President Joe Biden is deploying two diametrically opposed strategies for handling congressional Republicans as campaign season kicks into full swing.
One has Biden ramping up on the “ultra-MAGA” GOP heading into the midterm elections, while the other sees him quietly ceding ground to the opposition to ensure the passage of his spending proposals.
The second dynamic was illustrated by the House’s passage of a nearly $40 billion Ukrainian aid package. Biden had previously sent Congress joint requests for supplemental aid for Ukraine and additional COVID-19 funding, but he eventually caved to Republican calls to decouple the requests.
HOUSE PASSES $39.8 BILLION UKRAINIAN AID BILL
“I call on Congress to pass the Ukrainian Supplemental funding bill immediately and get it to my desk in the next few days,” the president said in a statement Monday.
“Previously, I had recommended that Congress take overdue action on much-needed funding for COVID treatments, vaccines, and tests as part of the Ukraine Supplemental bill. However, I have been informed by congressional leaders in both parties that such an addition would slow down action on the urgently needed Ukrainian aid — a view expressed strongly by several congressional Republicans,” Biden said. “We cannot afford delay in this vital war effort. Hence, I am prepared to accept that these two measures move separately, so that the Ukrainian aid bill can get to my desk right away.”
The bill passed by the House is noticeably larger than Biden’s original request and includes nearly $4 billion more in humanitarian aid than what the White House asked for. Fifty-seven Republicans voted against the bill, with reasons ranging from not being able to read the text until midnight on Tuesday morning to wanting the Biden administration to focus on border security rather than the pandemic.
Furthermore, a group of Republican lawmakers has also expressed openness to meeting Biden’s COVID-19 request, should the president postpone ending Title 42, the pandemic-era order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowing for the immediate expulsion of asylum-seekers at the southern border.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki would not say Tuesday if the president would consider preserving Title 42 in exchange for another round of COVID-19 funding.
“There’s a lot of steps that would need to happen before that comes to the president’s desk,” she told reporters at the White House briefing. “I would say our view, or his view, continues to be that the lifting of Title 42 is a decision made by the CDC. It was the authority given to them by Congress. That should not be holding up funding that’s necessary to save the lives of Americans.”
Two senior Republican Senate staffers both suggested to the Washington Examiner their bosses would likely support Biden’s COVID-19 request if Title 42 was allowed to remain in place, but did not say whether the had offices been in communication with the White House on the issue.
A third staffer, however, told the Washington Examiner there’s a “fat chance” any Republican lawmakers would “help Biden get a leg up in the midterms.”
White House officials added that senior officials frequently speak with Hill lawmakers on a “range” of topics but did not give additional details on those talks.
Nevertheless, the president has recently adopted a new messaging campaign comparing his own economic agenda, which he claims will continue to grow the economy “from the bottom up and the middle out,” with the “ultra-MAGA” tax plan proposed by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), which he has repeatedly criticized for raising taxes on people earning less than $100,000 per year.
He has painted Republicans with a broad brush in recent weeks, attacking Scott’s proposal to force Congress to reauthorize public aid programs every five years and claiming a majority of GOP lawmakers have signed off on his plan despite significant opposition voiced by Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and others.
“Really, ask yourself: How well are we going to sleep at night knowing that every five years, MAGA Republicans, if they’re still the Republican — as I said, this is not your father’s Republican Party — if we’re going to have to vote on whether you will have Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and what amounts you’ll have in each of those programs?” he asked during a speech at the White House on Tuesday. “I can’t believe that the majority of Republicans buy on to Scott’s plan. But that’s a plan in writing, and he’s in the leadership.”
Asked about Biden’s comments during Tuesday’s briefing, Psaki specifically cited approval from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
“Ronna McDaniel praised Sen. Scott’s proposal as a, quote, ‘clear plan’ for Republicans that offers, quote, ‘real solutions.’ She’s the chairwoman of the party. Rick Scott is not a random senator. He is literally in charge of winning back the Senate for Republicans and what the plan is,” she said. “So not only that, which seems to be quite a range of Republicans, but there isn’t an alternative plan they’ve put forward. So it’s either this, put together by the person who is leading the effort to win back the Senate, or nothing.”
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“If they have an alternative plan, we would welcome them putting it forward,” Psaki said.
