Biden in South Carolina calls out Republicans who tout main laws they opposed

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden traveled Thursday to South Carolina — house of the first-in-the-nation 2024 Democratic presidential main in addition to two GOP presidential candidates — to rebuke Republicans for voting towards payments in Congress that are actually offering billions in federal {dollars}.
“All these members of Congress who voted towards it, immediately notice how nice it’s. They usually’re bragging about it,” Biden mentioned. “As my mom would say, ‘God love ’em.’”
Biden’s criticism of GOP lawmakers is a part of an ongoing technique from the White Home, during which the president and prime officers name out Republicans who voted towards key payments, however then cheer and promote the federal money these legal guidelines funnel to their house states.
Biden on Thursday chastised the South Carolina GOP lawmakers who voted towards the Democrats’ Inflation Discount Act in addition to those that sought to dam bipartisan laws, just like the infrastructure regulation and the CHIPS and Science Act, which was designed to spice up funding in semiconductors and supply funding for scientific analysis.
“That hasn’t stopped them, although, from claiming credit score now that billions of {dollars} and hundreds of jobs are coming to the USA,” Biden mentioned.
GOP presidential candidates
South Carolina is house to 2 Republican presidential contenders, with U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and former Gov. Nikki Haley each within the working to presumably face Biden within the basic election in November 2024.
Biden misplaced South Carolina through the basic election in 2020, receiving 43% of the vote in comparison with Donald Trump’s 55%. The state holds 9 Electoral School votes, and has eight Republicans and one Democrat representing it in Congress.
Scott mentioned on FOX Information’ “America’s Newsroom” earlier Thursday that Biden ought to use the cease in South Carolina to apologize for insurance policies his administration has pushed, arguing they’ve spurred inflation and elevated the worth of on a regular basis items like groceries and gasoline.
“I hope he’s going to start out his apology tour right here in South Carolina as a result of what the president needs the American individuals to do is to imagine what he says and never what we see with our personal eyes,” Scott mentioned.
Haley tweeted that Biden’s financial insurance policies, which the White Home is looking “Bidenomics,” have led to “record-breaking inflation and worn out individuals’s financial savings.”
“South Carolinians are nonetheless paying extra for gasoline and groceries than they did earlier than Bidenomics,” Haley wrote. “If Joe Biden actually thinks Bidenomics is working, he undoubtedly must take a psychological competency take a look at.”
White Home targets Republican votes
Biden didn’t particularly point out Scott or Haley throughout his speech, however a reality sheet from the White Home sought to spotlight that Scott in addition to Republican U.S. Home Reps. Jeff Duncan, Nancy Mace, William Timmons and Joe Wilson voted towards a few of the laws that Biden spoke about.
The very fact sheet mentioned that “if most South Carolina Republican Members of Congress had their means, the state would have misplaced out on over $2.6 billion in infrastructure funding and almost $1 billion in funding for high-speed web for South Carolina.”
After touring Flex LTD in West Columbia, South Carolina, Biden spoke from the ability about how the payments Congress has handed and actions he’s taken as president have impacted the financial system.
Biden touted a number of financial indicators through the speech, together with that greater than 13 million jobs have been created since he took workplace, that unemployment has remained under 4% for the longest stretch within the final half century and that inflation has dropped to about half of what it was final 12 months.
Biden, nonetheless, famous there are nonetheless methods he and his administration are hoping to spice up the financial system.
“I’m not right here to declare victory on the financial system. I’m right here to say we have now a plan that’s turning issues round rapidly,” Biden mentioned. “However we have now much more work to do.”