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With an eye toward the 2024 campaign, President Joe Biden took direct aim at Republicans who have floated cuts to Social Security and Medicare — telling an audience in Florida on Thursday that he would create a “nightmare” for anyone who dreamed of trying them. Venturing into a state defined by its growing retiree population and status as the unofficial headquarters of the modern-day Republican Party, the president sees a chance to use Social Security and Medicare to drive a wedge between GOP lawmakers and their base of older voters who rely on these government programs for income and health insurance. (Kim, Boak and Peoples, 2/10)

Before Thursday’s event began, staff distributed pamphlets made to look like miniature versions of Scott’s plan, with the piece on sunsetting legislation circled in red. Biden read directly from the pamphlet at the lectern and mentioned Scott multiple times by name, adding that even though Medicare is likely to survive reauthorization, “it’s likely to get cut significantly” if it came up for a vote. “The very idea a senator from Florida wants to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block every five years I find to be somewhat outrageous,” Biden said.(Mahoney, 2/9)

KHN: A Health-Heavy State Of The Union 

Health care was a recurring theme throughout President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address on Capitol Hill this week. He took a victory lap on recent accomplishments like capping prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare. He urged Congress to do more, including making permanent the boosted insurance premium subsidies added to the Affordable Care Act during the pandemic. And he sparred with Republicans in the audience — who jeered and called him a liar — over GOP proposals that would cut Medicare and Social Security. (2/9)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-K.Y.) said in an interview on Thursday a proposed initiative to sunset Social Security and Medicare was not a “Republican plan,” but one proposed and supported only by fellow Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). Scott, who was unsuccessful in his run against McConnell for the top seat in the National Republican Senatorial Committee, proposed a plan in 2022 to sunset all federal legislation after five years, forcing Congress to reauthorize them. (Oshin, 2/9)

Scott made the claim both in an interview with “CNN This Morning” co-anchor Kaitlan Collins on Thursday morning and in a television ad he released online on Wednesday. The ad came out the morning after Biden used part of his State of the Union address to warn Americans about Scott’s proposal to require “all” federal laws, which would include Medicare, to expire after five years if they are not renewed by Congress; Biden repeated this warning in a speech in Tampa on Thursday. (Dale, 2/9)

President Biden took aim at two of Florida’s most prominent Republicans — Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott — when he visited the state Thursday to pitch his economic agenda while vowing to protect the programs crucial to seniors and the poor — Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. Biden knocked DeSantis for refusing to expand subsidized health care with the help of the federal government and continued to attack Scott for a plan that would require Congress to reauthorize Social Security and Medicare every five years. (Wagner and Alfaro, 2/9)

President Joe Biden jabbed at potential 2024 rival Ron DeSantis and Republicans as he vowed to protect entitlement spending and lower health costs for Americans in a post-State of the Union visit to the Florida governor’s home turf. (Sink and Leonard, 2/9)

President Biden has spent the week contrasting Republicans and Democrats' positions on health care and entitlements, leaning into a political fight the party would love to have all the way through the 2024 elections. How House Republicans handle the coming debt ceiling negotiations and spending-related decisions could have far-reaching implications, potentially handing Democrats what they view as a potent line of attack. (Owens, 2/10)