Biden to go after Florida Republicans as threat to Medicare and Social Security

At an appearance in Broward County, the president will be introduced by a Florida resident and Medicare recipient who will benefit from provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which he signed into law in August. One of its provisions reduces prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients and caps the cost of insulin for participants in the health plan for older and disabled people.

Biden plans to draw a contrast with Republican policies, especially a plan advanced by U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who has a 12-point “Plan to Rescue America,” which he sees as a blueprint for his party if it wins control in the midterm elections. The president in the past has called Scott’s plan an “ultra-MAGA agenda.”

In the Broward speech, the president plans to highlight the provision of Scott’s plan for Republicans that would sunset all federal legislation after five years, arguing that would put millions of seniors at risk of losing Medicare and Social Security.

Scott has been a sharp critic of the president. In a statement on Monday, he faulted what he called “Biden’s radical, socialist agenda.”

The White House warns that Republicans would try to eliminate the newly created ability to negotiate drug prices and remove the cap on out-of-pocket prescription costs for Medicare recipients.

Millions of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security beneficiaries “would see their benefits threatened under Sen. Rick Scott’s plan to put those programs on the chopping block every five years,” the White House warned.

After the remarks on Medicare, Social Security and prescription drug costs, Biden is headlining a Democratic Party rally for gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist and U.S. Senate candidate Val Demings. The Democratic National Committee rally is at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens, one of the state’s historically Black colleges and universities.

He’s also headlining a fundraiser in Miami-Dade County for Crist’s campaign.

Biden’s presence will generate publicity for Crist and Demings, but may not be able to do much to change the trajectory of their campaigns.

With Election Day one week away, on Nov. 8, the events are relatively late in the campaign season. Floridians began voting by mail at the end of September, and in-person early voting began in the state’s largest counties on Oct. 24.

As of early Monday, 2.8 million Florida voters had already cast ballots. Republicans had an advantage, with 95,751 more of its party’s registered voters casting ballots so far than Democrats.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is at 52.1% in the FiveThirtyEight polling average, which considers poll quality, sample size, partisan leaning of the polling organization, and how recently surveys were taken. Crist is at 42.2%.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is at 50.2% in the FiveThirtyEight average, with 43.2% for Demings, a congresswoman and former police chief from Orlando.

Nationally, both parties are concentrating their efforts on other states where gubernatorial and Senate races are seen as closer. On Saturday, Biden will appear with former President Barack Obama in Philadelphia on behalf of Pennsylvania’s Democratic candidates for governor and U.S. Senate.

Tuesday will be the third time Biden has traveled to Florida since becoming president.

In the earlier two visits — in 2021 after the Champlain Towers South Condominium collapse in Surfside and on Oct. 5 after Hurricane Ian slammed southwest Florida — Biden was acting as the nation’s consoler-in-chief.

Biden had planned a Sept. 27 trip to Fort Lauderdale to talk about health care costs and Medicare and Social Security and Orlando for a Democratic Party rally. But that was the day before Hurricane Ian struck Florida, and the visit was canceled.

Biden’s last political visit to South Florida was Oct. 29, 2020, just five days before the presidential election. He held a rally at Broward College’s north campus in Coconut Creek and visited a campaign office on Sistrunk Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale.

On Oct. 15, first lady Jill Biden visited Plantation to urge women to get mammograms and to learn about advances in breast cancer research and treatment. Later that day, she visited Orlando to campaign for Crist and Demings.

Former President Donald Trump is also making campaign stops across the country in the lead-up to the midterm elections. He’ll be in Miami on Sunday.

Anthony Man can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @browardpolitics

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