Focused on 2024, Biden sees opportunity in GOP-held Florida
TAMPA, Florida (AP) — With an eye toward the 2024 campaign, President Joe Biden on Thursday ventured to Florida, a state defined by its growing retiree population and status as the unofficial headquarters of the modern-day Republican Party.
The president sees a chance to use Social Security and Medicare to drive a wedge between GOP lawmakers and their base of older voters who rely on these government programs for income and health insurance. Biden is trying to lay the groundwork for an expected reelection campaign announcement this spring.
White House aides have been using the votes and words of Republican lawmakers to make their case that Social Security and Medicare benefits are under threat, while GOP leaders say their statements are being mischaracterized.
Even as Biden said his focus is on getting things done, his speech in Tampa and remarks the day before in Wisconsin showed how he’s trying to rally the public to his side now that Republicans control the House. In a politically divided country, the ability to get support from older voters who rely on the programs could decide which party holds the White House as well as Congress in the 2024 elections.
At the lectern Thursday, Biden held up a pamphlet about Florida Sen. Rick Scott in which the Republican said he wants to require that the programs be reauthorized every five years.
“I know that a lot of Republicans — their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said. “If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.”
“I will not cut a single Social Security or Medicare benefit,” the president continued. “In fact, I’m going to extend the Medicare trust fund for at least two decades.”
During Tuesday’s State of the Union address, GOP lawmakers jeered when Biden referred to Scott’s proposal. The president seized on the impromptu moment, urging Republicans and Democrats alike to pledge to avoid cuts to the income and health insurance programs.
“Let’s stand up for seniors,” Biden said as most of those in the chamber took to their feet to applaud, knowing the dangers of being on the wrong side of an aging electorate that values these programs.
To drive home their argument, White House aides distributed handouts in Tampa before the speech summarizing Scott’s plan, highlighting the phrase where the senator wrote: “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”
It’s a delicate moment for Social Security and Medicare, programs that economists say will drive the national debt to unprecedented highs over the next few decades. The Social Security trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2035, prompting some Republican lawmakers to say changes will have to be made to sustain payments.
But any proposed changes can come across as kryptonite to voters, who want their benefits preserved rather than cut. That’s especially true in Republican-held Florida, where census figures show that nearly a third of adults are older than 62.
Despite its longtime reputation as the nation’s premier swing state, Florida trended toward the GOP in recent years before lurching sharply to the right last fall. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection by a staggering 19 percentage points in November, even carrying the longtime Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County.