The Conversation (0)
Greg Evans
Oct 16, 2022
Joe Biden calls Liz Truss's mini-Budget 'a mistake'
Independent
If you needed any further evidence of Joe Biden being as cool as ice (or completely frozen depending on your political perspective) then look no further than this clip of the US president buying ice cream while also dunking on Liz Truss's economic policy.
Speaking to the press while visiting an ice cream parlour in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, Biden a remarkable intervention to comment on the political turmoil that is currently embroiling the Conservative party and the new prime minister.
The president said: "I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake. I think that the idea of cutting taxes on the super-wealthy at a time when … I disagree with the policy, but that’s up to Great Britain." Biden would go on to criticise a lack of "sound policy" in other countries as well.
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Yet the site of Biden just casually tearing apart one of the United States' closest allies while eating a huge cone of ice cream did not go unnoticed and painted a wonderfully surreal picture of global politics in 2022.
\u201cPresident Biden on Liz Truss' mini budget. \n\n" it was predictable... I wasn't the only one who thought it was a mistake.... I disagreed with the policy of cutting taxes for the super wealthy"\u201d— Haggis_UK \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa (@Haggis_UK \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa) 1665900851
\u201c\ud83d\udd25 Extraordinary intervention from US President Biden - on Liz Truss\u2019s economic policy and u turn (when of course buying ice cream):\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ll it\u2019s predictable. I mean, I wasn\u2019t the only one who thought it was a mistake\u201d\n\n\u201cthe idea of cutting taxes on the super wealthy\u2026I disagree\u201d\u201d— Scott Beasley (@Scott Beasley) 1665900306
\u201cICYMI overnight - Biden condemns Truss while eating ice cream \n https://t.co/K9X4apybYR\u201d— Kitty Donaldson (@Kitty Donaldson) 1665905163
\u201cOne sacking and several u-turns later, Biden has this to say (while having a ice cream in Oregon): \u201cI wasn\u2019t the only one who thought it was a mistake.\u201d it being Truss's economic plan.\u201d— Flavia Krause-Jackson (@Flavia Krause-Jackson) 1665875768
Biden would also go on to comment that the US economy "is strong as hell … I’m concerned about the rest of the world. The problem is the lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries. It’s worldwide inflation, that’s consequential.”
\u201cBIDEN, eating ice cream: "Our economy is strong as hell"\u201d— RNC Research (@RNC Research) 1665882267
The president's comments, specifically on the UK economy come after White House staff had declined to comment on the chaos that Truss's mini-budget had caused which saw the value of the pound completely plummet against the strength of the dollar.
Truss was forced into an embarrassing economic and political u-turn on Friday when she sacked ex-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who was in the job for just 38 days.
Jeremy Hunt has replaced him in the role with the feeling being that he as a more experienced politician will be able to calm the markets about the Tories' financial plans. That being said he still seems as unpopular as ever given what Mirian Margolyes said about him on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday.
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