White House challenges GOP on debt reduction tactics

The White House is leaning into a fight over debt reduction, believing it has the upper hand in a political battle that has long favored Republicans.

In a memo to Democratic allies, it recounts cost-cutting measures President Joe Biden proposed in his March budget, such as enacting a 25 percent minimum tax on the wealthiest Americans, hiking the corporate tax rate to 28 percent and allowing Medicare to negotiate additional drug prices.

“Congressional Republicans keep indicating they want to talk about deficits. Not as much as we do,” deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates writes in a memo expected to be released Tuesday.

The posturing from the White House comes ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline to pass legislation to continue funding the government. The right-wing of the House Republican conference is demanding sharp cuts in spending, creating an impasse that many believe will lead to a government shutdown.

The White House’s eagerness to go on offense over deficit reduction represents a rare case of Democrats trying to best Republicans at their game. Recent GOP presidents have seen the nation’s debt balloon under their watch. But the party as a whole has continued to hammer Democrats when they are in the White House for not agreeing to more aggressive deficit reduction measures.

The Biden White House memo suggests it believes it can not only fend off these attacks but that it has the upper hand in a policy or political debate on the deficit.

Although little of the president’s budget has a chance of becoming law, the administration is eager to contrast Biden’s proposals with GOP measures such as cuts to Medicare and Social Security, the elimination of Medicare’s new price negotiation authority and the Republican Study Committee tax plan.

Republicans “want to shine even more of a spotlight on their devotion to wealthy special interests above all else,” Bates writes. “On their plans to eviscerate Medicare and Social Security benefits while spending trillions on tax handouts to the rich and big corporations, and force seniors to pay even higher drug costs so Big Pharma can fill more swimming pools with caviar and diamonds. We’ll book them on TV ourselves if it’s helpful!”