President Joe Biden apparently communes with the deceased. At least, that’s what he suggested recently when he claimed the past five Federal Reserve chairmen said his $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan would grow the economy.
Two of the past five chairmen are dead. So either Biden is just making stuff up, or he has powers beyond what anyone expects of a president.
Biden was asked recently at a White House press briefing whether he has talked to business CEOs about his proposed corporate tax rate and whether he is open to making it 25% instead of his planned 28%.
“I’m open to compromising, yes,” said the president. “It doesn’t have to be exactly what I say. But to suggest that which some of the folks are suggesting, and I’m going to meet the Republicans next week when they come back and seriously meet with them, I’m willing to compromise, but I’m not willing to not pay for what we’re talking about. I’m not willing to deficit spend. They already have this $2 trillion in the hole.”
He added, “And, by the way, you saw the last five [the] Fed coming out and saying, what’d they say? They said, ‘Biden’s plan is going to grow the economy.’”
Former Fed Chairmen G. William Miller and Paul Volcker are dead, so that probably isn’t so.
That leaves three, two of which (Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke) have been relatively silent on Biden’s pricey “infrastructure” and “jobs” proposals. They certainly haven’t claimed the plan would “grow the economy.”
Former Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen is the only former Fed chief who has promoted the president’s multitrillion “infrastructure” plan, and that’s probably because she is serving as his treasury secretary.
So, what is Biden going on about this time? A White House spokesperson clarified later the president meant to say five former IRS commissioners agree his plan “is going to grow the economy.” That’s pretty silly, except even that is not true.
In an opinion article for the Washington Post, the former commissioners said only the president’s plan would create a “fairer tax system.” They didn’t say the plan would spur economic growth.
Biden also said that Moody’s had claimed his plan would create up to 16 million jobs. But that’s also not true. Moody’s estimates the American Jobs Plan could produce as many as 2.7 million jobs in addition to the 16.5 million it believes will be created without the plan between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2030.
Biden is being really careless with what he says, or else intentionally dishonest. Neither option reflects well on his “infrastructure” plan, but both provide a nice contrast in how the press deal with presidential lying, depending on which president we’re talking about.
