At this weekend’s Turning Point Action Conference, the far-right representative from Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene made an unwitting endorsement for the reelection of President Joe Biden.
Greene highlighted what she described as the Biden administration’s record-setting “public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs.” She portrayed the president as following the legacies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson and their respective New Deal and Great Society programs.
“Joe Biden had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete. Programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, [and] labor unions. And he’s still working on it.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene at the Turning Point Action Conference
As it turns out, Medicare has strong bipartisan support. According to a YouGov poll conducted earlier this year, Medicare has a net favorability of 70 percentage points among Democrats and 50 points among Republicans. Nearly half of Republicans believe Medicare should be given more funding.
Medicare, as one can imagine, is really important to seniors. In fact, 98 percent of Americans age 65 and older say Medicare is important to them and their families, according to a KFF survey from 2021. Seniors, it should be noted, also vote at a higher rate than the rest of the adult population.
President Biden’s social media team pounced on the obvious opportunity, turning it into a campaign video and posting it to Twitter along with a cheeky message from the commander-in-chief.
Greene — who complained about her $174,000 congressional salary and says her net worth is $11 million — meant to attack Biden by highlighting his expansion of social spending. Republicans aren’t big supporters of Medicaid and many other social programs. But, among the public, there’s strong bipartisan support for spending on education and Medicare.
It sure does look like Greene misfired.
Arif Rafiq is the editor of Globely News. Rafiq has contributed commentary and analysis on global issues for publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the New Republic, the New York Times, and POLITICO Magazine. He has appeared on numerous broadcast outlets, including Al Jazeera English, the BBC World Service, CNN International, and National Public Radio.