White House touts Biden ‘victories’ with Inflation Reduction Act despite no Republican support

The White House on Sunday championed a “string of victories” for President Biden, while media coverage around the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago, as Democrats ushered through a large spending bill with climate and health care measures that received not one supporting vote from Republicans.

Congress passed the sweeping climate, energy and health care bill dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act on Aug. 12 despite concerns from Republican and economists that spending would do little to reduce inflation in the immediate future and only bolster the IRS’s capability to go after the middle class.

During a segment on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show,” host Jonathan Capehart seemingly touted Biden’s “winning streak,” noting the president’s approval rating is the highest in two months, though still at a low 40%.

Capehart then gave the floor to White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, who reacted to a clip of Biden ripping every Republican in Congress for voting against the Inflation Reduction Act and, therefore, against “lower prescription drug prices, against lower health care costs, against a fairer tax system, against tackling the climate crisis, lower energy costs and good paying jobs.”

ANALYSIS SUGGESTS INFLATION REDUCTION ACT WILL REDUCE ANNUAL INFLATION BY ONLY 0.1 PERCENTAGE POINTS 

“This is a historic moment,” Biden said. “And the Republicans sided with special interests.”

“I think the president couldn’t have said it better. He could not have laid it out more clearly the choice here that the American people are going to have in the coming months between the Biden vision — the Democratic vision — and the Republican vision,” Bedingfield said in response. “What happened this week, we saw a passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which represented not only an effort to bring down cost, bring down health care costs, energy costs, utility costs, but it also represented breaking the back of the special interests. I mean, think about how long Pharma has been fighting to prevent Medicare from negotiating lower prescription drug costs.”

“And this week, thanks to President Biden’s leadership and the work of congressional Democrats, Sen. Schumer, of course, Sen. Manchin, we have seen that, finally, Medicare is going to be able to negotiate for lower prescription drug costs, which is going to have a real, tangible impact for families all across the country who are sitting at their kitchen tables working through their budgets,” she continued. “So, this is something President Biden campaigned on — you remember, he talked about creating an economy that works for the middle class, creating breathing room for the middle class, and so this week he stood up to the special interests and got it done.”

The segment then played clips from Americans reacting to high labor costs and food and energy prices, while seemingly expressing some relief about the improvement the economy is slowly seeing.

“I can guarantee you that President Biden is relentlessly focused on it. And as you heard those folks say, which is great to hear, they’re starting to feel some of the improvements that we’re seeing,” Bedingfield said. “We’ve seen gas prices drop below $4 a gallon on average this time, this week, I should say, for the first time since March. That’s over a dollar a gallon less people are paying at the pump.”

“We’ve obviously seen historic job creation under this president — nearly 10 million jobs created — so if you are looking for a job, you can find one. We saw real wages increase this month for the first time, and of course, we saw 0.0% inflation in July, so the cost of things, some of those things those folks were mentioning, have started to come down, and that’s incredibly important and encouraging,” she added. “The president has focused on economic policies that help make this happen, including things like the Rescue Plan and, of course, the bi-partisan infrastructure law, which is creating jobs across the country. And now, of course, the Inflation Reduction Act, which is going to have a real, tangible impact on costs and people’s lives. So, the president is continuing to focus on this. He knows how important this is for American families, and he’s making progress to give families more breathing room.”