Biden will 'wreck' US economy by failing to intervene in dockworkers' port strike, GOP leader warns

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., slammed President Biden for failing to intervene in the dockworkers' port strike, expressing concern over the impact it will have on American families who are already struggling with crippling inflation. 

Scalise accused Biden of potentially allowing the strike to "wreck" the U.S. economy during "Fox & Friends," arguing that consumers will struggle even more with rising costs as the International Longshoremen's Association's (ILA) strike drags on. 

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"The president said we're just going to let it go on and wreck the economy," Scalise told Lawrence Jones. "We're losing over $5 billion a day and costs are going to start going up even higher on families who are already struggling under the Biden-Harris inflation economy. Food on the shelves is going to become more scarce."

Although Biden could invoke the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act to intervene in the strike, he has insisted against taking action. Under that law, Biden could enact an 80-day "cooling off" period for negotiations to resume while workers are back at work.

The ILA, which represents 45,000 dockworkers, began its first strike since 1977 after its six-year contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents port employers, expired Monday night.

TOPSHOT - Dockworkers gather at the Bayport Container Terminal in Seabrook, Texas, on October 1, 2024. Officials at 14 ports along the US East and Gulf Coasts were making last-minute preparations on September 30 for a likely labor strike that could drag on the US economy just ahead of a presidential election -- despite last-minute talks. (Photo by Mark Felix / AFP) (Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)

The 36 ports impacted by the strike on the Gulf and East coasts handle 55% of all U.S. container traffic and large volumes of exports, including about half of U.S. pork and almost three-quarters of U.S. poultry. About half of all imported fruits and vegetables come through these ports as well. In pharmaceuticals, nine out of 10 imports and seven out of 10 exports are being disrupted.

Negotiations between the ILA and USMX have been deadlocked thus far over the union's demands related to wage hikes and compensation, as well as protection from automation at ports. 

Scalise argued that Congress would not support a ban on automation despite demands from the ILA. 

"When we're competing globally, we're not just competing one city against another," he said. "You've got ports all around the world that are heavily automated, and they still have humans, by the way, who actually run the devices. These automated devices aren't running themselves, but they're already making with overtime over $200,000 a year, in some cases, and they want to shut the economy down to get more."

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"Who pays for this? And this will add even more to inflation," he continued. "There are a lot of families making 50,000 a year that are saying please stop adding to the costs, and Biden and Harris won't do anything because they want to see those prices keep going."

Meanwhile, the president has faced fierce scrutiny for spending numerous days at the beach while the nation faces implications of the strike along with various other crises – the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and surging violence in the Middle East. 

"We see Joe Biden on the beach. He comes to the White House whenever he wants to," Jones said. "Kamala Harris is on the campaign trail. The Cabinet members are just on the Sunday shows as allies of Kamala Harris. You're in leadership of our government, but who's running the country right now?"

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"It's a really scary thought," Scalise responded. "When you look at some of the bills we passed, we passed bills to secure the southern border. Joe Biden came out, said he's against it. Kamala Harris said she's against it. We have bills to produce our own American energy, so we don't need to give Iran and Russia billions of dollars a month. President Biden and Kamala Harris oppose that, so… you see a clear divide. The country is going to speak really loudly on this."

"I think JD Vance said it best at the debate the other night," he continued. "Kamala Harris talks about what you do on the first day. Kamala Harris's first day was 1,400 days ago, and look at the results. The world's on fire. Americans can't drive to go to the grocery store, let alone put food on the table."

FOX Business' Eric Revell and Fox News' E.J. Antoni contributed to this report. 

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