Biden turns back to an old reliable

By SAM STEIN, ELI STOKOLS and LAUREN EGAN

06/06/2023 05:17 PM EDT

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It was treated as a political coup inside the White House when, during the president's State of the Union address this past spring, he more or less goaded Republicans into saying that cuts to major entitlement programs would not be part of their debt ceiling demands.

When the deal ultimately came together, President JOE BIDEN explicitly touted that he kept Social Security and Medicare off the chopping block.

But that was last week.

This week, the White House has begun warning anew that Republicans are coming after those social insurance programs, in what seems destined to be an oft-repeated line between now and November 2024.

A memo from deputy press secretary and senior communications adviser ANDREW BATES seizes on House Speaker KEVIN MCCARTHY's announcement that he would be forming a congressional commission that would look into broader deficit and debt reduction. McCarthy's directive was to examine "the entire budget," and he noted, "The majority driver of the budget is mandatory spending. It's Medicare, Social Security, interest on the debt."

The memo goes on from there:

The Wall Street Journal reinforced this, reporting that Speaker McCarthy "wants to organize a bipartisan commission to look at the entirety of government spending, including mandatory spending programs like Medicaid and Social Security." ....

These new statements from the Speaker demonstrate that the House GOP are reversing the promise they made to President Biden and the country in the State of the Union, and that to shield billionaires and multinational corporations from paying a cent more in taxes, they very much intend to slash Americans’ Medicare and Social Security benefits.

The American people – including majorities of conservatives – reject that approach, and support President Biden's work to stand up for the benefits they pay their entire lives to earn.

There is something decidedly D.C. about the exchange, with each side engaged in some sleight of hand: A memo (giving the appearance of a more serious response than a statement) being put together to chastise the possible creation of a commission (being put together to stave off demands for actual legislation).

But it does underscore something larger about Biden world's political bearing.

A president who has made the pursuit of bipartisan deals a calling card over the past year has clear limits on the places he will go for those deals. He also has some well-honed instincts — and very clear polling — about how to run campaigns and what makes voters tick … or scared.

During the 2022 midterms, abortion may have been the preeminent issue for Democrats on the ballot. But not too far behind were attacks on Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) for proposing a budget blueprint that called for entitlement cuts (the senator ended up having to backtrack).

The issue of entitlement programs also played prominently in Biden's re-election announcement. And he hit on them again Tuesday in comments at the outset of a cabinet meeting, noting that his just-signed spending agreement with the GOP "protects Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, veterans’ care, and economic progress like the $470 billion in private investment we’ve attracted to the United States in manufacturing, clean energy, and our historic investments to fight climate change."

Republicans, to a degree, understand it is a vulnerability. Months before Biden's State of the Union address, DONALD TRUMP warned congressional Republicans not to touch Social Security or Medicare in the debt ceiling negotiations. But, as Bates’ memo notes, a faction of the party never was comfortably on board with keeping those programs untouched. And in the debt ceiling deal aftermath, McCarthy has tried to throw that faction a bone. He may have given the White House one, too. McCarthy's office did not return a request for comment.

READ THE FULL MEMO HERE.

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With help from the White House Historical Association

Which president's favorite treat was Sagamore Hill Sand Tarts?

(Answer at bottom.)

TATTE HEAT RATING: FIRE: Tuesday's crowd at the White House's favorite off campus lunch spot was something to behold. The ordering line snaked past the door, customers were shoulder-to-shoulder waiting for their to-go orders, and there was not a vacant table to be found. Pros like AP's ZEKE MILLER know that waiting is for suckers and that if you go after the briefing you can reliably avoid the rush. Treasury's LILY ADAMS got there before noon, another way to expedite the ordering process.

Why it matters: We have no clue.Be smart: Get the halva cookie.

PGA SELLS OUT, AND BIDEN’S GOT…JOKES: Neither NSC spokesman JOHN KIRBY nor press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE had anything to say about the major news that the PGA Tour, after months of encouraging its players to say no to huge payouts for joining the Saudi-backed LIV golf circuit, took the money themselves and agreed to merge the two tours into one. But as the merger sparked controversy in the sporting world and an outcry from 9/11 families, Biden responded to a question about the matter from reporters at the outset of a cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon. Making a short swinging motion with his hands, Biden, a fairly avid golfer, joked: "I plan on being in the PGA." The RNC wasted little time tweeting out the clip.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This big wet kiss of a column from the NYT's PAUL KRUGMAN, on how Biden is doing what Trump did not and "Making Manufacturing Great Again."

Krugman says the manufacturing boom underway has resulted from two of Biden's major legislative achievements: the green energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act, which included incentives to boost domestic chip and semiconductor production. Unlike Trump's policy of raising tariffs and cutting taxes, which Krugman writes "had no visible success…investment in manufacturing has surged" under Biden, who "focused on creating demand for U.S.-manufactured products." CEA's HEATHER BOUSHEY was among those who tweeted the piece.

ALONG THOSE LINES: The White House launched a new website where you can track private and public investments in infrastructure. It "documents roughly 32,000 infrastructure projects and more than $470 billion worth of investments in the production of electric vehicles, batteries, computer chips, biotech, clean energy and other sectors," AP's JOSH BOAK reports.

AND THEY’LL BE FINE IF YOU WATCH THIS: Rep. NANCY MACE (R-S.C.), during an interview with Semafor's STEVE CLEMONS, declared that the White House clearly won the negotiations over the debt ceiling. "Republicans got rolled," Mace said. Increasingly, the White House has pointed to comments like this in response to questions about Biden's age, as press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE did at Monday's briefing, during which she read a recent HuffPo headline, "After Calling Joe Biden Senile, Republicans Complain He Outsmarted Them."

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by the WaPo's AARON GREGG about how a "protracted labor dispute is disrupting operations at several key ports on the West Coast, prompting major retail and manufacturing groups to call on the White House to help broker a deal." The dispute has caused slowdowns at some of the country's largest economic hubs — including the ports at Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland — and business groups "have complained that problems at the ports could hurt commerce across the country and threaten jobs," Gregg reports.

A VERY BATES NEWS CYCLE: The aforementioned Andrew Bates — the prolific tweeting, memo-writing mouthpiece of the White House press shop — got the profile treatment by his alma mater, NC State's campus newspaper. A Winston-Salem native, Bates "has a Wolfpack hat tucked neatly on his West Wing desk, a pair of red-and-white socks that he wears on occasion and an NC State tie he wore to the office as the White House prepared for Biden's second State of the Union address in February," TIM PEELER writes for the paper. The article also notes that Bates’ entry point into national politics came from an internship in the Obama campaign's press office back in 2007 when he met…wait for it…former NC State soccer player ROBERT GIBBS.

BLINKEN GOES TO THE LAND OF GOLF: During his visit to Saudi Arabia this week, Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN plans to address human rights issues and make progress on Saudi-Israeli deal talks, WSJ's DION NISSENBAUM reports. The Biden administration is also timing his visit with a push for the nation to lift its travel bans on some U.S.-Saudi citizens.

— Blinken is also expected to travel to China in the coming weeks to meet with officials including President XI JINPING, after his trip to Beijing was called off earlier this year following the Chinese spy balloon controversy, Bloomberg's JENNY LEONARD and ANNMARIE HORDERN report.

PERSONNEL MOVES: Major Gen. PAUL FRIEDRICHS is joining the National Security Council as the senior director for global health security and biodefense, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He was previously the Joint Staff surgeon at the Pentagon, where he coordinated all issues related to health services, served as medical adviser to the DoD Covid-19 Task Force, and provided medical advice to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

— LILIÁN SÁNCHEZ is now special adviser for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs in the Office of the Vice President. She most recently was senior associate director of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs at the White House.

— NAOMI ZEIGLER has started on the legislative affairs team at the International Trade Administration. Most recently, she served at the Office of Management and Budget. She is a Sen. TOM CARPER (D-Del.) and Sen. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-N.Y.) alum.

— TYLER CHERRY is now principal deputy communications director at the Department of Interior. He was most recently press secretary and senior spokesperson at the agency.

JUST LIKE WE DREW IT UP: The Biden administration says its immigration plan is "working as intended," after it lifted the public health order known as Title 42 nearly a month ago, our MYAH WARD reports. Since the order has been lifted, the Department of Homeland Security said in a press release that "unlawful border crossings have plummeted by more than 70 percent."

THE PRICE OF CLEAN WATER: Jacksonville, Mississippi is set to get $115 million of the Environmental Protection Agency's $600 million in funds from the Safe Drinking Water Act for its water system, Mississippi Clarion Ledger's WICKER PERLIS reports. The funds "will be used for identifying and fixing leaks in the distribution system, developing a system-wide assessment of valves and hydrants, ensuring adequate pumping capacity to maintain water pressure and distribution and developing a system stabilization and sustainability plan."

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U.S. had intelligence of detailed Ukrainian plan to attack Nord Stream pipeline (WaPo's Shane Harris and Souad Mekhennet)

McCarthy sets up clash over Pentagon budget and calls Senate GOP demands ‘part of the problem’ (CNN's Manu Raju)

Inside Baseball's Desperate Effort to Save Itself From Irrelevance (The Atlantic's Mark Leibovich)

President THEODORE ROOSEVELT had a weakness for sweets. Sagamore Hill Sand Tarts, named for his Oyster Bay, New York estate, were his favorites, according to the White House Historical Association.

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.