Biden’s got a new punching bag

Presented by GE: The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing.

Mar 21, 2023 View in browser   By Christopher Cadelago and Lauren Egan Presented by GE Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.   Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Eli | Email Lauren President JOE BIDEN was preparing to give remarks on the economy recently when a staffer handed him an update on his new favorite target: The House Freedom Caucus. Biden read over the papers, clasping his hands and leaning on the lectern. Freedom Caucus members would be willing to raise the debt ceiling “contingent upon the enactment of legislation” filled with their demands, the president told reporters at the March 10 event. “You know what the essence of the enacting legislation is? Cut all spending other than defense by 25 percent,” he said. “Twenty-five percent across the board.” For the White House, that moment was another volley in what has become a building war over raising the debt limit. But more broadly, it underscored efforts they have made to turn the roughly 30-member group of ultraconservative House Republicans into a villain writ large, particularly when it comes to its spending priorities. This week, Biden’s aides commenced with a veritable carpet bombing of the caucus, unsubtly describing the group’s plans in successive emails as a “FIVE-ALARM FIRE.” “This is a conversation we think we owe people,” is how one Biden aide put it to West Wing Playbook. The White House and Democrats believe they can make the Freedom Caucus an anchor around Republicans all the way through 2024. While Washington (yes, that sometimes includes us) remains focused on Biden’s age and malaprops, the president and his advisers are betting the Beltway chatter about him will amount to little more than inside baseball compared with the threat they can portray Republicans as representing. The more Biden can disqualify his opponents, the thinking goes, the more reasonable the president appears. For the past few weeks, Biden has called on House Speaker KEVIN MCCARTHY and other Republican leaders to release their budget. That hasn’t happened — yet. So, Biden and White House officials have, instead, honed in on the Freedom Caucus’ spending priorities. In a one-pager, caucus members described their proposal as a way to curtail the “wasteful, woke and weaponized federal bureaucracy,” while swiping the White House for presiding over a crisis at the southern border. Biden’s advisers wasted little time characterizing the plan quite differently. On March 11, a day after the Freedom Caucus unveiled its demands, White House communications director BEN LABOLT sent a two-page memo to Sunday show producers citing an analysis that found it would, among other things: “defund the police,” allow the richest Americans to lawfully cheat on their taxes; and take Medicaid coverage away from millions of people. “In combination with other recent MAGA Republican proposals, the document shows us exactly what extreme MAGA House Republicans value: tax breaks for the super wealthy and wasteful spending for special interests,” LaBolt wrote. A spokesman for Freedom Caucus Chairman SCOTT PERRY (R-Pa.) didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Perry previously charged Biden with misrepresenting the plan and criticized the White House for trying to stoke fear. Biden’s tactics to center on the group have similarities to the strategy his team deployed during the midterms, when they made mincemeat out of plans pitched by Republican Sens. RICK SCOTT of Florida and RON JOHNSON of Wisconsin. Biden has repeatedly cited Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) when he accuses her faction of the Republican Party of being unmoored from reality. But key to the administration’s evolving strategy is demonstrating that the Freedom Caucus is no strawman—to convince voters that its members are central to running the GOP House. “We’re dealing with a different brand of Republican. And there’s no reason to discount what they are saying given what they put McCarthy through in the speaker’s race,” said SIMON ROSENBERG, a Democratic strategist and a leading 2022 “red wave” skeptic. “This is a serious budget proposal by a powerful group of Republicans who have said this is what they support. You have to treat it seriously like the White House is.” On Tuesday afternoon, Biden sent a tweet attempting to put Republicans on the defensive over the border and immigration, issues they’d regularly attacked the president. And not surprisingly, he used the Freedom Caucus as his opening. “MAGA House Republicans put out extreme budget proposals that would eliminate funding for over 2,000 border patrol agents – undermining our ability to combat drug trafficking,” Biden said. “My budget keeps our borders secure while expanding legal pathways for migrants seeking asylum.” MESSAGE US — Are you REP. SCOTT PERRY, chair of the Freedom Caucus? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!    A message from GE: Increasing geopolitical threats demand revolutionary capabilities for U.S. warfighters. With game-changing fuel efficiency, improved thrust, and the ability to handle significant platform growth, GE's XA100 is the only adaptive cycle engine ready to help ensure a strong future for U.S. warfighters. Watch and learn more.   POTUS PUZZLER With help from the White House Historical Association Under whose presidency was the annual White House Garden Tour started? (Answer at the bottom.) The Oval Biden presents the 2021 National Medal of the Arts to Julia Louis-Dreyfus at White House. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo GLORY DAYS: The president and first lady JILL BIDEN hosted National Humanities Medal awardees and National Medals of Arts awardees Tuesday at the White House. Recipients included BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS, VERA WANG, MINDY KALING and GLADYS KNIGHT. Our KELLY GARRITY has more details. During his remarks, Biden celebrated author, and award recipient, COLSON WHITEHEAD for being “one of the first and only novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for back-to-back works.” “How in the hell does he do that?” Biden said. “I’m kind of looking for back-to-back myself.” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Anything about Biden’s proclamation Tuesday establishing two new national monuments in the Southwest. In a tweet thread, deputy communications director HERBIE ZISKEND shared multiple articles on the announcement touting the move would protect from development a half million acres in Nevada and 6,600 acres in Texas. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by WSJ’s BYRON TAU and DUSTIN VOLZ about how a cybersecurity company’s review of more than 3,500 websites “found that so-called tracking pixels from the TikTok parent company were present in 30 U.S. state-government websites across 27 states, including some where the app has been banned from state networks and devices.” Administration officials and lawmakers have been grappling with what to do about the Chinese-owned social media app.   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.     THE BUREAUCRATS THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE ECONOMY ARE ___: After the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank earlier this month, Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN said Tuesday that the situation was “stabilizing.” But she said the Biden administration would be prepared to protect depositors at smaller banks if necessary. “Our intervention was necessary to protect the broader U.S. banking system. And similar actions could be warranted if smaller institutions suffer deposit runs that pose the risk of contagion,” she said at an event hosted by the American Bankers Association. Our VICTORIA GUIDA has more for Pro subscribers. FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: ALEX FOX, who recently served as the scheduler for Homeland Security Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, has found a new gig. She starts on Monday as the director of scheduling for House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: EMILY MENDRALA has joined the White House as a deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for the Southwest border and senior advisor on migration, Lippman has also learned. She most recently was deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the Department of State. — CAROLINE MCKAY is now senior adviser to U.S. Ambassador to Australia CAROLINE KENNEDY, Lippman (again) has learned. She is the former chief of staff for the White House counsel and deputy associate counsel. OBSESSED WITH JUNK: National Economic Council director LAEL BRAINARD kicked off a panel discussion Tuesday on junk fees as part of the administration’s larger effort to crack down on those extra charge fees tacked on to things like concert tickets. Panelists included a StubHub official, a former member of the Federal Trade Commission, economists and educators.   A message from GE:   Agenda Setting STILL FIGURING IT OUT: Following the China balloon incident earlier this year, the Biden administration has been slow to respond to requests from lawmakers for information about the hundreds of other aerial objects floating in U.S. airspace. That’s because the administration is still assessing how bad the problem is, our ERIN BANCO reports. Officials are reviewing data on the unidentified aerial phenomena, but the information is at times dated and incomplete, raising additional concerns about just how much the U.S. understands what intelligence foreign governments may be collecting. REMEMBER THOSE APE AVATARS?: The Internal Revenue service said Tuesday it plans “to issue guidance on non-fungible tokens that would treat certain NFT's as ‘collectibles’ under the tax code, which generally are taxed at higher rates than long-term capital gains levy for stocks and bonds,” our BENJAMIN GUGGENHEIM reports for Pro subscribers. SPEEDING THINGS UP: The Defense Department is “accelerating the training and delivery of Abrams tanks and Patriot missile defense systems for Ukraine, as preparations ramp up for expected heavy fighting this year,” our LARA SELIGMAN and PAUL MCLEARY report.   DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID.     What We're Reading Deadly Fungus Spreading Across U.S., Mostly in Healthcare Facilities (WSJ’s Dominique Mosbergen) ‘Winnie the Pooh’ film pulled from Hong Kong cinemas (AP’s Kanis Leung) Comer, Republicans’ Investigative Chief, Embraces Role of Biden Antagonist (NYT’s Jonathan Swan and Luke Broadwater) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER President RICHARD M. NIXON and first lady PAT NIXON held the first annual White House Garden tour on April 14 and 15, 1973. A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it. Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.   A message from GE: GE’s XA100 is the only adaptive cycle engine to have successfully concluded testing and is ready to revolutionize U.S. air capabilities by 2028. This next-generation engine will deliver 30% more range, 20% more acceleration, and two times the thermal management capacity for our pilots, enabling them to fly farther, faster, and with greater flexibility. Only XA100 can equip warfighters to execute on the missions of today and tomorrow, ensuring continued U.S. air superiority for decades to come. Click here for more.     Follow us on Twitter Eli Stokols @EliStokols Lauren Egan @Lauren_V_Egan Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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