The biggest problem with telling lies about the economy is a very practical one: voters’ bank balances speak more loudly than politicians and media ever could.
But for the fear and uncertainty of Covid and the pandemic shutdown, Trump would have coasted to a second term in office. Big-name Democrats understood that and some even went on record hoping for a financial disaster if that’s what it took to get rid of Orange Man Bad:
Video: Bill Maher Admits He Would Rather See America Suffer Than Trump Succeed
But what does Bill care? He’s set for life. He was never in any danger of missing a meals during the Pandemic.
Now, with Biden on the home stretch of his first term, the weight of ‘It’s the Economy Stupid’ is resting heavily on his team’s shoulders.
They’ve been running with a message of ‘Bidenomics’ and his critics have hit back with ‘Bidenflation’.
You know things are getting desperate if they even let Kamala open her mouth in public on matters of real policy. Here she is trying to talk up Joe’s economic chops.
Kamala Harris on the economy:
“I think it’s important to pay attention to the fact that prices need to come down in a number of areas, but we have been lowering the cost of living for so many people.” pic.twitter.com/2BDGkjq3nz
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 21, 2023
‘We have been lowering the cost of living’, she says.
RNC Research has this to say in response:
“It’s important to pay attention to the fact that prices need to come down in a number of areas, but we have been lowering the cost of living for so many people.”
— Kamala Harris, yesterday.
THE FACTS TELL A DIFFERENT STORY:
🚩 PRICES ARE UP: Americans have seen prices surge by 17.4% since Biden took office. Inflation remains more than double what it was in January 2021. Households are spending $709 more per month on the same goods and services than they did two years ago.
🚩 BILLS ARE UP: Americans are paying thousands of dollars in higher energy costs. 20 million households have fallen behind on utility bills. Credit card debt is at an all-time high, delinquencies have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, and Americans are paying the highest interest rates in 22 years.
🚩 GAS PRICES ARE WAY UP: The nationwide average for regular gas is $3.86/gal — a $1.47/gal increase from the day Biden took office — and has remained above $3/gal for 850+ days. Under Biden, all 50 states and D.C. have set new record high prices.
🚩 EARNINGS ARE DOWN: Real wages have declined by 3.1% under Biden as Americans’ savings, real incomes, and economic confidence are all down. Inflation-adjusted household income fell last year by the most in over a decade, while median household income has fallen for two straight years.
🚩 REAL WEALTH IS DOWN: The average real wealth for middle-class households is down more than $33,000 in the past year.
🚩 60% of workers report living paycheck-to-paycheck.
🚩 Nearly three-fourths of Americans say their financial situation is not improving; half say it’s “getting worse.”
🚩 76% of Americans say Biden has worsened economic conditions or made no difference.
None of that amounts to “lowering the cost of living for so many.”
Biden and Harris have done the exact opposite.
- Even that rebuttal leaves out some damning details — like: The skyrocketing cost of housing, driven in part by their immigration policy;
- Or stories about Americans dipping into retirement savings to pay their bills;
- Or trillion dollars in credit card debt (a new record!) as Americans rely more and more on credit to pay their bills;
- Or the way that interest rates on that debt are going straight up as a direct consequence of their energy prices (see chart, below)
- Or the fact that most of the pain we are feeling is the intentional consequence of an ‘inflation reduction act’ that had nothing to do with reducing inflation and everything to do with pushing a green agenda
- Or the fact that the green agenda ONLY works if they can make traditional energy sources unaffordable despite energy being a significant input cost in literally everything we buy.
Here are the charts we promised. First, the jump in Credit Card interest rates (this chart cuts off in November 2022):
A screenshot from part of another chart tells us where those numbers are headed when it’s updated for 2023, after Prime interest rates have jumped from 7% to 8.5% since those numbers came out.
But as badly as Bidenflation has been hurting the bottom line of the average American, it’s hitting Uncle Sam in the wallet, too.
Here’s a quote from a CNN story in February, where rates were still below 8%.
Even if the Federal Reserve slows or stops raising rates this year, as many economists expect, the nation’s borrowing costs will continue to increase. That’s because as the existing debt matures, the government issues new debt with the higher prevailing interest rates.
The higher rates could increase the net interest cost on the national debt to about $9 trillion over the next decade, according to estimates by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that seeks to raise awareness of America’s long-term fiscal challenges. That’s up from the record $8.1 trillion that the CBO projected in May 2022 and the $5.4 trillion it projected in July 2021. — CNN
We’ve got one party doing their best to drive America off a cliff, but many of us are still ready and able to fight to keep it. If you are one of them, you can say it with our exclusive ‘1776’ t-shirt:
