Congress passed trillions of dollars’ worth of stimulus in 2020 during the end of Trump’s term. By the time Biden took office, the economy had rebounded energetically, growing 33.4 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, in the last two quarters of 2020, and it was already roaring along at a 6.4 percent growth clip for the first quarter of 2021.
Yet Biden pushed for more stimulus and got it, pouring $1.9 trillion worth of kerosene on the fire. And then he pushed for even more of the same, spending the rest of the year advocating trillions in infrastructure spending (which he got) and trillions more in spending on the so-called Build Back Better agenda (which he didn’t).
Gasoline prices are not as directly linked to Biden’s actions as inflation, but he can hardly blame exogenous forces (like Putin) for the spike in the cost of fossil fuel when disrupting its supply has been a nakedly stated objective of the bureaucracy he put in place.
Supply-chain problems? Biden is responsible for some of them, and the labor-union allies whose influence he wishes to expand are to blame for some others. Biden’s failure to waive the nonsensical Jones Act, which severely limits maritime trade, has prolonged and worsened the crisis.
Meanwhile, Biden’s own bureaucrats at the FDA are responsible for the baby-formula shortage because it’s the FDA that decrees, again nonsensically, that the baby formula used by millions all over Western Europe is not up to U.S. standards.
Biden is the primary author of the humiliating retreat from Afghanistan that first caused his approval ratings to sag. His softness on illegal immigration is the obvious cause of the ongoing border crisis.
And his inability to get through even a heavily stage-managed appearance without looking as clueless as Grandpa Simpson is the reason Americans doubt his fitness to lead.
These last 18 months could have given us a story of American renewal and recovery. Instead, they’ve given us a damning story of presidential mismanagement.
This section is courtesy of the June 2022 National Review article “Biden Made His Own Mess” by Kyle Smith.