough as the government shutdown could happen in two and a half weeks
“They’re turning their backs on the bipartisan budget deal, the president [Kevin] McCarthy made an appointment with me a few months ago,” Biden said. “They are at it again, breaking their promise and threatening even more cuts and threatening to shut down the government again this month.”
Biden appears to be in a tough sales job as he pitches his economic policies. Only 34% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy, compared with 59% who disapprove, according to a poll Wednesday from Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School and USA Today. That survey also found that more Americans said they had more confidence in former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 Republican primary, than in the Democratic incumbent to improve the economy by a margin of 47% to 36% .
Other polls have reached similar findings, with one from the Wall Street Journal showing that three in five voters disapprove of how Biden is handling the economy, while 63% don’t like how he is handling inflation.
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Charlie Cook, founder of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said in a National Journal column earlier this week that it is “hard to look at recent polling data and not wonder whether his reelection bid is really such a good idea. ”
Other columnists have offered similar takes this week, with the Washington Post’s David Ignatius writing Tuesday that Biden should not run again. The president’s supporters have rejected such columns, and the White House has highlighted surveys showing strong approval for policies such as Biden’s initiative to cap insulin costs for seniors and his effort to give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices.
US shares SPX DJIA ended higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 331 points to claim its biggest daily gain in more than five weeks, after retail sales data showed consumer resilience despite Federal Reserve rate hikes.
Read more: Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott says he wants to emphasize tax cuts