President Joe Biden hit the Golden State on Monday, June 19, to kick off fundraising for the 2024 election and push his campaign message of addressing climate change. Biden and Gavin Newsom were thick as thieves as they attended events, with the California governor extolling the many virtues of the commander-in-chief, especially when it comes to improving the environment. That these efforts come at the expense of the American taxpayer was a notion left unmentioned during the Gold Coast junket. Whether it’s almost $600 million for local climate initiatives or tens of millions of dollars to weatherproof power grids, the source of the funds failed to receive even the merest footnote in the Biden/Newsom double act. Glad handing and self-congratulations, on the other hand, were not in short supply.
“There’s simply no president in modern American history that’s done more to deliver on the promise of addressing head-on the issue of climate change,” Newsom told a prominent Washington newspaper.
“This is a governor that has supported the president’s agenda, his economic policies,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday while on Air Force One. “That’s what you’re going to see from this president, and that’s what you’re going to see from their relationship — continuing working — good working relationship.”
Biden Does the Rounds
The 2024 presidential candidates, whether Republican or Democrat, have made it a selling point to warn democracy is at stake should voters choose the wrong candidate. Biden was no different and claimed during a fundraiser at the home of Kevin Scott, Microsoft’s chief technology officer, that his administration had brought back “a sense of confidence in the Constitution.”
While bragging about his accomplishments, Biden took time to degrade Republicans. “Unfortunately, some of our MAGA Republican friends in Congress are trying to undo the progress we’ve made,” Biden said in reference to climate change policies. “We didn’t let that happen.” He added, “With your help, we’re going to stop them again.”
The president continued to accuse the Republicans of hurting America, saying:
“They were holding the country hostage over the debt limit unless I would gut the climate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act – I had determined not to let that happen … and in the end, we didn’t just protect some of the climate money and clean energy provisions, we protected every single solitary one.”
Climate Spending Plans
In Palo Alto, Biden, Newsom, and other officials went to the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center where they toured the coastal salt marsh area. “These wetlands act as a critical buffer between the rising tides and the communities at risk,” Biden commented and then announced his plan to assign $600 million for projects to tackle the challenge of climate change.
(Photo by Aric Crabb/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)
“The impacts we’re seeing from climate change are only going to get more frequent, more ferocious, and more costly,” he warned, adding that his actions would turn “peril into progress.”
The money will come from the Inflation Reduction Act; $575 million will be awarded to community-led projects that prepare neighborhoods and ecosystems for flooding, strong storms, and sea level rises, to be distributed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, explained ABC10 News.
Other plans include giving California $67 million for electric grid preparation. “That funding can help ensure our electric grid is stronger, that the lights and air conditioning and internet stay on during heat waves and storms and other climate events, so the lights can stay on in hospital operating rooms, nursing homes and so many other critical care facilities,” Biden said.
The president’s visit was timed “to avoid having to file a campaign finance report for the first quarter, a historically rough fundraising period,” AP News reported. The idea is to unite Democrats, and “For the first time in U.S. elections, Biden has joint fundraising agreements with all 50 state Democratic parties and the branch in Washington, D.C., an arrangement that can help maximize donations while minimizing expenses in the early months of the campaign,” the outlet added.
“While MAGA Republicans burn cash in their primary, competing for whose agenda is the most extreme, the president’s campaign will be capitalizing on the opportunity to raise significant resources,” Julie C. Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, told AP. Critics suggest that perhaps it is taxpayer resources that are being pushed to the extremes courtesy of Joe Biden’s bid to win the White House in 2024. Spending largesse – and the inevitable congratulations that go with it – is all too easy when the cash is printed on demand and oversight is abandoned in the unimpeachable name of the climate crisis. This is a lesson that both Joe Biden and Gavin Newsom know well.
