“The difference between them and us is that we want to check government spending and they want to spend government checks.” – Ronald Reagan
Reagan-nomics rescued us from Carter-nomics. Nixon-nomics rescued us from Johnson-nomics. WWII-nomics resuscitated us from Roosevelt-nomics etc. But it looks like “Biden-nomics” isn’t taking us down the same path as it’s predecessors. In fact, it is taking the country in reverse.
A recent CNBC survey found that 87% of adults are stressed about their finances, and over two-thirds aren’t happy about Biden’s economic performance. Last year, Americans had the largest annual increase in food prices since the 1980s when Jimmy Carter doubled down on LBJ’s fiscal theatrics. While food prices generally change 2% annually due to seasonal sales, wages, and supply chains, they swelled over 11% from 2021 to 2022. Biden-nomics drove up prices on everything from gas logs to hotdogs and the fuel used to cook them.
President Biden recently touted the success of “Biden-nomics:” “We now have much lower inflation and continued job growth which is a good thing for America.”
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” – Abraham Lincoln
But in the real world, things look and feel differently for most Americans. Let’s look at the numbers. Over 65% of Americans reported from $986 billion in Q1 quarterly increase, to $1.03 trillion in Q2, marking a 4.6% quarterly increase. Over a third of adults have more credit card debt than savings. Americans owe over $1 trillion in credit card debt.
While the evils of Biden-flation have gone down to about 5%, the prices of many things remain high because their bar was raised to a new level. Grocery, restaurant prices and fuel remain expensive, making people feel like Biden-inflation never subsided. Groceries overall were up 6% from a year ago. The price of flour jumped 17.1%, bread went up 12.5% and sugar spiked to over 11%. Ice cream, a family favorite during hot summer days, went up by over 8%. Healthier items such as poultry, seafood and fruit prices remained the same.
“A lot of people fill the fridge with healthy food which is great but they walk right by it and grab the junk food.” – David Kosster
Though inflation has fallen from its 11% peak in June 2022, it’s still higher than the Fed’s 2% target rate. So you are still spending more and getting less. A combination of double digest inflation and climbing interest rates is stretching consumers’ wallets and purse strings, which will “bust them at the seems!”
Data from WalletHub says U.S. consumers took more than triple the average amount of new debt households have taken on in that period since after the 2007 recession. Higher interest rates affect everyone. The U.S. interest rate was zero until March 2022. Then the Federal Reserve began quickly raising interest rates. After the latest hike, rates reached 5.50%. They have soared over 20%, the highest since 1994. Fed data shows credit card interest rates a year ago were 16%. Although Biden isn’t solely responsible for this, since things such as the Avian flu which affected egg prices were beyond his control, from escalating the war in Ukraine, to higher costs on fuel – they all contribute to grocery bill sticker shock. Although there are more jobs than last year the only significant wage increases have been in union jobs. It costs 1/3 more to buy what a dollar spent last year.
The last several months, President Biden has desperately traversed the country trying to resurrect his plummeting poll numbers and reassure American consumers that his economic agenda is working. He claimed that multi-trillion-dollar investments in green energy and excessive federal government spending will propel our economy into unprecedented heights of American prosperity.
In other words, Biden is intentionally misleading Americans with the message that his fiscal policies, which he has coined “Biden-nomics,” are beneficial. Yet in poll after poll, the American people resoundingly reject Biden-nomics because they see from the gas station to the grocery store to their credit-card statements that Biden-nomics has failed. Injecting trillions into our economy didn’t deliver financial relief; it fueled the worst inflation in 40 years.
Naturally, President Biden ignores the reality of his economic policies. Thanks to Biden-nomics, American families’ credit card debt has reached a record $1 trillion as people struggle to pay their bills and feed their families under the weight of inflation. The dream of home ownership has slipped out of reach for countless Americans as mortgage rates approach 8 percent and banks tighten their lending requirements. 61% of Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck, gas prices are once again spiking nationwide due to the Biden administration’s anti-American energy policies, and American households have lost, on average, $33,000 in real wealth this year alone. No wonder almost two-thirds of Americans disapprove of this president’s economic initiatives.
The federal deficit – which was originally projected to return to pre-COVID levels, is now expected to double this year to $2 trillion, accelerating the catastrophic consequences of our $33 trillion national debt on our economic vitality and national security. This is one of the many reasons why Fitch Ratings, one of the largest credit ratings agencies in the country, recently downgraded our creditworthiness, pointing to our deteriorating fiscal stability and ballooning national debt.
To date, President Biden’s overreaching regulations and burdensome red tape have cost American workers nearly $10,000 per household. His 122 executive orders have saddled our families, farmers, and businesses with $1.5 trillion in additional and unforeseen expenses.
As Biden and his team try to claw their way out of what is an economic mess of their own making, people aren’t buying it. Joe Biden’s weak leadership and lack of foreign policy strategy have crippled the United States’ power and influence on the world stage. Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban, China has ramped up its aggression against Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Uyghurs, and now, Hamas has invaded Israel and Russia has invaded Ukraine and we are footing the bill for this.
Joe Biden campaigned to unite the country, but the country is more fractured since he took office. Biden has been spending like a drunken sailor. Biden sits at record-low approval ratings for his economic plan because people don’t believe his claims about inflation. According to financial analyst Karen Petrou, Biden is ignoring the fact that “50% of Americans need to earn $5,000 more just to buy the same things they bought just one year ago.”
“Elections matter. And when folks vote, they order what they want, and in this case they got just what they asked for.” – Kamala Harris
