A major talking point in a speech that President Joe Biden will deliver on Tuesday has already been debunked — by the Washington Post, no less.
What is Biden going to say?
Biden is slated to deliver a major speech on Tuesday addressing the ongoing economic crisis in which inflation has spiraled out of control.
After repeatedly stressing that inflation is temporary, Biden will contrast his plan to address the economic crisis — which has seen record gas prices and skyrocketing inflation — with a plan offered by Republicans.
“He’ll detail his plan to fight inflation and lower costs for working families, and contrast his approach with Congressional Republicans’ ultra-MAGA plan to raise taxes on 75 million American families and threaten to sunset programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” a White House official said on Sunday, CNN reported.
But what is the truth?
Biden is referring to a policy proposal that Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) unveiled earlier this year.
The 60 page “11-Point Plan to Rescue America” offers more than 100 proposals that would, as Biden claimed, raise taxes on millions of Americans (mostly on Americans who do not pay any income tax now), and it does propose to sunset all federal laws after five years. Scott believes that if a law was good enough to be passed once, it should be good enough to be passed again.
The problem for Biden, however, is that Scott’s plan is not the official policy of “congressional Republicans” — and very far from it, in fact.
The Washington Post fact-checked Biden’s claim last month, concluding that it is not true. The Post explained:
Scott’s tax plan is certainly ripe for political fodder, but the White House is pushing its luck here. Scott is a Republican, and he is in Congress and part of the GOP leadership. But his snippet of an idea, such as it is, cannot be labeled a “congressional Republican” plan. No legislation has been crafted, and no other Republican lawmakers have announced their support.
One cannot instantly assume every person in a political party supports a proposal by a prominent member.
In fact, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has sharply denounced Scott’s plan.
“We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years,” McConnell said in March. “That will not be part of the Republican Senate Majority agenda. We will focus instead on what the American people are concerned about: inflation, energy, defense, the border and crime.”
Glenn Kessler, the Post reporter who wrote that fact-check, reacted to Biden’s forthcoming speech by observing the president will repeat a debunked “false claim.”