Dems Hope Health Care Can Bail Them Out in November
10 Feb 2022
CLAY: People are running scared because they are looking even at CNN, which has Joe Biden with a 41% approval rating, 58% of people disapproving. And to put that into context for you, when Biden has lost CNN, that is not ideal. Here is the trajectory. In September, Joe Bidenโs approval rating in a CNN poll was 52%; October, 50%; November, 48%. And now here as we are sitting in the beginning of February, he has fallen down to 41%.
It is a free-for-all falling situation for Joe Biden, and thereโs really no strategy at play here. Biden while we were live in the air in the first couple hours addressed the current situation, the inflation numbers and more. What is his answer? His suggestion is, โLetโs spend more money!โ Build Back Better still make sense, according to Joe Biden. It is a floundering failure of a Biden presidency. Here he was a little bit earlier trying to address all of these calamities.
BIDEN on Build Back Broke: โIf youโre making less than $400K, youโre not paying a single penny more in taxes, and it does not increase the deficit because itโs paid for.โ
None of those things are true. pic.twitter.com/5bJu1QyTmg
โ RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 10, 2022
BUCK: Do we understand this, everybody?
CLAY: Madness.
BUCK: Itโs madness. First of all, inflation is really the most regressive of taxes, because โ
CLAY: No doubt.
BUCK: โ it eats away at the earnings and the buying power of those who are dependent upon wages and donโt have assets, arenโt piling money into the stock market, arenโt watching their home values, their home prices currently going up all over the place. So itโs hurting people, the decision to spend this money in this way and to spend even more money given what weโre seeing โ and then also, the promise that itโs โpaid forโ? (laughs) Thatโs never true, right?
If they could just look at the history of what ends up happening and who ends up picking up the tab for these things, youโre going to have companies that will do less hiring. Youโre going to have individuals that will do less investing and starting of business, and theyโre talking about a massive tax raise that simply canโt be paid for, Clay, only by people making more than $400,000 a year.
But this is how they sell it. They push it through; no one actually reads the text of the bill. But I think that people are recognizing that he just doesnโt have the political capital right now to get this through. You mentioned Joe Manchin before. The Democrat Party is not in a position to get this Build Back Better done, and so it just turns into empty talking points and more class warfare rhetoric from a guy who pretends to be Scranton Joe on the choo-choo train all the time on Amtrak but as we know, lives in mansions, is worth, what, $15 million at least that we know of, never mind (crosstalk) millions with Hunter.
CLAY: Thatโs right. Look, Buck, I donโt even know what Biden does at this point. Illegitimacy kind of walk through the scenarios that heโs facing. Worst border crossings ever. Murder rates for police officers that are the highest in over 25 years. Murder rates in many big cities hitting all-time highs. Covid is right now massively more significant in terms of cases on this date than it was a year ago on the same date.
Deaths are higher with covid than they were a year ago on this same date. And Build Back Better, as we talked about earlier, Joe Manchin has basically said inflation is so bad, itโs at a 40-year high, that heโs not going to support any more governmental spending until we get our house in order. And so weโve got this decision with the Supreme Court, which I think will distract for a little bit.
But I donโt think itโs gonna be some sort of fundamentally politically game-altering situation because itโs a Democrat-appointed Stephen Breyer getting replaced by a Democrat-appointed justice. Heโs floundering in a way that we havenโt seen a president flounder in most of our lives.
BUCK: Yeah, whoever the pick is for President Biden is gonna get through basically. Republicans might push on some issues and do a little bit of grandstanding, a little bit of asking about judicial philosophy. But as Iโve said, itโs gonna get through. This candidateโs gonna get through with some Republican votes too. Itโs not even gonna be a party-wide vote.
CLAY: I think thatโs likely.
BUCK: Itโs gonna be a number, I would say, four or five Republicans would go along about it. And so then the rest can vote against it knowing that itโs gonna sail through. Doesnโt really matter anyway. So I think that Biden is looking for something now. I do think the pivot to health care will be interesting โcause Republicansโฆ Itโs never preaching to the choir when as a member of the conservative side of things you start talking about how we lackโฆ
Weโre lacking messages appeal or weโre not saying what needs to said. What is the GOP message on health care right now? What are they saying about it? Remember, we were gonna have repeal and replace; didnโt really get through under Trump. We got the skinny repeal version that didnโt even really even get through. We got rid of the individual mandate. But Democrats are gonna have to come up with something.
And health care costs are a place where they can pick up, I think, a bit of ground here. I think thatโsโฆ So I hope the GOP, I hope the RNC have something in the tank for this one, have something on the shelf because otherwise weโre gonna get caught unaware โcause they need something, Clay. Theyโre gonna have to pull some kind of a move for Biden and the Democrats to avoid annihilation.
CLAY: Yeah, we talked about if you were advising the Biden administration as the midterms come closer, I think theyโre hoping that the Supreme Court wipes out Roe v. Wade. Iโve predicted that I donโt think they will. I think theyโll allow the Mississippi bill to become law, which basically drops down abortion from 23 or 24 weeks, where it is now, to 15 weeks.
And if you actually look at the date, the number of abortions that are happening inside of that window are not very substantial. But itโs a big battleground. I donโt think theyโll allow Texas. But that, to me, is kind of a Hail Mary for the Democratic Party because theyโre gonna go after suburban women and say, โOh, youโreโฆ The abortion issue!โ
BUCK: But remember they tried the War on Women issue with Kavanaugh, and it actually backfired.
CLAY: Backfired.
BUCK: It actually probably cost Democrats control of the Senate in that cycle.
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: There were a handful, a couple of Senate seats that likely went with the Republicans โ stayed with or switched to Republican โ because it was so ugly and so dishonest what they did to Kavanaugh. I remember, I mean, the polling inside of West Virginia for Senator Manchin during that. Something like 70% of West Virginians or 80% of West Virginians, for example.
Thatโs obviously why Manchin voted for confirmation. So I donโt think the Supreme Courtโs gonna be their issue. I think that theyโre hoping the media will carry a lot of water for them. Nobody thinks that January 6 is gonna do anything other than keep people who watch CNN and MSNBC entertained with their delusions of the coup that might come at any moment or the constant threat of white supremacy. Thereโs not a lot that they can point to that isnโt a disaster, and on the other side of the messaging as well, the border needs toโฆ I think Joe Scarborough actually evenโฆ Clay, check this out.
CLAY: Heโs even acknowledging it.
BUCK: Just because Joe Scarborough says it doesnโt mean itโs not true, everybody. I have to preface this. Just โcause Scarborough says it, as loathsome as many of his ideas have been in recent years, doesnโt mean heโs wrong. Heโs right on both of these issues. Heโs trying to preach to Democrats. Listen.
MSNBCโs Joe Scarborough: โDemocrats are way behind the ball on this [crime] issueโฆthis is the issue thatโs on peopleโs mind.โ pic.twitter.com/ruiBR3xFTq
โ RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 9, 2022
BUCK: Now, heโs right, Clay, but part of this thatโs left out that he wonโt tell the MSNBC audience is that the Democrats canโt talk about those issues because the only logical fixes to those issues, theyโll completely counter what theyโve been pushing for years now.
CLAY: I think the Democratic house is on fire, and Republicans just have to avoid getting caught in the flames themselves, right? Because this is a referendum on the first two years of the Biden presidency. Midterms are always a referendum on the existing president, and so Democratsโฆ Look, thereโs nothing good that they can sell.
But Republicans have to avoid getting the fire spread to them, so then Democrats can argue, โOh, the whole place is on fire and Democrats and Republicans are equally to blame,โ because I do think that will be one of the other angles that Biden will probably try to address, because the overall congressional approval rating is even lower than his.
Now, the reality is, people tend to like their own congressman and hate everybody else, right? Thatโs kind of the way that polling in this situation results. But if youโre Biden and your numbers are at 41%, they may try to argue, โWell, this is a do-nothing Democratic Congress because of Republicans.โ I donโt think that works. But again, โdonโt light yourself on fireโ is the strategy for Republicans at this point.
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