Fucking love this:
President Joe Biden blasted Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson on Johnson’s home turf, accusing him and other Republicans of trying to strip Americans of their Social Security and other government benefits.
“These MAGA Republicans in Congress are coming for your Social Security,” Biden said Monday at a rally in Milwaukee, referencing former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Biden several times singled out Johnson -- who polls indicate is trailing Democrat Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor, in his bid for a third term in November -- citing also his opposition to a Democratic plan aimed at lowering prescription drug prices.
With two months to go before voters head to the polls, Biden has been ramping up his efforts to aid fellow Democrats in midterm contests that will determine whether Democrats retain their slim House and Senate majorities.
He’s repeatedly sought to tie Johnson and other Republican candidates to Trump and paint them holding extreme positions that would hurt middle-class Americans.
Biden cited Johnson’s opposition to Democrats’ $437 billion health, climate and tax legislation, which he signed into law last month. That measure included a provision allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time.
Biden said Johnson “opposed lowering drug costs because it would result in punishing the pharmaceutical industries” and assailed him for voting against capping the cost of insulin.
The attacks agains Johnson are all true:
The campaign of Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, declared Tuesday that the Republican incumbent "is bought and paid for by Big Pharma."
That charge came in response to Johnson's Monday comments about Medicare negotiating the cost of certain prescription drugs, which is included in the Inflation Reduction Act that U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday afternoon.
Appearing on "The Brian Kilmeade Show," Johnson told the Fox News host that "when you start punishing the pharmaceutical industry, you're gonna have less innovation; you're gonna have fewer lifesaving drugs. That's not a good thing."
Barnes—who won the Democratic primary last week—said Tuesday that "while Ron Johnson is worried about protecting the bottom lines of big pharmaceutical companies, I'm worried about working families across Wisconsin who are forced to choose between putting food on the table or affording the medication they need."
"For over a decade, Ron Johnson has put big corporations and his wealthy donors before the working people he was elected to represent," he asserted. "In the Senate, I'll hold Big Pharma accountable and ensure every Wisconsinite has a fair shot."
It’s clear Biden and Democrats attacks against Johnson are getting to him:
Johnson, a devoted Trump ally who is trailing in the polls in the upcoming midterms, last month proposed that funding for Social Security (and Medicare) be decided year by year as part of “discretionary” spending programs. That would subject funding to a potentially fierce partisan political battle annually, jeopardizing a predictable income for some 69 million Americans — most of whom have paid into the program their entire working lives.
Johnson insisted Sunday on “Fox & Friends” that claims he’s out to gut Social Security are a “lie.”
“All the Democrats can do is lie about me,” said the testy senator. “The most outrageous lie they’re telling about me right now is that I want to cut or end Social Security ... what elected official would ever want to cut Social Security? It is absurd on its face. I want to save Social Security.”
Yeah, the coverage on Johnson lately has not been flattering:
One of Wisconsin's "fake electors" has been working as a paid staffer for Sen. Ron Johnson’s re-election campaign.
Alexa Henning, a spokeswoman for Johnson, R-Wis., confirmed to NBC News Wednesday the campaign's employment of Pam Travis, one of 10 Wisconsin Republicans who signed bogus paperwork claiming to be an elector backing then-President Donald Trump in an alleged plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Travis’ LinkedIn page indicates she's worked for Johnson since March, and Federal Election Commission financial reports show the campaign has paid her just over $10,200 since April, as well as more than $3,500 in reimbursements for mileage costs between May and July.
Travis, an active member of the Wisconsin GOP, is serving as the vice chair of the 7th Congressional District.
And Barnes has also been sharpening his attacks against Johnson:
Mandela Barnes is renewing his criticism of Republican Sen. Ron Johnson for his failure to keep jobs in Wisconsin.
Barnes, the state’s lieutenant governor and Johnson’s Democratic opponent in November, laid into the two-term incumbent this week over his failure to push Oshkosh Defense to locate 1,000 new jobs in its unionized facility in Oshkosh.
The company, which last year landed a multi-billion dollar federal contract to build up to 65,000 US Postal Service trucks, chose to produce the vehicles in South Carolina rather than its hometown plant. The decision was not the first time the company decided to outsource jobs to a non-union state, and it drew significant backlash.
“The idea that [Johnson’s] fine with our jobs going out of state, like in Oshkosh, where we had the opportunity to create 1,000 good paying union jobs–he was okay with that,” Barnes said during a campaign event on Monday. “He was okay with that because it’s not about us, it’s about lining the pockets of his wealthy donors, but that stops now.”
Johnson, who helped ram through a 2017 tax cut that benefited large corporations and his own billionaire donors, downplayed the impact of the company’s decision and declined to pressure executives to reverse course.
“It’s not like we don’t have enough jobs here in Wisconsin,” Johnson said in February.
Barnes, meanwhile, called on the Biden administration and Congress to intervene.
“I urge you to do everything in your power to reverse this decision,” Barnes wrote in a letter to federal leaders. “This contract would create nearly 1,000 good paying union jobs and be an incredible boost to a state and region that are still recovering from the effects of the pandemic, and whose workers have all too often gotten the short end of the stick due to outsourcing and offshoring.”
Barnes also wrote directly to Oshkosh Defense’s board of directors and CEO John Pfeifer directly, urging them to reconsider.