You probably could have predicted that Joe Biden would take a victory lap after the debt deal finally went through on Thursday. Indeed, I predicted earlier in the day how it would go when I was talking to a family member — Biden would claim what a great bipartisan achievement he’d shepherded while attacking the Republicans over Social Security and Medicare (saying he saved it for Americans). Then he would take no questions.
Damn, if I wasn’t right on the money. Of course, it wasn’t anything special — it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to game out their plan. I’ve just seen this script before and know they’re always pushing this kind of nonsense at us.
Here are some of the details of the deal:
The bipartisan deal will suspend the debt limit with no cap until Jan. 1, 2025, slashes non-defense spending to near fiscal year 2022 levels, pulls back on new funding set to go towards the IRS in addition to clawing back some unspent COVID-19 pandemic-era funds. The bill also caps spending increases at 1% for the following year.
First, I should note that Biden looked awful. I know it’s way past his normal lid time/bedtime, but he looked about a thousand years old. He was continually squinting, and whatever makeup they used on him seemed to be melting a little (I was looking at a big screen TV, so I got a close-up of his face).
Biden bragged about his bipartisanship:
“My fellow Americans, when I ran for president, I was told the days of bipartisanship were over and that Democrats and Republicans could no longer work together. But I refused to believe that, because America can never give in that way of thinking,” Biden said.
“That’s why I’m speaking to you tonight, to report on the crisis averted and what we’re doing to protect America’s future. Passing this budget agreement was critical. The stakes could not have been higher,” he said.
He also closed his remarks with the same type of spin about what a unifier he was, and how everyone else just has to come together and lower the temperature.
This is the same guy who has constantly attacked his political opponents as extremists, who has demonized half the country — falsely painting himself as some kind of champion of unity. That’s so vile.
During the remarks, he told some of his typical lies. He claimed that he created 13 million jobs, and that he cut the deficit by 1.7 trillion in two years. Both claims are false.
He claimed that he drove inflation down for the past several months, while ignoring that he’s the one that drove it up to record levels.
Perhaps one of his most offensive lies was how he claimed that he got the Republicans to agree not to cut Social Security and Medicare, when in fact no one was pushing to have such cuts. He describes how he got them to agree to no cuts at the State of the Union. They were yelling at him for lying about it, to begin with. He didn’t get them to agree to anything, though. This is the height of lying to the American people, right here.
Remember, this is what happened, not the fantasy that Joe made up. A good part of the GOP members called him out for being a liar.
One most ridiculous parts of his address was how he painted this as some kind of big, unique achievement because he’s just so awesome. Um, no, this is the job that you’re supposed to do, and the only reason it had more drama this year was because Biden refused to negotiate for so long. So again, just as with every other issue regarding Biden, the facts are far different from what he says. He had to be forced into it by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after 97 days of dealing.
CBS gave perhaps the most honest, liberal media assessment of anything that I’ve seen in a long time. Isn’t it sad that we have to recognize basic honesty now, because it is so lacking?
CBS News’s Margaret Brennan: “Let’s put this into perspective: this is the president taking a victory lap on being able to achieve a basic matter of governance, not defaulting on debt.”
Oof. Now that’s some honesty. That just decimates his “victory lap.”