President Biden and Vice President Harris are laser-focused on growing the economy from the middle-out and the bottom-up – vowing to protect essential programs such as Social Security and Medicare, overseeing historic investments to update our nation’s infrastructure, and helping to create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs. Meanwhile, MAGA Republicans are running for president to end Social Security and Medicare as we know it and rig the economy for the ultra-wealthy and corporations against the middle class – all after Trump and the GOP sent the national debt soaring and presided over the worst jobs record since the Great Depression. 

President Biden has promised to protect Social Security and Medicare while 2024 Republicans are hellbent on slashing essential benefits that hard working families and seniors rely on. 

CNN: “Former President Donald Trump once backed raising the retirement age to 70 and called for privatizing Social Security which he called a ‘Ponzi scheme’ – two positions he has hammered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for supporting as a former member of Congress and congressional candidate. … but a CNN KFile review found Trump himself also once praised Ryan on Medicare, along with the 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, without praising their specific policy proposal, which called for similar changes to Ryan’s plan.”

CNN: “A CNN KFile review of comments from DeSantis’ 2012 congressional campaign found he repeatedly said he supported plans to replace Medicare with a system in which the government paid for partial costs of private plans or a traditional Medicare plan. In one interview with a local newspaper, DeSantis said he supported ‘the same thing’ for Social Security, citing the need for ‘market forces’ to restructure the program.”

Semafor: “Mike Pence isn’t running from his old fiscal conservatism. Instead, he’s seemingly leaning into it by talking about privatizing Social Security, an idea the party largely abandoned after a politically damaging push in 2005.

“‘I think the day could come where we can replace the New Deal with a Better Deal,’ he said during an interview in February. ‘Literally give younger Americans the ability to take a portion of their Social Security withholdings and put that into a private savings account that the government would oversee.’”

Associated Press: “Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is proposing changes to entitlement programs for younger generations, opening the door to potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare if elected.”

Washington Post: “Other potential entrants in the Republican primary, such as former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) and South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem, also voted for Ryan’s [proposal to cut and privatize Medicare] when they were in Congress.”

Christie: “We’re going to have to reduce Medicare benefits. We’re going to have to reduce Medicaid benefits. We’re going to have to raise the Social Security age. We’re going to have to do these things. We’re going to have to cut all types of other government programs that some people in this room might like.”

While President Biden is working to build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, 2024 Republicans have gifted big corporations and the ultra-wealthy with tax giveaways. 

New York Times: “A new tax break that President Trump frequently touts as a boon to Black Americans and hard-hit communities is spurring relatively little job creation while disproportionately helping high-profit real estate projects and not small businesses, an extensive new study by the Urban Institute has found.”

IndyStar: “Gov. Mike Pence on Tuesday signed into law a package of tax cuts for business that would give Indiana one of the nation’s lowest corporate tax rates. Senate Bill 1 would reduce the corporate income tax to 4.9 percent from 6.5 percent by 2021, making it the second-lowest in the country.”

Seeking Rents: “Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled state Legislature teamed up to pass a pair of bills that made it easier for billionaires to hide their fortunes from the outside world — and from federal taxes.”

Scott: “In 2017, I was one of the architects of reforming the personal side of the tax code.”

CNN Opinion: “Haley proposed a tax swap, a lowering of the top marginal income tax rate for the wealthiest South Carolinians in exchange for an increase in the gas fee that everyone pays.” 

Let’s not forget that the national debt SKYROCKETED under President Trump’s leadership.

Washington Post Analysis: “One of President Donald Trump’s lesser-known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt. The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office.”

Washington Post Analysis: “The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.”

Politico: “The nation’s fiscal outlook looks ever bleaker, thanks in part to deficit spending during President Donald Trump’s first term, Congress’ nonpartisan budget scorekeeper projected Tuesday.”

And Trump’s presidency produced the worst jobs numbers since the Great Depression.

Fortune: “Trump to leave office with the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover”

Washington Post: “President Trump took office at the crest of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. He leaves presiding over the worst labor market in modern U.S. history, as an already-sputtering economic recovery has turned negative.”

The contrast couldn’t be clearer: President Biden’s economic agenda is delivering for America’s middle class while MAGA Republicans want to pad the pockets of big corporations and the ultra-rich at the expense of working families. 

CNBC: “Biden budget calls for ‘protecting and strengthening’ Social Security”

Washington Post: “Biden announces $42 billion to expand high-speed internet access”

“The funding — a centerpiece of the recent bipartisan infrastructure law — marks the largest-ever federal push to help an estimated 8.5 million families and businesses”

New Yorker: “Biden Heads for the Midterms with Ten Million New Jobs”

Yahoo: “Under President Biden, however, a manufacturing boom finally seems to be getting started. Since the beginning of 2022, construction spending on new factories has more than doubled, from an annualized rate of $91 billion in January 2022 to $189 billion in April 2023, the latest data available. That’s the biggest jump, by far, in data going back to 2002.”

The Hill: “A surge in manufacturing construction across the country is grabbing the attention of economists and workers on the ground as legislative efforts to reinvigorate the U.S. industrial base are bearing fruit.”