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In one of the last looks at Joe Biden’s moribund economy before he heads off to the Delaware beach to stay, today’s inflation report indicates that it’s stubbornly refusing to let go. In fact, it accelerated to an annual rate of 2.7% from October’s 2.6%. You might say inflation has been anything but “transitory,” which was the administration’s gaslighting buzzword for it in the first half of 2021.
“There’s nobody suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way — no serious economist,” Biden falsely asserted on July 19, 2021. Plenty of serious economists knew exactly what was happening then. They knew that Biden (with the tiebreaking vote of Kamala Harris) had set off an inflation bomb that we’re still dealing with almost four full years later.
To be sure, 2.7% is a long way from the 40-year high of 9.1% Biden achieved in June 2022. Yet it’s still significantly higher than the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%. (The fact that our nation’s money changers want persistent inflation of 2% is another discussion). Observers are now speculating over how this will impact the Fed’s planned interest rate cut next week.
The bottom line and big picture is that American families were hit incredibly hard by Bidenomics, and we’re not out of the woods yet.
That brings me to Biden’s speech yesterday, during which he touted what a fantastic job he’s done stewarding the economy.
“We got back to full employment, got inflation back down, managed a soft landing that many people thought was not likely to happen,” Biden said. “Next month, my administration will end, and a new administration will begin. The new administration’s going to inherit a very strong economy, at least at the moment.”
He added, “President Trump has received the strongest economy in modern history, which is the envy of the world.”
Correction: He “got back to full employment” by overseeing the recovery from the massive job losses caused by the response to the coronavirus pandemic. Roughly three-fourths of the 16 million jobs Biden “created” were simply restoring what was lost by the shutdowns. Many new jobs in the last four years were government jobs, too.
As for inheriting economies, Biden routinely says he came into office during an awful disaster when the reality is that Donald Trump’s economy was already making a V-shaped recovery in the third and fourth quarters of 2020. He’s trying to have it both ways.
I don’t have to argue this too hard, though. Voters set the record straight in November by reelecting Trump to a delayed second term thanks in large part to contrasting the two presidents’ economic records. Of voters who considered the economy the most important issue, Trump won a resounding 81%.
Reuters is mystified by that turn of events: “Despite the strength of major economic indicators and a drop in inflation from a peak of 9% more than two years ago to 2.4%, voters punished the Democrats and handed the Republicans the White House and control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.”
Uh, Democrats caused the 9.1% peak.
Instead, Biden and his Leftmedia pals are warning that Trump will wreck things. “By all accounts, the incoming administration is determined to return the country to another round of trickle-down economics and another tax cut for the very wealthy,” Biden said. “That will not be paid for, or if paid for, is going to have a real cost, once again causing massive deficits or significant cuts in basic programs.”
Tax cuts are across the board, and the “paid for” canard is a way of saying Biden thinks it’s the government’s money, not yours.
Biden does have one regret on the economy: not putting his name on the $1,400 stimulus checks that ignited inflation in April 2021 as part of the grossly misnamed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. He called the decision “stupid,” though The Washington Post helpfully propagandized for him: “That decision was intended to signal that he was focused on Americans, not his own ego, and it was designed to create a contrast with Trump, who had put his name on stimulus checks during his presidency.”
It’s telling that Biden’s teleprompter malfunctioned during his speech, leaving him shuffling through paper notes. “One of the things that’s going on here,” he began before it cut off. “They just turned off my— I lost electricity here. Anyway.”
At least he didn’t fall asleep like he did during last week’s economic meeting in Angola.
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