When the Gross Domestic Product numbers came out last week, we pointed out that Joe
Biden’s policies on energy guaranteed a GDP contraction, in part because they force Americans to send billions of dollars overseas for energy, especially oil.
Now, our friend Stephen Moore has posted a chart in his must-read newsletter for the Committee to Unleash Prosperity explaining just how bad things really are.
Wrote Mr. Moore:
Our inflation expert E.J. Antoni notes that the entire explanation for the lousy GDP number was the 8.5% inflation pace. As the chart below shows, if we still had the 2% inflation we had under Trump, the economy would have grown in real terms at a brisk pace. But with Bidenflation the economy has to expand by MORE than 8.5% just to stay even.
By the way, we love Biden's lame statement that consumer spending was strong in Q1. Yes, Joe that’s because families had to spend so much more money on gas, groceries and utility bills.
The drop in economic growth also opened another line of attack for Republicans as they attempt to ride economic dissatisfaction to majorities in the House and Senate, reported The Hill’s Sylvan Lane.
“Accelerating inflation, a worker crisis, and the growing risk of a significant recession are the signature economic failures of the Biden Administration — and will likely get worse,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee, in a Thursday statement.
“This is what happens when a President treasures his unpopular socialist agenda over the needs of American workers, families, and Main Street businesses.”
And it appears voters agree with Rep. Brady.
POLITICO reports in the latest Gallup poll released Wednesday, 4 in 5 adults rated current economic conditions as only fair or poor, and more than three-quarters of Americans say the economy is getting worse. The resulting Economic Confidence Index has fallen since last July and is now worse than it was in April 2020, at the start of the pandemic.
Voters from both parties will hold President Joe Biden and the Democrats accountable for whether things feel on the right or wrong track, said Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University.
“Slow growth — potentially still coupled with high inflation — inevitably makes it harder for the president’s party to win elections,” Binder said Wednesday, before the latest numbers were released. “With slim majorities and Biden’s popularity sagging, there’s a strong risk that Democrats could lose control of both chambers.”
Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at the consultancy RSM, said in an Associated Press report, that the strengths observed by others could fade as policymakers tackle inflation because sustained economic growth depends on having stable prices.
“The price of oil and gasoline and food are all increasing faster than your paycheck,” Brusuelas said. “Therefore, we need to slow down the economy and demand with it, and that likely means slower growth and a slightly higher level of unemployment over the next two years. And it will be done with intent and purposefully. The problem is we could cause a recession in the process.”
It will surprise no one, especially the astute observers of politics and the economy who read CHQ, that Biden and the Democrats see this as a “messaging” problem, not an economic policy problem.
One senior White House official quoted by AP said the various disruptions of the past two years have hurt the reliability of traditional economic indicators, masking what the administration sees as a solid economy.
The official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the GDP report, said the key to overcoming this challenge will be to get the American people to focus on the bigger picture instead of monthly and quarterly reports.
So, Biden’s answer to the impending economic disaster he has wrought is to tell us not to believe our lying eyes when we look at our grocery bill or the spinning dollar signs on the gas pump when we fill up our car and to focus on the “bigger picture.”
Good luck with that Joe.
There may be a “bigger picture” where Boeing, Apple, Amazon and other big multinational corporations are doing great, but in our little corner of the economy spending so much more money on gas, groceries and utility bills is the only metric that matters.
The toll-free Capitol Switchboard (1-866-220-0044), call today and tell your Senators and Representative you demand they act to reopen American energy production and stop the runaway government spending that are driving inflation.
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