Among his many self-inflicted crises, inflation and immigration perfectly embody Joe Biden’s failing, flailing presidency. Confronted with catastrophes of his own creation, Biden shows himself not just unable to solve them but even to deviate from the errors that produced them. Two crises, one cause, no solution — and even less leadership. Increasingly, it is clear that Biden’s approach is to search for others to save him from himself.
There is no end to Biden’s self-inflicted wounds. There is also no Biden solution for them except more of the same. Abroad, they began with his disastrous withdrawal from
Afghanistan
, which has kept his administration backpedaling ever since. In the Middle East, he was played by Iran, first over the hopeless
nuclear deal
and most recently over a swap of hostages for
$6 billion
, which has since been temporarily paused. And when Iran thought Biden played out, it unleashed its client Hamas on Israel.
BIDEN SQUEEZED FROM BOTH SIDES OVER STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS
In Europe, Biden’s weakness triggered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a resulting global crisis.
In Asia,
China’s belligerence
has only increased over the last three years.
At home, Biden’s fiscal failings have caused uncontrolled spending, deficits, and debt. His
radical environmental policies
undercut America’s energy security and drive average people to the poorhouse. Big cities’ big
crime
goes ignored: Criminals run free, and average citizens run for cover. Public schools’ excessive lockouts during COVID, at the behest of Biden’s
teacher union
donors, have led to excessive learning loss that is only beginning to be measured.
Yet among his litany of losses, two stand apart as examples of Biden’s failures and his inability to escape: inflation and immigration.
Inflation began shortly after Biden took office. Fueled by his excessive spending, it hit a
four-decade high
in June 2022 when it breached 9%. Yet Biden wanted still more spending. Only senators from
his own party prevented
even higher outlays than what he finally signed in the cynically named Inflation Reduction Act (which
the Congressional Budget Office stated
would have a “negligible effect on inflation” in 2022 and 2023), while the Supreme Court
blocked his student loan forgiveness
plan that would have added yet more spending pressure.
What apparently has beaten inflation was the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes that began in
March 2022
. It went on to raise them 10 more times, with rates ranging from 5.1 to 5.3%, a two-decade high.
And there they remain, increasing the cost of people’s borrowing on everything from loans to mortgages. Despite having apparently achieved a soft landing of slowing inflation without triggering a recession, these rates cannot undo the damage of Biden’s three-year price rises: Just because inflation slows, that doesn’t mean it goes. Future prices won’t accelerate as quickly, but their past rises remain. As a result, people are paying
20% higher prices
than they were before Biden took office.
On illegal immigration, Biden rolled out the welcome mat when he rolled back border enforcement. “Encounters” by overwhelmed Border Patrol agents have
reached record highs
, while unknown numbers have gotten through undetected. Among those unknown numbers are
criminals
and illegal drugs, most notably fentanyl, America’s biggest drug scourge and a mounting public health crisis.
Only victimized border states’
transportation of illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities
in blue states has forced the establishment media to cover, and the rest of America to acknowledge, the crisis Biden has created.
And there is no end in sight precisely because Biden continues to do the bidding of the radical Left and refuses to end it. Biden’s administration refused, for example, to
reach a deal
with Senate Republicans to stem the illegal immigration tide in negotiations over more money for Ukraine.
Of course, Republicans should not have to negotiate with the president to do his fundamental job of protecting America’s borders, but that is where things are at. What Biden has done is dispatch
Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Mexico
to see if the president of Mexico can do the president of the United States’s job for him.
Therein lies the similarity between two disparate crises. Besides being created by Biden, both are also beyond his ability, or willingness, to solve.
Biden is more the White House’s resident than America’s president, more apt to cause crises than to solve them. If that seems harsh, then consider the other side of the ledger: Name one crisis Biden has solved. COVID? Biden
excoriated former President Donald Trump’s record
on it, but the truth was that the groundwork for beating it was laid during Trump’s administration with
Operation Warp Speed
. In contrast, Biden refused to end the war against COVID even after it was already won.
At the bottom of each crisis lies Biden and his being beholden to the Left. The Left demands more spending and open borders; Biden therefore refuses to say no to either. Instead, he searches for someone else to save him from himself and the Left’s demands. And while the Fed apparently has on further inflation, no one has on illegal immigration.
Watching three years of Biden’s self-inflicted crises, it is hard to imagine what 2024 holds in store — and harder still to picture what awaits if Biden remains in office for four more years.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
J.T. Young was a professional staffer in the House and Senate from 1987-2000, served in the Department of Treasury and Office of Management and Budget from 2001-2004, and was director of government relations for a Fortune 20 company from 2004-2023.
