The Patriot Post® · Biden's Economic Stagnation Team

Joe Biden’s picks for his economic team are as sure a sign as any that he has made it Job One to undo President Donald Trump’s success in securing America’s economic recovery. This murderer’s row of big-government leftists so closely adheres to the failed economic policies of the Barack Obama years that some are already referring to the incoming Biden administration as Obama’s third term. That’s not a compliment.

At the top of the heap, Biden has named Janet Yellen as his nominee for Treasury secretary. Yellen, Federal Reserve Board chair during Obama’s second term and supposedly a “centrist,” has indicated that she supports Biden’s plans to repeal Republican tax cuts and raise the capital gains tax. These actions will reduce consumer spending, private-sector investment, and savings across the board, just like they do every single time people are allowed to keep less of their paychecks.

Oh, and Yellen favors a $2 trillion carbon tax to fight global warming. Among other things, it would raise the federal gasoline tax by 200%. The only thing it will cool off is the economic recovery.

Jared Bernstein, whose fingerprints were all over the failed 2009 “stimulus” package that led to the first of several trillion-dollar annual deficits during Obama’s presidency while doing nothing to stimulate the economy, will join the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA). Bernstein argued that his stimulus proposal would bring unemployment down to 7% by the end of 2010. He was off by three years, but he still believes similar actions will produce the desired result now.

Heading the CEA will be Cecilia Rouse, a veteran of the Clinton and Obama presidencies who places a high premium on using the economy as a lever for social change. Unlike most minorities, she is a steadfast opponent of school choice. And she supports Biden’s plans to make community college tuition-free and his immoral redistribution scheme to forgive student loan debt.

Tapped to head the National Economic Council, which coordinates White House economic policy, is Brian Deese. He’s not exactly a household name, but Deese designed the auto industry bailout in 2009. After nearly wrecking the American automotive industry, he went to work for BlackRock as global head of sustainable investing, which is essentially social engineering through economic action.

Neera Tanden has been tapped as White House budget director. A militant supporter of Hillary Clinton and staunch climate activist, Tanden is likely to be the economic engineer for Biden’s climate initiative, tightening industry regulations, enacting carbon taxes, and supporting trillions of dollars in direct federal spending on climate and other areas ripe for leftist meddling. Tanden stands little chance of being confirmed by the Senate due to her combative nature and personal insults of many Republican senators — that is if Republicans manage to hold the Senate.

A Republican Senate is just about the only thing that stands in the way of this economic hit squad and the damage it is prepared to do to the American economy. These picks embrace high government spending and high taxes, they have no concern for deficits, and they are all eager to use economic policy to force a leftist agenda on the country.

Naturally, the media seems to be just fine with what Biden has in store for the country’s finances. The Associated (with the Left) Press laughably noted that the Biden team’s years of experience has earned “plaudits from some conservatives, who note that the nominees are not a far-left group bent on strangling the economy, as President Donald Trump repeatedly warned during the 2020 campaign.” Actually, this is exactly the far-left group that Trump warned about. And it is gleeful at the opportunity to undo his work.

In the three years of the Trump administration prior to the outbreak of the China Virus, the American economy was making strides not seen in decades. Real wages were growing after being stalled at the rate of inflation since the 1970s, with much of that growth taking place in low-wage jobs. Unemployment plunged to record lows, and significant employment and wage gains were made among minorities. Consumer confidence was at an all-time high, the stock market was roaring, and investment in industrial and manufacturing sectors was reaching new highs.

The economy has shown remarkable resiliency in spite of the blows dealt by the pandemic, and it does not need to be transformed by an unworkable top-down government stimulus. What is needed are vaccines to stop the spread of the virus. Then we should go right back to the policies that brought us a strong economy in the first place. But Biden and his leftist team are not about to let a crisis go to waste. Guard your wallets.