Biden Warns of Economic ‘Chaos’ GOP Midterm Win Would Bring

Josh Wingrove
·5 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden kicked off the final campaign stretch before the Nov. 8 midterms with a warning that Republican control of Congress could trigger a standoff over government programs and the debt ceiling and unleash economic “chaos.”

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Speaking in Florida -- with its high percentage of senior citizens -- Biden slammed Republicans for threatening to block an increase of the nation’s borrowing limit to extract spending cuts, including to Social Security and Medicare. It’s a long-shot bid to change Democrats’ fortunes in the Sunshine State, where it has been increasingly difficult for them to win.

“Nothing would create more chaos and do more damage to the American economy than playing around with whether we pay our national bills,” Biden said, calling Republican threats to use the US debt limit as leverage “irresponsible.”

Biden’s comments -- exactly a week before Election Day -- underscore the stakes for Democrats, who are trying to stave off a loss of their House and Senate majorities.

Election forecasts say that Republicans are likely to win the House, while the Senate sits on a knife’s edge -- it’s divided 50-50 as of now and poised to remain very close.

Biden’s visit to Florida-- where he’s appearing alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist and Senate hopeful Val Demings -- begins a last-minute push that also will include visits to Pennsylvania, New Mexico, California and Maryland.

Speaking at a community center in Hallandale Beach, Florida, Biden hit at the state’s two GOP senators. He said he was “really disappointed” in Senator Marco Rubio and other Republicans who voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ climate and health measure. And he ripped Florida Senator Rick Scott -- who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm -- accusing him of trying to gut entitlement programs.

“A senator from Florida? Going after Medicare and Social Security?” Biden said. “These guys want to take it away. Who in the hell do they think they are?”

Biden has sought to re-frame the election as a choice between Republican and Democratic economic policies for the middle class, rather than a report card on his first two years in office.

“I’m going to be spending the rest of the time making the case that this is not a referendum,” Biden said over the weekend in Delaware, where he voted. “It’s a choice.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have hammered Biden on inflation, crime and the surge in border crossings to try to motivate their voters.

Yet Democrats face an uphill climb in swing-state Florida, which has trended toward Republicans in recent election cycles. Polls show both Crist and Demings trailing their incumbent Republican opponents -- Governor Ron DeSantis and Rubio -- in a state where Donald Trump beat Biden by three percentage points.

DeSantis, a sharp critic of Biden and Democratic policies, is seen as a potential 2024 Republican presidential contender.

The governor drew Biden’s criticism in September for allegedly using taxpayer dollars to fly dozens of Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The two met last month, when they toured Florida communities damaged by Hurricane Ian. Biden and DeSantis were careful to skirt politics but their interaction was cordial at best.

During the gubernatorial debate, Crist accused DeSantis of being distracted by a potential White House bid. The governor declined to say if he plans to run for president.

Biden didn’t mention DeSantis by name in his public remarks on Tuesday.

Read more: DeSantis and Biden Play Nice at Ian Epicenter in 2024 Preview

The president has kept a light campaign schedule ahead of the election, with many Democratic candidates seeking to keep him and his sagging approval ratings at arm’s length.

Biden’s Gallup approval rating from last week is 40% with 56% disapproving.

Read more: Democrats Gird for Loss of Congress as Voters Break Late to GOP

High-profile surrogates are helping energize Democratic voters to show up and vote, said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, citing events by Biden, the First Lady, former President Barack Obama and others.

“All of that’s really helping to energize Democrats,” she said. Biden is “good on the stump and he’s more populist on the stump -- he energized Democrats in 2020.”

Lake expects Democrats will hold the Senate but that the House will be close.

“It’s a lot of tough, tight races but I think the numbers have been improving a little bit and part of that is Democrats are getting more energized,” she said.

Biden will also appear Saturday with Obama -- who has campaigned recently in states the president has avoided -- in Pennsylvania, where polls still give Democrat John Fetterman a slight edge despite a rocky debate performance. The Senate race is a pickup opportunity for Democrats with Republican Pat Toomey retiring. Trump will hold his own rally there Saturday.

Biden also said he’ll participate in an event in Maryland, where Democrats are poised to flip the governorship, and he travels later this week to New Mexico, which hosts another key gubernatorial race.

It’s not clear whether Biden will set foot in other key battlegrounds like Georgia, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Arizona and Ohio before Election Day.

Read more: Unpopular Biden Shuns Obama-Trump Midterm Travel Strategy

Midterm elections typically don’t favor a president’s party; Trump, Obama and Bill Clinton all lost the House two years into their presidencies. George W. Bush saw Republicans pick up seats in the House and Senate a little more than a year after the 9/11 attacks.

Winning the Senate race in Pennsylvania would give Democrats breathing room at minimum to lose a seat elsewhere without losing control of the chamber. At best it could help increase their margin, which Biden has said is key to passing Democratic priorities, such as codifying nationwide abortion rights into law.

The 2024 presidential race -- and ongoing Republican efforts to sow doubt about the 2020 results -- also loom large, with this year’s races in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin poised to select governors who will wield considerable sway in the handling of the next presidential contest.

--With assistance from Jordan Fabian.

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