Ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, The White House said that the officials will be going on offense against the House Republican’s proposed potential changes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
This latest burst by the administration came on Monday evening where they blasted two of the GOP bills which proposed on creating panels to study the solvency of Social Security and Medicare. The White House stated that these bills would create “death panels”.
The White House spokesman, Andrew Bates in a statement said that, “They’re opening the week unveiling their latest in a long line of ultimatums about how they’ll act to kill jobs, businesses, and retirement accounts if they can’t cut Medicare and Social Security benefits. Meanwhile, they’re voting to worsen the deficit with tax welfare for the rich and big corporations”.
What the Dispute is All About?
This upcoming dispute is based on the grounds of the current ongoing debt ceiling debate. The Republicans have publicly stated that they want to make spending cuts, but there is a massive divide on what they actually want to cut.
According to Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Medicare and Social Security would be off the table, but other members have also said that they need new reforms in order to have a sustainable future. This means that the party’s proposals of raising the eligibility age or means testing the applicants seem to have some value, depending on which members you ask.
The White House though is all eager to throw this back at the Republicans, and then contrast it with President Biden’s legislative accomplishments.
What are the Next Steps of President Biden?
In his speech on Tuesday, President Biden is expected to highlight how he will be pushing to protect Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and also ObamaCare. A White House fact sheet has also stated that the President will also call on Congress to extend a price cap on insulin to all Americans, rather than just to those with Medicare.
Ahead of his Tuesday speech, President Biden is all set to tout Medicare’s potential new ability to negotiate the prices of a few select drugs, and also the bipartisan legislation on making hearing aids available over the counter.
