September 17, 2023
President Joe Biden, who has reclaimed the term Bidenomics from skeptics of his economic policies, contrasted his vision with the MAGAnomics of his rivals in a Maryland speech Thursday.
"The country should know the facts. They should know the choice between Bidenomics and MAGAnomics," Biden said, using "MAGAnomics" as a term for Republican economic policy for the first time. "Look, their plan, MAGAnomics, is more extreme than anything America has ever seen before."
Biden delivered his speech at Prince George's Community College in Largo, where he began by repeating his often-delivered joke about how he didn't "see a whole of trickle down on my dad's kitchen table."
"Up to now, Republicans have given us a failed plan of trickle-down economics that didn't work," Biden said. "My guess is, your story is just like mine: Not much trickled down that ended up helping y'all."
Biden said Republican economic policy has "hollowed out the main streets of America" as well as blown up the deficit and produced "anemic" economic growth.
In his speech, Biden pointed the attention of the audience to copies of the 167-page "Protecting America's Economic Security" document the president had planned for his team to hand out at the event.
The document is a budget for the 2023 fiscal year proposed and published by Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern.
"I'm the only president who hands out the opposition's economic plan. Oh, you think I'm kidding?" Biden said. "This is the MAGA budget. I want you to take a look at it. I think we have other copies of it. If we don't, we'll get you some."
Biden said that Republicans have taken a plan that never worked and "decided to make it much, much worse" to create what he dubbed MAGAnomics.
"Now Republicans in Congress are doubling down with a plan that does three things. One, it cuts taxes even more for the very wealthy and big corporations. Two, it cuts Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. Three, it raises costs for families, gutting investments in the middle class," Biden said.
"Under their plan, the top one-tenth of 1% of the households that make over $4 million a year are going to get another tax cut worth more than two times what the typical American family makes in a single year."
Biden said Republicans are trying to undo progress he has made in getting other nations, particularly those that are a part of the Group of Seven and NATO, to agree to a global minimum tax on corporations.
"That global minimum tax was finally agreed. It took me a better part of a year to get it done. And guess what? They want to get rid of it, let corporations go back to shifting jobs and profits overseas, and avoiding paying taxes at home," Biden said.
"And who is going to pay for that? Well, now we know because the MAGA Republicans in Congress has finally released the budget I just referenced. And the answer is: Seniors and hardworking Americans are going to pay for it."
In his speech, Biden reiterated his points that his economic policy focusing on building the economy from the bottom up and middle out. He contrasted his stances with those outlined in Hern's document, such as plans to gut Social Security and Medicare by $700 billion and $1 trillion respectively.
"Under MAGAnomics, as I've called it, tens of millions of Americans could lose their insurance. Waiting lists would skyrocket for seniors who need home- or community-based care because they have nowhere else to go; they have no family to take of them. Children would not get adequate healthcare," Biden said.
"MAGA Republicans don't think we should be investing in education, and that's not an exaggeration."
Biden also hit out at his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, several times throughout the speech -- though only named him once.
"There are only two presidents in American history with fewer jobs the day they left office than when they started," Biden said. "One was President [Herbert] Hoover, and the other was Donald 'Hoover' Trump. Seriously, the only two presidents in American history."
Biden added that the "prior administration" also promised to rebuild the nation's infrastructure but that never happened.
"Great real estate builder -- the former president," Biden said. "He didn't build a damn thing."
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