The news passed with little note nor discernible fanfare from the mainstream corporate establishment media last week: the U.S. economy shrank last quarter by 1.4 percent (annual rate).
I’m not an economist or anything like that, but when the economy’s GDP gets smaller over a measurable period of time, isn’t that called a recession? Senile president Joe Biden’s administration had been hooting and hollering and bragging for months about the previous quarter’s figures, which showed a 6.9 percent jump in GDP growth (again, measured annually). They argued that the doddering Delaware dolt’s prolific spending policies were helping everyone to ignore the exploding inflation rate while simultaneously adopting a more optimistic outlook about the overall health of the American economy.
Now, with the shrinkage in front of everyone’s eyes, it’ll be much harder for liberal Democrat politicians to contend that grossly excessive government spending leads to prosperity rather than too much currency chasing too few goods resulting in inflation so high that practically everyone is losing value these days.
Biden’s unrealistic “climate change” centered energy policies guarantee that gasoline prices will remain inflated indefinitely, too, so family budgets will be stretched for… who knows how long? How many Americans have dramatically altered their personal habits so as to save whatever they can on basic necessities? I bet gardening has suddenly spiked in popularity -- growing your own food suddenly sounds like an attractive idea.
The official government explanation for the downturn was a rise in imports coupled with declining exports, which ballooned the already considerable U.S. trade deficit. Consumer spending remains strong, apparently, as does job growth and unemployment is low. It appears that after the absurd COVID scare and its corresponding lockdowns and bureaucracy enforced economic stoppages, people are still working. But with wages being swamped by high inflation, how long will the good trends last?
The Federal Reserve has also announced that severe interest rate hikes are on the way as well, which will make all borrowing much more expensive. The threat apparently hasn’t made a dent in the price of houses -- yet -- but how can home values remain high when so many potential buyers are priced out of the market? For those just starting out (translation: college grads and other young folks), it looks like at least another few years of renting or relying on mom, dad and grandparents for shelter.
Pour all of these factors into a mixing bowl and you get a lot of scared people later this year, afraid to save for fear of losing money in practically worthless savings accounts (with barely discernible interest payments) but also wary of spending because of runaway inflation.
And who is managing all of this? Joe Biden and his Democrat colleagues in Congress who believe that government must respond to economic worries by borrowing and appropriating more cash. Elon Musk can buy Twitter for well over $40 billion, but the average Joe doesn’t think this way. He’s just trying to make next month’s mortgage payment and leave some for gas and groceries.
Hard (harder?) times are comin’ -- the signs are everywhere. Dr. Anthony Fauci emerged from self-induced (or mandated?) sequester last week to declare that the pandemic isn’t over yet, too. Vice President Kamala Harris came down with COVID. The economic tone-deaf administration is beseeching Congress to toss another $33 billion at Ukraine, all the while spending tens of millions to avoid building more border wall.
And ruling party members -- Democrats -- can’t make up their minds about what to do before November’s midterm elections. Alexander Bolton reported at The Hill:
“Democrats are divided over how hard to push President Biden’s agenda in the months remaining until Election Day, uncertain about how much risk to take on at a time when Biden’s approval rating is stuck just above 40 percent.
“Democratic lawmakers are growing increasingly pessimistic about scoring a big legislative victory and are split over whether it makes sense to force so-called messaging votes on the Senate floor to draw contrasts with Republicans on key issues, such as expanded access to child care, programs to fight climate change and prescription drug reform.
“Some say those votes have value, while others wonder if they need to worry more about saving their imperiled Senate majority. Right now, political handicappers expect Republicans to flip the House. This raises questions about whether Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will bring any version of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda up for a vote before November.”
Oh, the anguish! The gnashing of teeth! The dilemma that faces poor mama bear “Chucky” Schumer as his cubs roll and tumble on the floor deliberating what to do to help save themselves before next fall’s beginning of a long hibernation period for the party. Bolton’s article indicates there are five current Democrat senators in toss-up states who desperately seek to avoid putting their names on the record for big Biden spending proposals.
They’re worried about going along with party members like Bernie Sanders and Liz “Pocahontas” Warren. I’d be petrified if I were in their shoes, too.
Four of them are Senators Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Raphael Warnock (Ga.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.). I didn’t check polling for each but I know recent surveys revealed that Cortez Masto and Warnock are running behind Republican challengers Adam Laxalt and Herschel Walker, respectively. Theoretically speaking, Kelly must be suffering due to the mass exodus of Hispanics from the Democrat party under bumbling senile Joe. As far as Maggie Hassan goes… well, who knows what volatile New Hampshire will do.
Anywhere the Biden-fostered border crisis touches will be heavily influenced by immigration, especially after the situation turns to anarchy when Title 42 lapses. Border? What border? Tell it to “Pocahontas”!
Most states haven’t yet held their party primaries but it’s certainly not looking too promising for Democrats to pick up open seats in rust belt locales like Pennsylvania and Ohio. Sooner or later the math becomes pretty dicey for the liberal party to hold on everywhere they need to retain as well as steal seats already held by the GOP.
Here’s thinking that it doesn’t matter one way or the other whether Democrats hold “show” senate votes or not, because there just aren’t enough liberals in the U.S. to enrage and motivate to allow them to keep congressional majorities. Even if 48 or 49 Democrats voted to expand federal childcare or prescription drug “reform” (what does that mean, anyway?) or “climate change” subsidies -- who’s going to care enough to tip the scale for more Democrat fiscal mismanagement when the economy is about to (or already has) slip into a recession?
Yeah, the economy retracted by 1.4 percent last quarter, remember? And that’s when there was near full employment. People are working but we’re still importing a lot more stuff than we’re sending overseas, primarily because of the energy sector. Would adding federal childcare benefits change the political dynamic?
We shouldn’t give Democrats too much credit for intelligence, but has the vote calculus changed any in recent months? Don’t forget that party leaders spent most of last year imploring Senators Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) and Joe Manchin (WV) to abandon their support for the filibuster tradition. It didn’t work. Then the Maserati-driving West Virginian held firm on his opposition to inflation-bolstering federal spending in the trillions.
The March inflation report showed consumer prices were up 8.5 percent (annually) and with the Producer Price Index over 11 percent, the April figure is likely to jump again, too. Yet the “progressive” kooks in the Democrat caucus want “show” votes to impress voters that Republicans are the irresponsible ones because they’re not okay with dumping more trillions into the already slowing-due-to-inflation economy.
Somewhat astonishingly, there are Democrats who believe that the Biden administration has “accomplished” enough already, and there’s plenty of meat to pitch to American voters this fall, specifically mentioning the $1.9 trillion COVID “relief” windfall and the $1 trillion “infrastructure” package passed with Mitch McConnell’s help last year. Yeah, that’s a good one. Have embattled Democrat candidates tell voters that Biden and the party are doing a terrific job and they therefore deserve another two or six years to return to Washington and screw things up even worse. If this is effective, restaurants should start telling customers that they no longer sell freshly prepared food because warmed-up leftovers from last year are still mighty tasty!
Thanks mostly to senile Joe, Americans have tuned out the pleas of Democrat congressional leaders who’ve tried everything politically feasible to pass the party’s socialist agenda -- and failed. There is no clamor among the citizenry for more welfare programs, and folks are much more upset about paying double at the pump than they are about the goal of reducing carbon emissions. Seriously, how could Democrats be so obtuse?
For a party that relies on the ignorance and apathy of low-information voters, Democrats have run out of options. Today’s economic conditions have forced people to pay attention to what’s going on, and the blame is being placed right where it belongs -- at the feet of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate leader “Chucky” Schumer.
The Democrat ship is going down. The only question is how many incumbents will make it to a lifeboat in time to save their skin.
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