We have spent over a year now, governed by Democrats – – -Biden and Harris in the White House (that is, Biden in the White House when he isn’t resting/vacationing in Delaware), a slim majority of Dems in the House under the control of one of the Three Weird Sisters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth calling “Fair is foul, and foul is fair!,” and a Senate split 50/50 with Harris sometimes able to cast the deciding vote for the Dems when Manchin has not stood firm with the Republicans. Kamala Harris recently said, “Our task is to show people that in many ways they got what they ordered [when electing Biden]. . . they said this is what they wanted . . . so let’s get out there as we do and remind them of that.”
But, of course, half of America didn’t order what we got and the other half had no idea what it was they were “ordering.” So, what has life been like for us? In Part One, we look only at the economy.
Biden and his propaganda machine (otherwise known as the mainstream media) consistently tell us how good the economy is. People have lots of money to spend. New jobs are opening up. Businesses are hiring. But that is, of course, all, to use Joe’s own words, “a bunch of malarkey!”
Yes, people have money to spend. Or rather they did have. Way too much. A year ago, on March 11, 2021, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law. It poured 1.9 mostly unfunded trillion dollars into the economy supposedly to supply COVID relief. But since the money was largely printed, it plunged us into the upward spiral of inflation in which we now find ourselves. And new jobs? No, only jobs reopening after they had been forced to close due to the pandemic. Let’s get our facts straight, here!
Lots of money chasing fewer goods creates inflation. Why fewer goods? Because many workers were out of the labor force because of the pandemic and remained out — mothers, because their children’s schools were closed and they had to stay home to supervise “at home computer learning” and fathers, because unemployment was extended and then families were paid a monthly advance tax credit through 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan. Why go to work when you make more money just watching the soaps?
So, that led to a supply chain crisis which was exacerbated by Biden’s vaccine mandates. Companies with 100 employees would be forced through OSHA to require proof of vaccination from employees or the employees would have to be laid off or fired. Although the Supreme Court eventually deemed this unconstitutional, the Biden Administration had encouraged businesses to follow through on the mandates anyway, and many did, forcing the conscientious objector and the unvaccinated out of jobs. Mandates for health workers and first responders caused large numbers of resignations in those fields. But the supply chain crisis worsened because blue states like California would not allow unvaccinated truck drivers to drive through their states to pick up goods that were being off loaded from container ships in the ports. Container ships piled up in the ports, containers piled up on the docks, and even today, store shelves sport large blank areas where goods should be, but aren’t.
New car lots have mostly trucks now with an occasional car, but until the last month they had almost nothing. We ordered a 2022 car because there were no 2021 cars available. Why? Because most computer chips are not made in the U.S. but in Asia and remember the container ships piled up in the ports in California? Yup. Well, we ordered the car in September and it finally arrived in February. Now, you may think, well, it was a 2022 and January was the start of 2022 so that’s not so bad. True, except that the last new car we bought was a 2017 which we bought off the lot on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, you know, in November) of 2016!
And that new car that we finally got- – – well, it doesn’t have all of its parts. Oh, it has the most important ones, of course, but the little extra things that we are already paying for we don’t have because GM doesn’t yet have the parts. When they finally do (hopefully before we pay off the car and trade it in for another), they will send them to the dealership who will then install them for us. So, we got most of a new car!
Things that you buy from Walmart in Paris today, may be gone tomorrow, and it may be months before you see them again. The same is true of stores in Terre Haute. One of the managers of Baeslers was complaining to me about how frustrating it is for them to order things and expect them to come in and they simply don’t arrive. Then they have to deal with the unhappy customers.
Okay, so I said inflation was the result of too much money chasing after too few goods. Inflation under President Trump hovered around 1%. Last month, February 2022, inflation was 7.9%, the highest rate of inflation we have seen in 40 years. FORTY YEARS! But that doesn’t tell the whole story. We bought two apples today. Two apples. They cost $1.90. Lumber is up 124%. Used cars and trucks are now over 40% higher than even a year ago. Milk now costs as much for a quart as we used to pay for a gallon. And a gallon has more than doubled in price. I don’t even want to talk about the price of meat. The average price of ground beef (you know, the cheap stuff!) went up 8 cents from January to February alone!
And gas, which on a good day could be bought at Kroger’s in Terre Haute at just under $2.00 when President Trump was in office, is well over $4.00 there and $4.55 here in Paris. The average cost of gasoline rose 7 cents per gallon in one day (from Thursday to Friday) nationwide. And the cost of gasoline fuels (pun intended) the rise of inflation as well, because when it costs more to produce and ship goods, manufacturers will pass those costs on to the consumer.
We were told that this inflation was just “transitory,” but it is not. It is continuing, and will no doubt continue until someone (a Republican) who understands how an economy works, gets into the White House. As far as Biden is concerned, he continues to play the blame game. First everything was President Trump’s fault. Now everything is Russia’s fault. Yes, inflation, which began a year ago, long before Putin’s attack on Ukraine, is nonetheless the fault of the war in Ukraine. Forced by public opinion and bipartisan pressure, Biden at last has turned on his buddy and banned the purchase of gas from Russia. We haven’t felt the result of that ban yet, but we will. (Oh, and I called Putin Biden’s buddy because Putin is “helping” Biden resurrect the infamous Iran nuclear deal that sent plane loads of cash to Iran under Obama and which President Trump wisely extracted us from. Oh, yes, Putin is helping negotiate the Iran deal on behalf of the U.S. with some extras for Russia thrown in which with luck will scupper the whole deal!)
The sad part of all of this is that it didn’t have to happen. We are sitting on more gas and oil than most other countries in the world. Under President Trump we were energy independent, producing for our own use and selling to other countries rather than having to buy from other countries. But Biden stopped all of that on virtually his first day in office. Now we buy our fuel from other countries, making us dependent upon them. Biden, knowing he was going to have to cut off the supply from Russia, tried to find other sources. So, we are now attempting to buy oil from Madura’s Venezuela and Iran, two countries whose leaders would like to see us destroyed. In addition, Biden placed calls to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, hoping to convince them to pump more oil in order to lower prices. But his relationship with those countries is so bad that they both refused to take his call! When in the past has THAT ever happened!
In addition, the inflation caused by all the money poured into the economy and encouraging workers not to go back to work is a normal action by Democrats. They spend the money, either borrowing or simply printing it, for what they perceive to be a worthy cause, without ever considering where that money is coming from, how it will be paid back, or what long term effect it will have on the nation. Democrats are known for tax and spend economics. They like to tax the rich, but since there aren’t enough rich to pay for their pretty little projects, they end up taxing anyone making a decent wage. Left to themselves, they would take everything we have and give it to those who choose not to work at all. Mitt Romney was castigated by the press when he ran for president against Obama for saying that nearly half of Americans paid no federal income taxes. But according to CNN, that percentage now is 61%. 61% of Americans who take, but do not contribute.
Now, the lack of natural gas which is necessary for the production of fertilizers, is causing a fertilizer shortage. And a fertilizer shortage will mean a shortage of crops. And it is not just happening here. Ukraine has one of the richest soils in Europe and was a great producer of crops before the devastation of this continuing war. A Russian millionaire warned that there will be a global food shortage this year, and because of Biden’s banning of natural gas drilling, it will certainly hit us. The lack of fertilizer will mean fewer crops. Fewer crops with a demand that has not diminished will mean that prices will go up. High! A peanut butter and jelly sandwich will no longer be a cheap meal for the kids!
This is life with Democrats. And we have three more years to live with them! Let’s hope we can survive it!