President Biden seemed unfamiliar Monday with the specifics of the massive spending bill dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act that Senate Democrats passed Sunday, saying it funds healthcare “and God knows what else.”
Moments earlier, Biden misstated the size of last year’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law while touring flood damage in the Kentucky hamlet of Lost Creek.
“We’ve never done this before, but because of a number of things we got done on a bipartisan basis — like a billion, 200 million-dollar infrastructure project — like what we’re doing today, we passed yesterday, helping take care of everything from health care to God knows what else,” Biden said.
“What we’re going to do is — we’re going to see, for example, they got to put a new water line in in the community,” the president went on, speaking without a prepared script.
“There’s no reason why they can’t at the same time be digging a line that puts in a whole new modern line for Internet connections. Why? Why can’t we do that? So it’s going to be different. We’re going to come back better than before.”
Biden spoke for only about four minutes while standing in front of a condemned mobile home on his first official trip since recovering from a “rebound” case of COVID-19.
At one point in his remarks, Biden suggested it may become possible to control the weather, before jokingly telling his audience, which included Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), that it was time to “run laps.”
“We’re all Americans. Everybody has an obligation to help. We have the capacity to do this. It’s not like it’s beyond our control. The weather may be out beyond our control for now. But it’s not beyond our control,” Biden said.
Biden’s remarks about the Senate-passed package were flagged by conservatives, who said Biden had underscored their argument that the bill isn’t about lowering inflation, which soared to an annual rate of 9.1% in June.
RNC deputy rapid response director Kyle Martinsen tweeted, “Biden basically admits the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ is not about bringing down inflation.
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) wrote, “’God knows what else’ means whatever the far left wanted in the Bill and all the extra pork [Democratic Sens. Joe] Manchin [of West Virginia] and [Kyrsten] Sinema [of Arizona] needed to get to Yes.”
A number of social media users also wrote that they believed the 79-year-old president’s imprecise description was a reflection of cognitive decline.
Biden, whose defenders note that he’s been gaffe-prone for decades, last week mistakenly referred to himself as “vice president,” before quickly correcting himself, and last month incorrectly told a Massachusetts audience audience that he has cancer, forcing aides to say he was referring to skin cancer from years ago.
The Inflation Reduction Act is expected to pass the House of Representatives as early as Friday and provides nearly $400 billion for environmental programs, including tax credits of up to $7,000 to buy electric vehicles, and roughly $64 billion to extend more generous COVID-19-era Obamacare subsidies.
Much of the new spending comprises grants and loans to support renewable energy-related manufacturing, including $62 billion to support manufacturers of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric cars, and another $30 billion for state and electric-utility…
Read More: Biden says ‘inflation’ bill funds healthcare, ‘God knows what else’ in bizarre speech