Biden accuses Republicans of plan to 'wreck our economy'

By 
 January 26, 2023

President Joe Biden, despite his crafted persona as an affable and kindly grandpa, actually has quite the reputation for being rather petty and snarky, particularly when discussing the ideas of his Republican political opponents.

That was on display Tuesday when Biden sarcastically ripped a GOP tax reform proposal and accused Republicans of planning to "wreck our economy" with their policies, Newsmax reported.

Those comments came during a meeting at the White House with all of the top Democratic leaders from the House and Senate to discuss their own agenda for the next two years.

GOP accused of planning to "wreck our economy"

In his remarks during the public portion of his meeting with Democratic congressional leaders, President Biden first ran through a litany of his supposed accomplishments, both at home and abroad, and what he still planned to do to bolster the U.S. economy.

"And so, we also want to talk about the extreme Republican economic plans," Biden said. "Apparently, they’re genuinely serious about cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare."

"And I love their 30 percent sales tax. That, we’ll -- I’m -- we want to talk a lot about that," he quipped. "But, look, I have no intention of letting the Republicans wreck our economy, nor does anybody around this table, in my view."

Biden and Dems most at fault

The accusation that Republicans stand poised to "wreck our economy" is a pretty bold statement from President Biden, given his own outsized role in leading the national economy to its current tenuous position over the past two years.

In fact, according to the American Enterprise Institute, it is Biden and his Democratic colleagues who controlled Congress for the prior two years, along with the Federal Reserve, that shoulder most of the blame for the current situation of high inflation and possible recession.

For Biden and the Democrats, their share of the blame is due to their irresponsible and reckless spending of money the Treasury simply doesn't have, causing inflation, while the Federal Reserve's fault is its mismanaged monetary policy that kept interest rates too low for too long and has now caused instability with substantial hikes in a short period of time.

The GOP tax reform plan

As for the Republican tax policy plans that President Biden has snarked about repeatedly, it is an idea dubbed the Fair Tax that was introduced in the House recently by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), according to CBS News.

If implemented, the Fair Tax would abolish the Internal Revenue Service and eliminate virtually all federal taxes, including "all individual and corporate income taxes, capital gains, payroll taxes, and estate taxes," among others.

In place of all of that, since the government still needs revenue to operate and address obligations like the national debt and entitlements, a national sales tax on goods and services in the range of 23 percent to 30 percent would be imposed.

Public debate necessary but not possible right now

To be sure, there has been ample criticism of the Republican tax reform ideas, including from some on the right, and there are definitely pros and cons to the Fair Tax plan that should be publicly debated in a healthy and constructive manner.

That isn't really possible, though, when the president who is purportedly all about bipartisanship and unity is instead snidely dismissive in casting damning aspersions against those with whom he has policy disagreements.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
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