President Joe Biden will deliver an hour-long address to America on Tuesday, laying out just how great everything is and delivering a mind-numbing laundry list of everything he hopes to do in the future.
Last week, he gave a bit of a preview.
“Today, I’m happy to report that the state of the Union and the state of our economy is strong,” Biden crowed to reporters on Friday.
“We learned this morning that the economy has created 517,000 jobs just last month — more than half a million jobs in just the month of January. And in addition, we also learned that we — there were half a million more jobs created last year than we thought.”
“And even as the job market reaches historic highs, inflation continues to come down. Inflation has now fallen for six straight months. Gas prices are down more than $1.50 a gallon since their peak. Food inflation is falling as well. And as inflation is coming down, take-home pay for workers is going up. Real wages are up. Wages for lower-income and middle-income workers have gone up even more,” Biden gloated.
Ah, Biden and his rose-colored glasses. A reporter quickly burst his bubble, asking: “Do you take any blame for inflation, Mr. President?”
“Am I taking blame for inflation?” Biden asked.
“Correct,” the reporter said.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it was already there when I got here, man. Remember what the economy was like when I got here? Jobs were hemorrhaging. Inflation was rising. We weren’t manufacturing a damn thing here. We were in real economic difficulty. That’s why I don’t,” Biden said.
Well. Where to begin? There are so many lies here uttered by the president of the United States that it’s hard to unpack them all.
INFLATION BY THE NUMBERS
Let’s start with inflation, which a few months ago hit a 40-year high. In December 2020, the last full month in office for President Donald Trump, the rate of inflation was 1.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The average for the entire year of 2020 was 1.2%, data show.
But after Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline, froze student debt collection, rejoined the Paris climate accords, made a pathway for illegals to gain citizenship, and halted construction on the border wall — all actions he took on Day 1 — inflation started to climb.
In his first six months in office, inflation went from 1.4% to 5.4%. It was worse in 2022, rising to 9.1% by June. But Biden is a highly skilled liar: Inflation has fallen for six straight months — all the way down to 6.5%. The average for 2022 was 8%, soaring from 1.2% in 2020.
Now, some people argue that the president shouldn’t take credit for a good economy and certainly doesn’t deserve the blame for a bad one. But in Biden’s case, he definitely deserves the blame.
“Economists say Biden’s pandemic relief policies including the American Rescue Plan exacerbated matters, by giving Americans too much money to spend when goods and services supplies were too low, which drove prices higher,” PolitiFact wrote on Monday.
It was Biden’s “most profound failure and policy error,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the center-right American Action Forum, told the fact-checking site.
GAS PRICES BY THE NUMBERS
Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
Then there are gas prices. When Biden took office, a gallon of regular averaged $2.38. Today it’s $3.46, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
That’s nearly 50% higher (46% to be exact) than it was when Biden took office. And remember, by February 2022, the eve of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the price had already risen above $3.50 — which negates Biden’s endless claims of “Putin’s price hike” at the pumps.
In addition to canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, Biden also suspended new federal oil and gas leases, hiked drilling fees on federal land, and mandated that all federal vehicles be zero emissions.
“The Biden administration has waged a war on supply and prices have skyrocketed,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said last April. “This is not an accident. This is not Putin. This is Joe Biden and the Democrats in the Green New Deal and they’re desperately looking for a political excuse to blame somebody else for the consequences of what they promised they would do to the American people.”
But again, Biden is a true snollygoster, mendacious to the core. Gas prices are down more than $1.50 from their peak — a gallon of regular averaged $4.93 in June. But see above — still up 46% since he took office. And they’re going up again — the average was $3.21 in December, but that jumped to $3.34 last month.
FOOD PRICES BY THE NUMBERS
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
Wanna’ talk food prices? No, of course you don’t. No one does. But for some reason Biden does. “Food inflation is slowing as well,” he declared.
Let’s just talk about the State of the Union since the last time Biden delivered the State of the Union address. “In 2022, food prices increased by 9.9 percent,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports. “Food-at-home prices increased by 11.4 percent, while food-away-from-home prices increased by 7.7 percent.”
There’s more. Egg prices increased 11.1% in December, pushing the price since December 2021 59.9% higher. And we haven’t hit the ceiling yet, not even close. “Egg prices are predicted to increase 27.3 percent in 2023,” the USDA reported.
Prices soared in eight additional food categories in 2022, and this year won’t be any better. “In 2023, prices are predicted to increase for … meats (12.8 percent), dairy products (8.0 percent), fats and oils (16.5 percent), processed fruits and vegetables (9.6 percent), sugar and sweets (10.6 percent), cereals and bakery products (12.0 percent), non-alcoholic beverages (8.7 percent), and other foods (6.8 percent),” the federal agency reported.
Biden said they were falling. Again, a little. But not much. And as the USDA says, they’re all about to go up again. So, four Pinocchios there, Mr. President.
TAKE-HOME PAY BY THE NUMBERS
Peter Dazeley/Getty Images
How about take-home pay? We know oil giants Exxon and Shell and BP saw record profits — as did a whole slew of grocery store chains — but if everyone’s taking home more cash, it’ll all come out in the wash.
But we’re not. Not by a longshot.
“Wages are rising, but they are not keeping up with inflation,” Statista reports. “In the United States, the average decline in real wages for the entire population — across all sectors and income levels –was just over 2 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2022.” And that’s just for one quarter.
“Take-home pay for workers is going up,” Biden claimed. Sure, wage increases are happening, but they have already fallen significantly behind inflation since Biden took office, and they’re still not even. “Real wages — that is, inflation-adjusted wages — fell or were unchanged during the first six quarters of Biden’s presidency,” PolitiFact reported last month.
Here’s how Biden plays the game. In 2022, average hourly earnings for all private employees rose 4.7% — but inflation jumped by 6.4%. More money, but less spending power.
In Biden’s entire presidency, wages have risen by 10% — so they are going up — but #bidenflation has soared 14%. So either way you cut it, you’re down 4%.
Biden’s going to deliver his little speech, then set off across the country to try to persuade Americans that, hey, you’re better off (hoping they haven’t just come back from the grocery store). On Wednesday he’s heading to Madison, Wisconsin, where he will, as the White House says, “discuss how his economic plan is creating good-paying, union jobs and delivering real results for the American people.”
Then on Thursday it’s off to Tampa, Florida, where he will “discuss his plan to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare and lower healthcare costs.” So much discussing.
AMERICA’S MOOD BY THE NUMBERS
JimVallee/Getty Images
But even the liberal media has been turning on Biden lately. The state of the union is, clearly, not great. A majority of Americans say they don’t believe he has achieved much since taking office, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
“The poll finds that 62 percent of Americans think Biden has accomplished ‘not very much’ or ‘little or nothing’ during his presidency, while 36 percent say he has accomplished ‘a great deal’ or ‘a good amount.’ On many of Biden’s signature initiatives — from improving the country’s infrastructure to making electric vehicles more affordable to creating jobs — majorities of Americans say they do not believe he has made progress, the poll finds.”
ABC News, where former Clintonista George Stephanopoulos holds sway, went further. “Record numbers of people are worse off, a recipe for political discontent: POLL,” said the sad headline.
“Four in 10 Americans say they’ve gotten worse off financially since Joe Biden became president, the most in ABC News/Washington Post polls dating back 37 years. Political fallout includes poor performance ratings for Biden and a tight hypothetical Biden/Trump rematch next year,” ABC News said sadly.
ABC even said the “R” word. “The big hit on Biden is the economy: With inflation moderating but still high, 41 percent say they’re not as well off financially as they were when Biden took office, the most in nearly three dozen ABC/Post polls to ask the question since 1986, when Ronald Reagan, who popularized the ‘better off’ phrase, held office. Just 16 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, say they’re better off.”
And that’s the bottom line. “Are you better off?” The answer for most of us is “no.”
Biden thinks you’re just dumb enough to think you are. You most assuredly are not.
No comments:
Post a Comment