On Recession, Biden Has a Moment of Infamy

The American people expect their leaders to care. When President Biden snapped, “I’m not concerned about a recession,” he sent the opposite message from the White House Thursday, and handed the Republicans a gift.Even this president — who has done more walking back than Michael Jackson — seemed to realize that he’d made a blunder.“I mean,” he added, “you’re always concerned about a recession, but the GDP, you know, fell to 1.4 percent.” It didn’t fall “to” that, but “by” that: Negative 1.4 percent, halfway to a recession, which is two quarters under water.By using the second person, “you,” Mr. Biden only acknowledged that we are concerned — setting himself apart from the people. He didn’t reverse his detachment from our predicament, he underlined it.Mr. Biden tends to use this scolding tone when confronted with negative news or a question he prefers to avoid, such as when he said about the unvaccinated, “Our patience is wearing thin.”In the process, he does what coaches warn players not to do before a big game: say something about the other team that they can tape up on the locker room wall and use for inspiration.When a recession arrives, the RNC will paste this quote everywhere, and the president will have only himself to blame. We won’t be allowed to forget this moment, and it won’t require any spin.Such moments can destroy a presidency, the way Democrats cast President George H.W. Bush as out of touch for marveling at a supermarket scanner in 1992.The scanner, familiar today, was an innovation that included a scale. Democrats cast Mr. Bush as so detached from everyday life, he didn’t understand supermarkets — or that recession.Mr. Bush knew he had a problem, and expressed it with the inelegant statement, “Message: I care.” Mr. Biden hasn’t shown even that level of self-awareness, much less a willingness to change course to avert a recession.In another flub seized upon in the ’92 campaign, Mr. Bush checked his watch during a debate while his Democratic opponent, William Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, was droning. Democrats said he thought he had better places to be.To avoid this temptation, candidates no longer wear wristwatches. You’re also unlikely to see one riding in a tank after such a moment helped doom Mr. Bush’s 1988 Democratic opponent, Governor Dukakis.Faced with the highest inflation in 40 years, this president has had many tank moments, and Mr. Biden shows no signs of kicking it into reverse to show progress — or at least empathy — before the official recession arrives.His options are few. At Future of Capitalism, Ira Stoll describes the challenge for the Fed of “The Biden Stagflation”: Raising interest rates to fight inflation harms growth and lowering them to goose growth worsens inflation.The other solution — cutting spending — would land Mr. Biden in the soup with his party in Congress, which can see the writing on the wall for November and is readying its wish list.Senator Schumer, the majority leader Democrat of New York, said on Tuesday, “If you want to get rid of inflation, the only way to do it is to undo a lot of the Trump tax cuts and raise rates.”It’s rhetoric that would play well against a Republican president. However, taking more money out of our pockets and giving it to Washington to spend isn’t going to ease our money troubles.Michael Cohen wrote about the prodding Mr. Biden will be getting from his party’s dominant left wing. In an MSNBC piece, he urged Democrats to accept their looming slaughter and “pass as much as they can now.”This will only feed the narrative that Mr. Biden cares about Democratic fortunes, not ours. Instead, a version of his predecessor Rutherford B. Hayes’s statement is called for: “He serves his party best who serves his country best.”Mr. Biden spent half a century insulated from voters, first in a safe Senate seat and then as vice president. Now the buck stops on his desk, and he’s about to learn that in a democracy, it’s voters who lose patience with presidents, not the other way around.

On Recession, Biden Has a Moment of Infamy

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