This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden struggling to figure out a way to slow surging inflation, which hit a 30-year high and wiped out wage gains for the year.
As households try to budget for gas that is 50% higher than a year ago and a much more expensive Thanksgiving, Biden is also seeing support for wider spending stall on concerns that it could further tank the economy.
Both our graders noted the inflation, but they were divided on the president’s performance and grade this week.
Conservative analyst Jed Babbin questioned the administration’s claims that spending so much so fast will cure inflation. He graded the week a D-. Democratic pollster John Zogby gave high credit for Biden delivering on his campaign promise for infrastructure money and jobs, but noted in grading a B- that inflation was dragging the president’s success down.
Jed Babbin
GRADE: D-
The Biden administration had an amusing week. Not amusing for those who are suffering from #Bidenflation or Biden’s open-border crisis or whose family members are stuck in Afghanistan — but they did amuse themselves. The SOS (stuck on stupid) statements came thick and fast.
Special climate envoy John Kerry, when questioned about Uyghur slave labor used to manufacture Chinese solar panels, said it wasn’t his concern. He gladly signed an agreement with the Chinese that will supposedly speed both nations’ reductions in carbon dioxide. And Kerry said that we wouldn’t have coal-fired electricity generating plants by 2030. Right now, about 25% of U.S. electricity is generated by coal-fired plants. How Kerry’s dream can even be accomplished, or at what cost, he didn’t say. That’s not his concern either.
Vice President Kamala Harris was shown using a cheesy fake French accent while in Paris and also said that Biden’s next spending bill, the socialist “Build Back Better” plan, would cost taxpayers nothing. And Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said China and climate change were our two biggest national security threats.
The biggest bonehead statement of the week came, of course, from the president. He said that his massive federal overspending initiatives ($1.9 trillion in COVID-19 relief, $1.2 trillion in infrastructure, waiting on another $1.75 trillion, but really $4 trillion, in social welfare spending) would act to reduce inflation. He clearly has no clue that his wild spending spree is the primary cause of inflation. It would also cause the U.S. to have the highest income tax rate in the developed world.
Biden continued his refrain that voters were too dumb to understand the supply chain crisis. The administration is doing precisely zero to fix that problem, but Biden’s head of the National Economic Council said that the supply chain crisis is a good thing because it demonstrates that people are buying goods again after the virus shutdowns. How can we buy things that stores and online vendors don’t have?
Biden has also propelled “Regzilla,” the government’s regulatory mess that burdens our economy so greatly (and which Trump tried to tame), loose on American businesses again.
If that weren’t enough, Biden’s pick for comptroller of the currency, Saule Omarova, said that she wanted “smaller players” in the oil and gas industry to go bankrupt. Omarova, we should remember, is an unreconstructed Soviet-style communist with a degree from Moscow State University on a Lenin scholarship to prove it. Meanwhile, the administration is considering closing another U.S. pipeline, this one from Canada, which will exacerbate our dependence on OPEC and cost a few thousand jobs.
Last and certainly least, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that some of the infrastructure spending Biden will sign into law Monday will be used to correct “racist” highways built to divide white and black neighborhoods. He also gave the example of an overpass built too low (intentionally) to prevent busloads of black or Hispanic children from going to the beach.
All of these statements and actions are reflective of Biden’s policies. Either these guys have absolutely no grip on reality, or they think we’re dumb enough to fall for this malarkey. Maybe both.
John Zogby
GRADE: B-
Biden delivered on two distinct promises this past week. He passed the first major infrastructure legislation in decades. And he managed to pass the same bill with bipartisan support. These were no small achievements.
He did so just as the Labor Department revealed that job growth last month was more robust than economists had anticipated. And the COP26 Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, has gone into overtime so that delegates can leave with some tangible commitments to reduce carbon emissions to more acceptable levels. Biden was at least able to sign an agreement in principle with China to move more expeditiously on climate change. For now, these are words, but words matter at least.
Troubling, however, is inflation at an annual rate of 6.8%. Polls show that it is the top issue on voters’ minds. The president called his first Cabinet meeting in months to plot a strategy, but supply chain bottlenecks and rising consumer demand will make this a huge challenge.
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
John Zogby is the senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His weekly podcast with son and partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies
