President Joe Biden tries to avoid using former President Donald Trump’s name, instead favoring “my predecessor” or a euphemism like “the former guy.”
But in remarks at a signing ceremony for the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden swapped one bogeyman for another while railing against the drug companies he said fought tooth and nail against the sweeping $750 billion climate, healthcare, and tax bill.
“Folks, the Inflation Reduction Act does so many things that for so many years, so many of us have fought to make happen,” Biden said during the ceremony in the State Dining Room on Tuesday. “In fact, the big Trump companies — the big drug companies spent nearly $100 million to defeat this bill. $100 million.”
BIDEN INTERRUPTS VACATION FOR WHITE HOUSE VICTORY LAP ON CLIMATE BILL
The legislation secured a major accomplishment for Biden ahead of the midterm elections by marking off several key agenda items, including climate investments, extending healthcare subsidies, and granting Medicare the power to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs.
While swiping at drug companies, Biden took aim at Republicans he said had refused to buck them to help lower prices.
“Remember, every single Republican in Congress voted against this bill. Every single Republican in Congress voted against lowering prescription drug prices, against lowering healthcare costs, against a fairer tax system. Every single Republican,” Biden said. “Every single one voted against tackling the climate crisis, against lowering our energy costs, against creating good paying jobs.”
The bill passed in the evenly divided Senate with the help of Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote. Democrats struggled for months to reach an agreement over major tax and spending provisions.
Biden, proclaiming victory over “special interests” in Congress, accused Republicans of siding with those too.
“Every single Republican in the Congress sided with the special interests in this vote. Every single one,” Biden said.
The criticism of so-called special interests is expected to feature heavily in Democratic messaging through the fall.
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Biden administration officials and allies will travel the country to tout their policies to voters as part of an “aggressive” messaging push, White House deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and special adviser Anita Dunn explained in a memo this week.
The bill’s healthcare, drug cost, and utility bill provisions “are among the highest testing messages ever,” wrote O’Malley Dillon and Dunn, who noted their polling indicates additional support for messages that highlight the special interests angle.
