Pressing for a gas tax holiday, his latest irrelevant response to economy-crushing price rises, President Joe Biden defaulted to his rhetorical tic of whispering.
After explicitly aiming his comments at “companies running gas stations” and reminding them that this is “a time of war, global peril, Ukraine” — all of which misdirect attention away from his own culpability — he implores his victims to “bring down the price you are charging at the pump.”
Then, to add emotion and highlight both the urgency of taking action and his sincerity in pressing for it, he leaned forward and whispered, “Do it now. Do it today.”
Whispering is how this president emphasizes things. In some ways, it’s a welcome inversion, given that the norm in our culture is to add force by shouting. But it has become a weakness because it generally signals Biden is talking nonsense and ordinary people should check their wallets without delay.
In pressing the supposed middle-class tax benefits of last year’s $1.9 trillion infrastructure plan and the bigger spending splurge of his Build Back Better plan, Biden whispered, “I think it is time to give ordinary people a tax break.”
Lower taxes are popular and effective, which is why he mentioned them. Yet his spending bills (both the one that passed and the one that collapsed) did not add to Americans’ spending power but contributed to our 40-year-high inflation rate of 8% — the equivalent of a regressive tax taking money out of people’s pockets to finance the “transformational” change for which Biden has no mandate.
Biden can whisper himself hoarse, but it isn’t working. He is failing to persuade voters, despite these shows of impassioned conviction. He is 22 points in the hole in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, with 58% disapproving of him and only 36% approving. The graph, with unbroken trends of rising disapproval and falling approval since Inauguration Day, looks like a pair of scissors opening on Biden and about to close sharply on Democrats in the midterm elections.
Whispering is all presentation and no substance — appearance, not reality. Turning down the volume as though vouchsafing a confidential reassurance doesn’t alter the facts, and it is the facts of Biden’s policies and excuse-making that move the needle against him in public opinion.
That war, global peril, and Ukraine are not mostly responsible for record gasoline prices is no secret. Ordinary people drive cars, and they know the majority of the pain was inflicted before Russia’s invasion. So, Biden’s line about “Putin’s price hike,” whether intoned explicitly, as it often is, or implied by references to international conflict, is bunk no matter how quietly he says it or how often he repeats it.
It is Biden who is responsible and Biden who has room for action. He can do much more than beg the Saudis, browbeat small business owners who run gas stations, or press for a gas tax holiday over summer driving season. He could encourage domestic production by making energy investment attractive. But that would outrage his green base, so he won’t.
Whisper it repeatedly. Your driving pain is Biden’s fault.
