Remarks By President Biden in Meeting with Democratic Congressional Leaders

Roosevelt Room

3:10 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m excited. We got a strong group of leaders here, a new start and a new Congress. And I’m excited about the leadership we have running the Democratic side.

We — we got a lot done in the last couple years, and we got a lot more to do and a lot more to finish than what we’ve already done. And we’ve already made some real progress on the economy, on inflation, and a number of other things.

Foreign policy is — we’ve united the West in a way that it hadn’t been in a while, including bringing in Japan and other Eu- — Asian countries invested in Ukraine’s future.

And Americans are starting to feel the effects of some of the laws we passed. And we have — and they’re only now going to be going into effect.

Like I said — and the press has heard me say this before — we’re in a situation where we promised folks on Medicare their insulin was going to go from about 400 bucks a month to 35 bucks a month. And it was a promise. Well, guess what? As of January 1, it’s a reality. And it’s — and people are — are feeling the effects of it.

There’s so much more of that out there.

And we’re going to discuss how — how we can continue to build on the progress, ultimately lowering the cost for middle-class and working-class families.

You know, we — and we’ve talked a lot about this around the table, with folks here, that I decided this time out — and I think you all are in the same boat — I want the wealthy to continue to be able to do well, but, look, I’m tired of trickle-down economics. I want to build this economy from the bottom up and the middle out. When that happens, poor folks have a shot, the middle class does well, and the wealthy never get hurt. They’re doing just fine.

And so, we also want to talk about the extreme Republican economic plans. Apparently, they’re genuinely serious about cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare. And I love their 30 percent sales tax. That, we’ll — I’m — we want to talk a lot about that.

But, look, I have no intention of letting the Republicans wreck our economy, nor does anybody around this table, in my view.

And, again, we’re going to speak about continuing our support for Ukraine. And it’s an idea that has bipartisan support, like some of what we passed had bipartisan support.

And so, we’re going to speak about nominations going forward quickly.

And also, finally, our hearts are with the people of California. They’ve been a rough, rough couple of days. I just got back from spending time with Gavin Newsom on the floods and the devastation that occurred. And then, on top of that, you see what’s happened in California and what’s happened to the Asian American community. It’s been devastating.

This — the — the Vice President is going to be going out, and I’ve been talking with Gavin Newsom and Judy Chu and Anna Eshoo and Hilda Solis. And we’re working out a number of things that we can and are going to be doing.

So, the bottom line here is that we got a lot to talk about. And yesterday, my buddy, Dianne Feinstein, reintroduced her Senate weapon — assault weapons ban. And I am asking you all to send that to my desk as quickly as you can. It’s really needed badly.

And all of us are focused on working together to get things done. There’s a lot to discuss. And having said that, I thank the press for being here, and I’ll talk to you later.

3:14 P.M. EST