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Key events
Biden is set to arrive in Tampa at 12.15pm ET, according to his schedule, and plans to get his social security burns in during an address at 1.30pm.
While that’s going on, here’s some other things we’ll be keeping an eye on today:
Republicans in the House will kick off their “weaponization” investigation this afternoon. The committee, which at the moment sounds more like an opportunity to air grievances rather than actually investigate anything, plans to probe alleged discrimination by the federal government against conservatives.
Politico notes that the committee has “a lineup straight out of Fox News”, and says GOP members have acknowledged “they don’t totally know what will come from Thursday’s hearing”.
The CEO of Southwest Airlines will appear, tail between legs, before a Senate committee today to apologize for cancelling more than 15,000 flights over the Christmas holiday period. Southwest blamed winter weather for some cancellations, but staff have also blamed outdated technology.
Biden to hammer Republicans over spending proposals
Good morning, live blog readers, and welcome to the Guardian’s daily coverage of American politics.
Joe Biden is heading to Florida today, where he is set to continue to hammer Republicans over potential cuts to social security and Medicare.
Biden will highlight his work to protect both programs, the White House said, at a time when, according to Biden, Republicans are continuing “to push plans that would undermine these programs and the economic security of millions of their constituents”.
The visit, and focus on social programs, comes after Biden’s accusations during his State of the Union speech that some Republicans want to ‘sunset’ social security and medicare.
The sunset idea, proposed by Rick Scott, a Florida senator, would mean all federal programs – and social security and medicare are federal programs – would expire every five years, and need to be reauthorized to continue.
In his State of the Union address Biden said: “Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans — some Republicans — want Medicare and Social Security to sunset.”
Today the president plans to continue to hammer home the message about Republicans potential plans – although senior GOP leaders have distanced themselves from Scott’s ideas – in a state that has swung more Republican in recent years. Florida is also a state that is governed by Ron De Santis, a potential Biden presidential opponent in 2024.
