President Biden, in his first interview in a long time, launched quite a few whoppers while talking to the Associated Press. I think my favorite is his claim that the idea that spending causes inflation is “bizarre.” This is a double whopper.

At this point, virtually no one outside of the White House building doubts that excessive spending, including the $2 trillion rescue package in March 2021, was the cause of inflation. 

That’s why, for example, the latest Fox News Poll shows him at a 29 percent approval rating on the economy with 67 percent disapproval, and 23 percent to 71 percent on inflation specifically. Mr. President, what’s “bizarre” are your poll numbers. 

Leading Democratic economists have said all along that massive government spending added stimulus into a Trump economy that was already in a v-shaped recovery coming out of Covid. Business people everywhere have made the same point. It’s just common sense.

And yes, the Federal Reserve bought up the deficit spending bonds and printed far too much money. 

Mr. Biden, give this one up. Would you, please?

You’ve basically gone from no inflation to transitory inflation, to Vladimir Putin’s inflation, and, in the last few days, to Exxon Mobil’s inflation.  

Oh yes, and you say Exxon didn’t pay their fair share of taxes, so they’re not “patriots.” And you’re going to use your emergency powers to go after them. 

Trouble is, Exxon Mobil has invested $118 billion in new oil and gas supplies over the past five years, compared to a net income of $55 billion, and basically increased their production by 50 percent. In 2020, they lost $20 billion, but here’s the best — they paid $40 billion in taxes last year. 

Think that qualifies as paying their fair share? It’s a lot like Elon Musk paying $11 billion in taxes last year. I’d say they both qualify. 

The trouble with Mr. Biden’s attack on fossil fuel companies is that his own policies have resulted in closed refineries, shuttered pipelines, denied permits — all in pursuit of ending fossil fuels. This was his all-too-clear campaign pledge. 

Another Biden whopper is that every other major industrial country has higher inflation. Well, once again, that’s just not true. Inflation is lower in China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, France, South Korea, South Africa, Canada, Italy, India, Mexico, Germany, and the entire Euro area. 

The San Francisco Fed a month or two back did a study that showed core inflation in the U.S. is running significantly higher than core inflation in the OECD countries. More recently, leading Democratic economist Jason Furman wrote in a WSJ op-ed piece that a large gap has emerged between core inflation in the U.S. and in Europe. 

What’s more, U.S. spending stimulus to boost aggregate demand was substantially higher than Europe’s and nominal wage growth running at roughly 6 percent annually in the U.S. is about double the 3 percent wage rate in the Euro area. You were right in one way, Mr. President: Your policies are changing peoples’ lives — for the worse, not for the better. 

With essentially 10 percent inflation, falling real wages, record gas prices, huge increases in grocery prices, no baby formula on the shelves, and a couple million people blowing illegally through our border, plus your radical, progressive defense of woke education in the classrooms, defending the teacher’s union and labeling parents “domestic terrorists,” a massive crime wave, and your complete bungling of Afghanistan — well, the effect on peoples’ lives shows up in even the latest left-wing Politico poll, with only 26 percent saying America is going in the right direction and 74 percent saying we’re on the wrong path. 

You’re on to something, Mr. President, when you say that national morale is really down — for all the reasons I just listed. They’re not positive reasons. And you’re also on to something when you say the need for mental health treatment in America is skyrocketing. But, sir, the pandemic is only a small and fading part of this.

What’s really happening is collective high anxiety over inflation and gas prices and the baby formula woes, along with all the rest of your failures. People are pessimistic, not optimistic.  

The economy is on the front end of a recession, real wages are falling, and so are stock markets — where the middle class is invested in their retirement accounts. People are stressed out during times like this. 

Alcoholism and drug use are both up. It’s part of the national stress. It’s damaging to our mental health. Show me a time when the majority of people are making good money, with good jobs, with low prices, with easy gas at the pump, with supermarket shelves well-stocked, with a high labor participation rate, and I’ll show you a happy country.

Right now, this nation under your policies has once again become a welfare nation, Mr. President. You are paying people not to work, you have thrown out the window work requirements in return for federal assistance, and the inevitable result of that is unhappiness, low self-esteem, high anxiety, continued stress, and plenty of mental health problems.

Your efforts to transform this country into some kind of woke, progressive paradise have completely failed in just 18 months. It’s time for a change. Make that a big change. The cavalry’s coming. 

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.