Whispering President Joe Biden dismissed his tax hikes as ‘unreasonable’ because ‘wacky liberal guy’ Ronald Reagan had the same corporate rate, while claiming ‘MAGA Republicans’ were putting the economy US in jeopardy due to debt ceiling threats.
Biden made remarks in the Roosevelt Room mid-morning Friday, welcoming the February jobs report, while touting his budget proposal and asking House Republicans to see theirs.
“I’m ready, I told the speaker, as soon as he’s ready to present his budget, I’m ready to sit down,” Biden said. “And now I hear things like, well, we’re not going to have our budget until April or May, maybe even June,” the president said, hitting the Republican majority in the House.
Whispering President Joe Biden dismissed that his tax hikes were ‘unreasonable’ because ‘wacky liberal guy’ Ronald Reagan had the same corporate rate, while claiming ‘MAGA Republicans’ were putting the US economy in jeopardy amid debt ceiling threats
Biden also waved a post saying the conservative House Freedom Caucus would not vote to lift the debt ceiling unless he cut non-military spending by 25% across the board.
“That means cops, firefighters, that means health care,” Biden noted.
The president called threats not to lift the debt ceiling “reckless talk” and said making the statements put the economic recovery at risk.
“So, I urge our MAGA extreme Republican friends in Congress to put aside their threats and join me in continuing the progress we’ve built,” Biden said.
On Thursday, Biden presented his budget proposal during a trip to Philadelphia.
The Democratic president wants the corporate tax rate to drop from 21% to 28%.
Biden joked that Republican President Ronald Reagan was a ‘wacky liberal guy’ as he challenged GOP objections to raising corporate tax rate
The corporate tax rate for most of Reagan’s tenure was 28%.
Additionally, when Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the top tax rate was reduced from 50% to 28%.
“You know, when we talked about a 28% tax rate, Ronald Reagan had a 28% tax rate — you know, that ‘wacky liberal guy,'” Biden told reporters in the room. , using his trademark whisper.
“The idea that it’s an unreasonable amount,” he said.
Biden’s budget uses tax increases on the wealthy to reduce the national debt while funding Democratic priorities, including child care, paid family leave, offshore wind farms and support for refugees.
He also wants to raise the wages of federal workers by 5.2%.
Republicans retaliated against the tax hike, even passing a bill — which died in the Senate — to withdraw funds from the Internal Revenue Service that were part of the Inflation Reduction Act and intended for new recruits, so the IRS can better go after tax cheats.
Biden again used his whispered voice to talk about it.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus, which includes Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia (pictured), said they would vote to lift the debt ceiling if Biden cuts non-military spending by 25% across the board.
“You know all those tax people we had? They will check the accounts of the super rich, which takes a lot of time, a lot of agents to do. They want to get rid of it,” the president said of Republicans.
“I don’t know, we just have a very different set of values,” he said.
Biden also commented on the monthly jobs report Friday morning.
“I think we have a good jobs report,” he said. “It means our economic plan is working,” he added.
The United States added 311,000 jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which beat estimates but still represented fewer jobs than in January.
Dow Jones had estimated that 225,000 hires would be made last month.
The unemployment rate has fallen from 3.4% to 3.6%, which is still historically low, as the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic which rocked the economy three years ago this month -this.
Friday’s government report made it clear that the country’s labor market remains fundamentally sound, with many employers still keen to hire.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress this week that the Fed would likely increase rate hikes if signs continued to point to a robust economy and persistently high inflation.
The United States added 311,000 jobs in February, again beating estimates, but still accounting for fewer jobs than in January
A buoyant labor market typically leads companies to raise wages and then pass on their higher labor costs to customers through higher prices.
Last month, the government reported a surprising increase in hiring for January – 517,000 more jobs – although that gain was revised slightly to 504,000 in Friday’s report.
Consumers also increased their spending in January, suggesting the economy had strengthened at the start of the year.
The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge also accelerated.
With February’s strong job growth following January’s expansive gain, the Fed could step up its rate hikes to fight inflation.
When the Fed tightens credit, it usually leads to higher mortgage rates, auto loans, credit card borrowing, and many business loans.
What the Fed might decide to do about interest rates when it meets later this month remains unclear. The decision will be based, in part, on his assessment of Friday’s jobs data and next week’s February consumer inflation report. Last month, the government’s January inflation report sounded the alarm by showing that consumer prices had reaccelerated month on month.
Strong job growth in January, reported early last month, was the first in a series of reports to point to an acceleration in the economy at the start of the year.
Sales at retail stores and restaurants also jumped and inflation, the Fed’s preferred measure, rose from December to January at the fastest pace in seven months.
The stronger data overturned a cautiously optimistic narrative that the economy was cooling modestly – perhaps enough to bring inflation under control without triggering a deep recession.
Today, the economic outlook is more hazy.
High borrowing rates have hollowed out the housing market, with home sales falling for 12 straight months – a consequence of the average mortgage rate nearly doubling over that period.
The manufacturing industry is also showing signs of weakness. Higher rates have made it harder for businesses and consumers to borrow to buy important factory assets, from machinery to cars to household appliances.
In contrast, spending on services such as travel, eating out and attending entertainment events – remains strong.
Many Americans continue to engage in activities that have been restricted during the COVID shutdowns.
February’s pace of hiring is about triple the Fed’s preferred level.
Job gains of around 100,000 a month would be just enough to keep up with population growth and keep unemployment from rising.
A low figure would also mean employers weren’t so desperate for workers and wouldn’t have to keep raising wages.
A higher salary is great for employees, of course.
But Fed officials say this is contributing to higher inflation, especially in labor-intensive service industries like restaurants, healthcare and hotels.
