The Patriot Post® · President Pay Cut Wants More Inflationary Spending

In March of 2021, after trillions of dollars had already been spent on COVID relief (government spending your money to fix the problem government created), Joe Biden and his Democrat pals in Congress forced through another $1.9 trillion boondoggle called the American Rescue Plan. “Rescue.” Pffft. Flooding the economy with more cash to fuel demand during a time of constricted supply had a predictable result: Rampant inflation.

But not to fear! Democrats have a solution: More government spending, $2.5 trillion more, and higher taxes to boot.

Yesterday’s inflation report was bad. Really bad — 9.1% inflation, and that’s just the headline number year-over-year. Price comparisons since Biden took office and immediately set about to deliberately derail Donald Trump’s recovery are probably closer to 15% higher across the board. Gas prices alone are roughly double what they were on January 20, 2021, and only after they’ve come back down by 40 cents. That’s the price of war — not Vladimir Putin’s on Ukraine but Joe Biden’s on fossil fuels.

Inflation is already a tax, primarily on workers. Real hourly wages have fallen 4.8% since January of 2021, the worst since the 1970s.

The same inflation Biden repeatedly called “temporary” last year has been anything but. Here’s a trip down memory lane, beginning the month after Biden took office:

February 1.7%
March 2.6% (American Rescue Plan signed March 11)
April 4.2%
May 4.99%
June 5.4%
July 5.4%
August 5.3%
September 5.4%
October 6.2%
November 6.8%
December 7%
January 7.4%
February 7.8% (Putin invades Ukraine)
March 8.5%
April 8.2%
May 8.6%
June 9.1%

Biden now says the June number is already “out-of-date.” Please.

Democrats (with too much help from Republicans in 2020) created this problem by shutting down the economy and then stealing from your grandchildren to debt-finance gobs of spending to recover from that shock. Again, supply chain disruptions coupled with greatly subsidized demand yielded much higher prices. Democrats want to lather, rinse, and repeat.

“What we’re doing is cutting costs for consumers,” argued Oregon Democrat Senator Ron Wyden regarding their reconciliation bill that’s part of Build Back Better under different branding. “That has a real anti-inflationary impact, cutting medical costs, cutting energy costs, paying down debt.” Part of the plan he’s referencing is to stave off more skyrocketing ObamaCare premiums ahead of the election. You know, that other government-created economic disaster.

Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren sounded the same refrain: “When problems are paid for, that doesn’t mean more dollars have been pumped into the economy. And when rich people have to pay taxes to help fund programs that help people go to work, that puts more workers into the economy, more productivity, and that drives prices down, not up.”

The exact opposite is true, as we’ve already contended. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin agrees with us. “No matter what spending aspirations some in Congress may have,” Manchin said, “it is clear to anyone who visits a grocery store or a gas station that we cannot add any more fuel to this inflation fire.”

Heck, even Mitt Romney gets it: “Anytime you’re spending more money, you’re creating more demand and that causes prices to go up. So, if they come up with a bill that spends more money, it’s going to be inflationary.”

Republicans oppose more spending and they’re sounding the alarm that part of the Democrats’ plan is a big tax increase that will hit small businesses hard. “They’re behind closed doors playing around with what may amount to the single, largest tax increase in American history,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned. “Tucked inside are exactly the sort of radical ideas that working families can least afford right now — they want a giant tax hike on small businesses.”

Democrats claim this is just making sure the “rich” pay their “fair share,” but the higher tax brackets hit small business owners hardest because they’re the least able to take advantage of tax breaks.

Maybe it would help Biden administration players steward the economy better if they tapped into their own vast business backgrounds. What’s that you say? Oh, virtually no Biden administration players have any background in business.

After evaluating the résumés of 68 administration officials, economists Stephen Moore and Jon Decker have identified the problem: “Average business experience of Biden appointees is only 2.4 years.” Some 62% of them have “virtually no business experience,” including the Big Guy himself and his trusty sidekick, Kamala Harris.

Yeah, but are they the right color or gender identity?

In short, the people making key economic decisions really don’t even know how things work. Last July, Biden said, “I don’t know anybody who’s worried about inflation.” Now we know why, and it’s no wonder things have turned out so poorly.