One day before Joe Biden heads to a Saturday Philadelphia rally, U.S. Representatives Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA-14) and Dan Meuser (R-PA-09) criticized him in a press call over the quality of life issues.
Joined by Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas, the two lawmakers blasted the president for seeking re-election in 2024, insisting Biden has made life worse for Americans in virtually every facet affected by public policy. They mentioned that inflation rages, real wages slump, energy production languishes, gas prices rise, fentanyl use spreads, reading and math scores tumble, and crime swells.
The officials pegged rises in the cost of living directly to administration policy, observing Biden has overseen over $1 trillion in inflationary, executive-order-decreed spending as well as new regulations that have cost almost $400 billion. They posited that inflation under Biden has saddled Pennsylvanians with nearly $1,000 per month in new costs compared with those they faced in 2019.
“I’m told that Joe Biden is going to have a campaign where he says that he needs four more years to ‘finish the job,’” Reschenthaler said. “I don’t know what this job is, but whatever it is, it’s not good for the working class of America and Pennsylvania, it’s not good for allies abroad, it’s certainly not good for our democracy.”
In terms of foreign-policy setbacks, the congressman mentioned the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan that resulted in the loss of 13 U.S. servicepersons’ lives. Reschenthaler also said that while Biden claims to support Ukraine against Russia, the president “slow-walked funding and slow-walked arms for the entire course of this conflict.” The lawmaker further described Biden as “compromised” on support for Taiwan’s aspirations to independence because of the president’s family’s ties to China, chiefly through his son Hunter who obtained significant investment-related business in the communist dictatorship.
Regarding democracy and the rule of law, the Republicans faulted Biden for “weaponizing” the Securities and Exchange Commission against politically disfavored activity under Chairman Gary Gensler. They characterized the classified-document-related indictment of former President Donald Trump as politically calculated, given Trump’s present run for the White House. Also taking a thrashing were Democratic aims to make D.C. a state, lower the voting age to 16 and expand the Supreme Court to facilitate the appointment of more liberal justices.
“I don’t know if our democracy survives another four years of Joe Biden…,” Reschenthaler said. “Joe Biden is acting as a wannabe dictator, trying to jail his chief political opponent for the rest of his natural life and the press says nothing about it.”
Meuser suggested that the case for Biden’s defeat hinges on showing how the president is insensitive to working families’ concerns and lacking in the acuity to address those concerns.
“You can’t not have a captain at the wheel of the ship, especially when it’s the most important ship, i.e., the United States, in the world,” he said.
Meuser said he has decided which GOP nominee he wants to see at the helm of that ship and will make a public endorsement in the next few weeks. At this point, he said only that he views his favored hopeful as a “proven executor of [policy] plans.”
“We’ve got one heck of a lineup of candidates,” he reflected. “Trump is way out in front of course; DeSantis has done a remarkable job in Florida; Mike Pence is one of the most honorable people I know. They’re so far beyond what this administration has done and brings to the table.”
Reschenthaler, however, affirmed strong early support for Trump’s primary bid.
“Things were much better under President Trump, especially for the working class of Pennsylvania.” He cited net energy exports and rising wages (pre-COVID) as well as relative stability in eastern Europe, Afghanistan and southeast Asia. The congressman added that he will support any Republican who prevails in next years primaries.
Getting the Republican nominee into the White House, Tabas said, will require a strategy that many in his party treated as anathema several years ago: encouraging absentee voting among those inclined toward it.
“In Pennsylvania, the Republican Party is going to go full forward with a mail-in ballot strategy,” he promised. “We’re going to be supported by the national party alliance and we are going to retire Joe Biden in 2024.”
Tabas recalled that the national party initially stood against no-excuse absentee voting but now has reconciled itself to the practice as a “legal strategy and a legal way to vote in Pennsylvania.” He said the GOP has formed a task force to administer a robust mail-in-ballot campaign. Tabas predicted the rate of absentee voting will go up substantially over the next two election cycles and noted Pennsylvania Republican voters increased their mail-in participation more than the Democrats did in last month’s primary.
“Our program is working and I think you’re going to see more of it in November and absolutely next year,” he said.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Guy Reschenthaler” by Congressman Guy Reschenthaler. Photo “Dan Meuser” by U.S. House of Representatives. Photo “Joe Biden” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0. Background Photo “Pennsylvania State Capitol” by Dough4872. CC BY-SA 4.0.
