In Tilting at Windmills, Biden Gets it Wrong

While President Biden and his Democrat colleagues push to spend hundreds of billions of dollars (more) for windmills and electric vehicle charging stations, Americans are going hungry. Remember Mr. Biden shouting — literally — about food lines under President Trump? Here’s his outcry: “My God, this is the United States of America. The idea that people would have to wait in line an hour or an hour-and-a-half to get a box of food in their trunk — it’s just unbelievable.” Guess what? ABC News reports those food lines are back, “as working Americans overwhelmed by inflation increasingly seek handouts to feed their families.” The broadcaster recounts that a main food distribution center in Phoenix delivered food packages to more than 4,000 families in June, a 78 percent increase over the prior year. Reports from other states indicate the surge is nation-wide.Sadly, about 10 percent of the people seeking assistance are first-timers. Also, many have jobs. Even so, with real wages down 3.8 percent over the past year and food prices up 12 percent, millions of Americans are struggling.The country-wide food bank network Feeding America reports being caught off guard by the rise in demand; the economy was doing so well, the management says, Feeding America did not expect so many people to need their help. They didn’t expect inflation to hit families so hard.Neither, apparently, did Mr. Biden, who otherwise might have been a little more judicious in blasting the emergency that occurred under Mr. Trump. And, whose policy priorities in this time of need are all wrong.As he addressed Chicago electrical union members back in May, Mr. Biden grew nearly hysterical about the horrors endured under his predecessor. “Remember those long lines you’d see on television? People lining up in all kinds of vehicles just to get a box of food in their trunk? How quickly we forget. People were hurting.” Yes, they were, Mr. Biden, because the arrival of a once-in-a-generation pandemic caused policy-makers to shut down millions of businesses. Tens of millions were forced to stay home. It wasn’t Mr. Trump’s fault; it was Covid.To their credit, Trump’s White House and Congress quickly passed trillions of dollars in relief measures; still, many suffered, and resorted to handouts and food banks to feed their families. The downturn was short-lived, thanks to the speedy government response. Though the sudden and widespread shutdowns made the 2020 downturn the sharpest since the Depression, it lasted only two months, the shortest in history. When Mr. Biden took office, a recovery was well underway, just a year after the virus hit; the economy was growing at better than six percent and hiring had resumed. That’s why so many analysts considered the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan reckless, and blame the excessive and poorly-timed spending for today’s soaring inflation.Now, despite a tight job market, Americans, and particularly low-income Americans, are again hurting. This has nothing to do with Covid, and everything to do with Mr. Biden’s destructive economic policies. A recent Monmouth University Poll reports that 42 percent of Americans say they are struggling to hold their own financially, up from 24 percent a year ago. The pain is wide-spread across nearly every demographic, but is most acute, not surprisingly, for those earning less than $50,000. For those folks, who are spending the majority of their income on food, fuel and rent, the surge in costs has been devastating. What is Mr. Biden doing to help those Americans put food on the table? He is racing off to Saudi Arabia to beg for oil, in hopes of lowering gasoline and fuel oil prices while mulishly sticking to his own anti-oil policies at home. Plus, he is pushing Congress to pass a bill directing $570 billion to address climate change. Does he really think working-class Americans, the people with whom he claims kinship, put reducing emissions ahead of feeding their families? Numerous stopgap measures enacted by the Trump White House, like the Agriculture Department’s “Farmers to Families” program that provided emergency relief during the pandemic, have ended. If Democrats are desperate to spend more money, how about reviving such efforts instead of appeasing climate alarmists? Isn’t feeding Americans more important?

In Tilting at Windmills, Biden Gets it Wrong

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