United States President Joe Biden has pitched himself as a defender of retirement and healthcare programmes throughout a speech within the southern state of Florida, promising to guard Medicare and Social Safety towards any proposed cuts by Republicans.

Talking within the metropolis of Tampa, Biden, a Democrat, leaned into statements he had beforehand made that the rival occasion couldn’t be trusted to safeguard authorities advantages.

“Look, I do know that a whole lot of Republicans, their dream is to chop Social Safety, Medicare. Nicely, let me say this. If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare,” he instructed the viewers on the College of Tampa.

Biden is extensively alleged to be getting ready for a reelection bid in 2024. In his remarks on Wednesday, he appealed to older People, noting that Florida has the best share of senior residents within the US, together with Maine.

Within the US, Medicare is a federal medical health insurance programme for folks ages 65 and up that can also be obtainable to sure youthful folks with disabilities. Social Safety, in the meantime, gives advantages for retirement, incapacity and dependents whose relations cross away.

Biden additionally reiterated on Wednesday his earlier pledge to decrease the costs of prescribed drugs like insulin, a drugs used to deal with diabetes. Biden has proposed limiting out-of-pocket prices for insulin to $35 a month.

“Bringing down prescription drug prices doesn’t simply save seniors cash. It will reduce the federal finances by tons of of billions of {dollars}. Not a joke,” he mentioned to applause.

The proposal builds on prescription drug reform included within the 2022 Inflation Discount Act, which positioned caps on some drug costs. In Wednesday’s speech, Biden touted that regulation and different accomplishments from his first two years in workplace.

“Of us on fastened incomes depend on Social Safety and Medicare to get by. They deserve a larger sense of safety and dignity and that’s what my plan provides,” mentioned Biden.

“I signed the Inflation Discount Act and took on essentially the most highly effective curiosity we’ve been combating for years, pharma, to convey down healthcare prices so you possibly can have a greater night time’s sleep.”

The Tampa speech comes as Biden travels to key swing states within the wake of the annual State of the Union handle, held earlier than the US Congress on Tuesday.

Throughout the State of the Union, Biden hammered dwelling the message that he would defend standard authorities programmes that profit aged and low-income folks. He additionally accused “some Republicans” of attempting to “sundown” Medicare and Social Safety, an assertion that provoked boos from conservative members within the viewers.

Biden revisited that second in his Tampa speech, saying: “We noticed on Tuesday night time Republicans don’t like being known as out on this.”

The occasion in Florida comes amid questions of whether or not Biden’s Democratic Social gathering stays aggressive within the southern swing state, which tilted in favour of Republican candidate Donald Trump within the final two presidential elections.

Biden has mentioned that the state’s massive inhabitants of aged retirees may see their advantages reduce by Republican legislators, a declare the GOP has disputed.

Rick Scott, certainly one of Florida’s two representatives within the US Senate, had beforehand proposed that, each 5 years, federal laws ought to “sundown” or expire. “If a regulation is value maintaining, Congress can cross it once more,” Scott mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday.

Critics of Scott’s proposal worry it could have an effect on programmes like Medicare and Social Safety. However Scott has known as such claims unfaithful, saying he’s “not for reducing Social Safety or Medicare”.

Earlier than his time in workplace, Scott gathered substantial wealth as the pinnacle of a hospital conglomerate that was later made to pay $1.7bn to settle federal costs that the corporate had enriched itself by defrauding Medicare and Medicaid. Scott has denied that he was conscious of any wrongdoing throughout his tenure.

White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre instructed reporters that Republican legislators “have repeatedly mentioned over time, and particularly the final a number of months, that they wish to reduce these two key advantages”.

Talking within the state of Wisconsin on Wednesday, the day after the State of the Union handle, Biden promised to not enact cuts to the programmes.

“These advantages belong to you, the American employee,” mentioned Biden. “You earned it. And I cannot enable anybody to chop them. Not right this moment, not tomorrow, not ever, interval.”