What do you call a person who cherishes the life of the unborn? The same thing, apparently, that you call a person who promotes ideas of basic fiscal responsibility: an “extremist,” or even an “ultra-MAGA” extremist, according to President Joe Biden, who once pledged to unify the country.
Answering questions from the journalists on Wednesday, the president sharply criticized the “extreme ultra-MAGA” agenda of the Republican party concerning its stance on abortion and the economy.
Abortion
According to the White House transcript of the remarks, the president was asked about the leaked draft majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
The president replied, “This is about a lot more than abortion,” and pointed to Roe as part of the right to privacy.
Recalling the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for President Ronald Reagan’s nominee Robert Bork in the late 1980s, Biden said, “I believe I have the rights that I have not just because the government gave them to me, which you believe, but because I’m just a child of God; I exist.’” The self-proclaimed Catholic did not seem to be bothered with the idea of him, being a “child of God,” supporting the killing of unborn and viable children of God.
Biden also suggested that the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade could mean that the government could regulate couples from using birth control, referring to the Griswold v. Connecticut case that invalidated a Connecticut law that made it a crime to use birth control devices or to advise anyone about their use.
The president went on to warn, “What are the next things that are going to be attacked?”
“What happens if you have — a state changes the law saying that — that children who are LGBTQ can’t be in classrooms with other children? Is that — is that legit under the way the decision is written?” The president asked before delivering his final attack.
“Because this MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that’s existed in American history — in recent American history,” he concluded.
As The New American has observed, Biden himself was an “extremist” opposing Roe for at least a decade.
“I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far,” he told the Washingtonian in 1974. In 1982, he voted for a constitutional amendment to undo the decision and let states decide, just as the leaked draft ruling prescribes.
As for “the most extreme” part, the New York Post argued,
Even if 1960s terrorist groups like the Weathermen don’t count, how does Biden ignore the substantial wing of his own party that wants to defund the police as inherently racist, not to mention the #AbolishICE crowd? Oh, and also end all US carbon emissions without actually having practical alternatives.”
Not to mention Biden’s own open-border policies and Covid mandates.
Economy
The president, whose main economic achievements are record-high inflation, looming food shortages, and the destruction of America’s energy independence, sharpened the contrast between his policies and what he derided as the “ultra-MAGA agenda” of the Republicans.
Biden focused his attack on the economic plan put forward by the leader of the Republican National Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senator Rick Scott of Florida.
Scott, according to Biden, “released what he calls the ‘Ultra-MAGA Agenda.’ It’s a MAGA agenda all right.”
The president continued,
Let me tell you about this Ultra-MAGA Agenda. It’s extreme, as most MAGA things are. It will actually raise taxes on 75 million American families, over 95 percent of whom make less than $100,000 a year.
Among the hardest hit: working families, kids with folks. Imagine you’re a family of four and you don’t pay — you don’t make enough money to have federal taxes. You’re not technically — because you don’t — you don’t make enough money to pay them. You pay all your taxes, but you — you just don’t make enough.”
Senator Scott’s strategic plan is called “Rescue America,” not “Ultra-MAGA agenda.” Its point “Economy/Growth,” says, among other things, “All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount. Currently over half of Americans pay no income tax.”
Scott previously stated that his proposal will not raise taxes on retirees who “have already paid plenty into the system” or on working-class Americans who “already pay into the system, whether through income tax, payroll tax, or state and local taxes.”
The senator further noted:
We have a sizable class of people in the country who live off government handouts, even though they could be working. I’m talking about able-bodied, working-age Americans. They need to contribute to the system they are benefiting from. The best way to do this is by getting a job. If they refuse to work, they need to be required to pay into the system.
According to Statista, in 2021, 57.1 percent of American households paid no individual federal income tax. In that same year, about 66.9 percent of households with an income between $40,000 and $50,000 paid no individual federal income taxes.
As reported by The New American, Biden’s aggressive $1.9-trillion American Rescue Plan was viewed by many observers as a major disincentive for people to look for employment. “Government paying people more to stay home than to work has crushed the ability of businesses to get workers back,” lamented Adam Brandon, president of the conservative FreedomWorks advocacy group, last year. In an effort to spur job creation, Republican governors across the country were looking to slash additional coronavirus-related jobless benefits.
In the meantime, with the midterm election on the horizon, the president’s approval rating hit the low 30s in some polls, and “nearly every Democratic strategist [is] warning that the political environment is dire,” as admitted even by CNN. According to political strategists who spoke with the outlet, “the President is short on other options” to appeal to the dejected Democrats and undecided voters.
Utilizing the stark political polarization of the country seems like one option — never mind that just last January, Biden vowed to “unify the country.”
“I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify; who doesn’t see red states and blue states, only sees the United States,” said president-elect in his first public address.
Back then, he addressed the supporters of President Donald Trump, who ran his first campaign on the “Make America Great Again” slogan,
I understand the disappointment tonight. But now let’s give each other a chance…. To make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies, they are Americans.
But, as with his previous abortion stance, Biden appears to have forgotten this pledge.
