During a speech at a Democratic National Committee meeting in Maryland yesterday, Joe Biden, clearly enjoying the chance to brag about his administration’s recent legislative wins, departed slightly from his prepared text to do a mocking impression of those Republicans who voted against Democratic bills like the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, but who nonetheless tout the good the laws are doing for their states.
That’s been kind of a theme with Republicans in the last year, with perhaps our favorite example being Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey bragging last November about how he invested $100 million to improve his state’s high-speed broadband, and what a wonderful thing that was, with a very brief note in the second paragraph that the funding “comes from the American Rescue Plan Act.”
Here’s Biden’s impersonation of how Democrats pass laws like this, but Republicans who voted against it take credit for it like this:
Biden noted that “not a single Republican” had voted for the American Rescue Plan last year, and that Republican support for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was only a bit better:
We also passed once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s roads, highways, bridges, railroad, ports, airports, water systems, high-speed Internet. We got a little help from Republicans, but not a lot, but enough to get it passed.
But the truth is there are a lot more Republicans taking credit for that bill than actually voted for it. (Laughter.) I see them out there: [deepens voice] “And now we’re going to build this new bridge here. We’re all for it.” (Laughter.) “And, by the way, there’s new road, and we’re going have an Internet that’s going to be all…” (Laughter.)
Biden grinned, obviously enjoying the crowd response, and added, “I love ’em, man. They ain’t got no shame. (Applause.) They don’t have any shame. (Laughs.)”
The Huffington Post notes that this wasn’t the first time Biden had tweaked Republicans for shamelessly talking up legislation that helped their districts even though they’d voted to kill it. Last year, Biden said, “Some people have no shame. But I’m happy they know that it benefited their constituents.” He also held up a list of 13 examples of Republican members of Congress who’d voted against the Rescue Plan but then bragged about how well they’d served their constituents, although he decorously didn’t name any. NBC News reported that the list, visible on video, included
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R.-N.C., and Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind., brother of former Vice President Mike Pence.
That time around, though, he didn’t include the little monologue, so we think this was better.
Here’s the full speech, which hits many of the same themes Biden used in his speech kicking off the campaign season.
As in other recent speeches, Biden emphasized that this election has a lot of things on the ballot, like abortion rights, voting rights, and for that matter, democracy itself. While Biden condemned the “violence and hatred” of “MAGA Republicans” as he had in his recent primetime speech on the fight for the soul of America, he moved far more quickly to the uplifting stuff about his administration’s accomplishments, like the recent gun bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, with its provisions for climate and healthcare.
His ire at Republicans flared up — in non-comic form — as he recounted that bill’s provision capping the Medicare copay for insulin at $35 a month. Biden noted that the bill also would have included the same limit for folks with private insurance, and recalled meeting with a Virginia family whose monthly cost for insulin was $675 a month. The mother, he said, told him,
“I can’t do it anymore. We got to cut the dosage. You’ve got to skip.” […]
Think about this. Imagine being a parent, looking at your child, knowing they have Type 2 diabetes, knowing they need this insulin, and you don’t have the money to pay for it. You don’t have the insurance, and you don’t qualify for anything. Imagine. It costs them $10 to make this insulin and package it. Ten. Drug companies charge families at least 30 times that.
My God, being that parent, not having the insurance. What the hell. Just imagine. But guess what? The Republicans knocked that out of the — my legislation. They said we weren’t going to pay for it — they weren’t going to pay for it. I’m committed to coming back and getting it done, dammit.
We like angry, resolute Biden. He’s fine tuning the details in what’s becoming his standard stump speech for the midterms.
And man, he’s having fun as “Dark Brandon.”
[White House / PBS NewsHour on YouTube / HuffPo]
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