Biden finds a new target in his war on GOP budget cutters

After charging that Republicans were chasing cuts to Medicare and Social Security, President Joe Biden has a new GOP target.

Biden is lashing out at a Trump administration policy-whisperer who is out of government and advising lawmakers on where to slash discretionary spending as Republicans and Democrats prepare for bruising negotiations over the debt limit.

Warning about the threat to entitlements, Biden lambasted “MAGA Republicans” as “a different breed of cat” before training his sights on “the former Trump budget director.”

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“Healthcare hangs in the balance,” Biden said in remarks in Virginia, with “deep cuts” on the horizon that the president said could lead to millions of seniors, disabled Americans, and children losing Medicaid services.

In a tweet that evening, Biden again slammed former President Donald Trump‘s top White House budget aide.

The offensive marks the latest front in the White House’s fight against so-called MAGA Republicans, a charge Biden heaped on Democrats’ opponents in the lead-up to last year’s midterm elections and that the president’s aides suggest could be replicated in the lead-up to 2024.

Former White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought now leads the Center for Renewing America, a think tank advising congressional Republicans on a new budget plan and other policy.

Republicans are expected to use the negotiations to draw concessions from Biden. This has prompted the president to unleash a preemptive onslaught.

“We’re glad the administration has moved off their lies about Republicans and Social Security and Medicare,” Vought said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Now we hope they will look at our ideas to cut woke and weaponized bureaucracy to ensure Medicaid is available for vulnerable populations.”

Vought’s push calls for $9 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years, targeting federal agencies, as well as healthcare, housing, and food assistance programs. While it aims to cut Obamacare and Medicaid, the plan protects Medicare and Social Security, a point of tension within the party that Biden has sought to exploit.

The president has repeatedly accused Republicans of looking to cut Social Security and Medicare, drawing fierce denials during his State of the Union address.

And it has also emerged as a theme in the 2024 presidential race, with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) under renewed scrutiny for his 2012 support of a budget plan put forth by then-Rep. Paul Ryan, at the time chairman of the Budget Committee, which proposed retooling Medicare.

“We view our role as almost acting like a shadow OMB on the outside,” Vought told the Washington Post in an interview. The former administration official was influential in mounting opposition to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) during his fight for the gavel. According to the Washington Post, Vought has said he is preparing an agenda for a future Republican administration.

It’s not just Biden who is ramping up the attacks.

In a memo this week, the White House accused congressional Republicans of threatening economic catastrophe by advocating cuts drawn from Vought’s plan.

“The House Republican leading their budget process now admits that the foundation of their approach will be a radical, ultra MAGA plan,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. “They’re threatening to intentionally plunge our economy into chaos and kill millions of jobs and businesses if they don’t get their way.”

Bates accused Republicans of “pushing exorbitant tax welfare” for special interests that would raise the deficit and worsen inflation.

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“This is the definition of trying to force our economy to work from the top-down when they should be joining with President Biden to keep rebuilding the American middle class,” he added.

The White House has argued that Biden’s effort to draw a contrast between the parties delivered surprising victories for Democrats, kept losses to a minimum, and slowed Republicans’ gains. Aides have suggested the tactic could be replicated in a 2024 reelection bid.