President Joe Biden continued his nationwide tour to champion his administration's economic record. At his latest stop in Lanham, MD, on Feb. 15, he touted the success of his economic agenda that he calls a "blue-collar blueprint" for America, abandoning the old ways of trickle-down economics. Unfortunately, like many previous speeches, including the recent State of the Union address, the 46th president misled the applauding audience. But with the Fourth Estate masking this mendacity, the president can apparently get away with anything.
The Joe Biden Record
At the beginning of the event, President Biden almost immediately touted three misleading statements: 12 million new jobs were created under his watch, 800,000 manufacturing positions were produced, and take-home pay has risen over the last several months.
Liberty Nation has reported that these employment numbers are incorrect, as nearly all of these jobs were returned to the US economy from the pandemic. Some economists might also argue that not all of the lost positions have fully returned yet based on population data. Still, even using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), numbers show that Biden keeps getting this wrong. Regarding take-home pay, the January consumer price index (CPI) report confirms that real wage growth (inflation-adjusted) has been negative for 22 consecutive months, with real hourly wage growth at -1.8%. This means Americans' take-home pay has failed to keep up with the cost of living throughout most of Biden’s tenure.
Since Nov. 2021, the president and many Democrats have kept alluding to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The president referenced this "Bipartisan Infrastructure Law" in his recent oration. But did it achieve significant GOP support? Hardly. The legislation received only 13 Republican votes in the House of Representatives and 17 "YEAs" in the Senate.
For the second time this month, Biden claimed that he cut the national debt. He told the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) that he reduced the national debt by $1.7 billion (the transcripts say $1.7 trillion). Either way, this is incorrect because the US government has not recorded a surplus since 2000, and the federal debt held by the public has been increasing, reaching its limit of $31.4 trillion last month.
According to President Biden, his Inflation Reduction Act caps out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare at $2,000 per month. However, according to the legislation, the law puts a spending cap for Medicare beneficiaries at $2,000 per year, and it only goes into effect in 2025.
(Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In what might be considered "the big lie" among some Republicans, Biden again accused the GOP of wanting to abolish Social Security and Medicare. This time, he alluded to Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who proposed a similar policy to Biden's to sunset federal programs and force Congress to reauthorize these programs every five years. As Liberty Nation noted, Sen. Scott's plan does not explicitly mention the entitlement program. In fact, the 12-point proposal only recommends to "force Congress to issue a report every year telling the public what they plan to do when Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt." Even if it did, lawmakers could (and would most likely) vote to keep the retirement scheme alive.
The following promise dates to the early days of his administration: No American earning less than $400,000 per year would pay a penny more in taxes. This has been proven incorrect on numerous occasions, including in a report by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), which noted that federal taxes would rise between 0.1% and 0.3% for those making between $10,000 and $500,000 per year. In addition, the White House has suggested that it might allow some of the Trump-era tax cuts to expire in 2025, which would effectively be a tax hike on middle-class Americans.
He accused the Republicans of planning to raise the national debt by $2.7 trillion. This might be an accurate projection, but the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently forecasted that the cumulative deficits are expected to be $3 trillion larger over the next decade because of current spending levels.
Finally, Biden slammed the Republicans for playing politics with the federal debt ceiling. “They passed the debt ceiling three times without — without preconditions or a crisis," he said. "If we paid America’s bills then, why won’t we pay them now? If you couldn’t throw the country into a crisis then, why would you want to throw it into a crisis now? Well, I tell you why: It’s just politics. And they got no business playing politics with people’s lives and the full faith and credit of the United States.”
This may potentially be true, but this would be the same playbook as the Democrats during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Donald Trump. In 2006, for example, the Democratic Party, including then-Sen. Joe Biden, refused to endorse an increase to the debt limit. Both sides have been playing this game but have yet to achieve much in the end for future generations of taxpayers.
You Seen One You Seen Them All
If you have watched or read one Biden speech, you have seen them all. They are filled with platitudes, mendacity, and Bidenisms, such as a “no joke,” “old Joey,” and “where is it written?” The State of the Union address from earlier this month set the stage for what all future speeches on the economy will be like heading into the 2024 presidential election cycle. The latest one from Maryland was no different, except that he got the names correct this time. So for the next economic speech, bring your Bingo card, as you will most certainly learn that these talks are replicas with minor tweaks.
