There he goes again, again — the “he” being President Biden.  

The Wall Street Journal today posted a new Biden op-ed piece on the economy. It’s chock-full of Pinocchios and other related untruths, as per usual. The one I want to tackle, first and foremost, is his assertion that, since he took office, our economy has created more than 13 million jobs.  

This is a gigantic, cherry-picked exaggeration. The vast bulk of those jobs were Covid replacement jobs. Not new jobs. That’s point no. 1.  

Point no. 2: If you look at the broadest measure of employment, which is total civilian employment, adjusted for population changes, that number through May is 160.7 million jobs. Pre-pandemic in January 2020, that number was 159.6 million.  

So, actually, the household employment gain is a grand total of 1.1 million from the pre-Covid base. This means, in effect, Mr. Biden hadn’t created any new jobs. And the bulk of the replacement jobs came during the second half of 2020, under President Trump. The biggest unemployment decline also came under Mr. Trump. This should come as no surprise. 

Mr. Biden has run the most anti-business economic policy ever. Worse than President Obama, way worse than President Carter, who actually deregulated during his last years, and way, way, way worse than President Clinton, whose second term was actually pro-business.  

Mr. Biden’s op-ed piece doesn’t talk about his war against fossil fuels, or his across-the-board regulatory assault on virtually every other American sector. He says inflation has come down — but it’s not thanks to him, or his policies. 

His $5 trillion in spending and the Fed’s easy money regime led to a near 10 percent inflation rate, with Mr. Biden and Secretary Yellen and the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, first telling us that there was no inflation and then that it was transitory. Then, the Fed pushed the panic button a year ago and jacked up its target rate by 500 basis points. 

Now, we’re still stuck at around 5 percent inflation.  

Under Mr. Biden, the CPI has increased 15.3 percent, with groceries up 19.6 percent, energy up 32.9 percent, and gasoline up 43.7 percent. These price hikes, the soft underbelly of the Biden economy, are the reason why a recent poll shows that 61 percent of Americans believe we’re in a recession. Also, 63 percent disapprove of Mr. Biden’s handling of the economy.  

It is precisely the inflation that has slammed worker wages into the ground. During the Biden administration, real wages have fallen 2.7 percent over nearly 2.5 years. During the Trump administration, real wages went up 7.3 percent.  

People do have jobs, but they’re losing money after inflation and taxes. President Reagan called it “take-home pay.” Under Mr. Biden, it’s take-home pay cuts. 

That’s why this is going to be a pocketbook, kitchen table election, and that’s why Mr. Trump is running 30 to 40 points ahead in the polls.  

Mr. Biden also goes back to his totally discredited claim that he has cut the budget deficit by $1.7 trillion during his first two years — which has earned him the Bottomless Pinocchio Award from the Washington Post. Then he claims that his new budget proposals would cut the deficit by another $2.5 trillion.  

That is solely a function of his bid to repeal all the Trump tax cuts, which would, if implemented, virtually destroy the economy. That tax disruption would lead to an even more gigantic deficit than the $20 trillion in combined deficits that the Biden budget actually shows.  

Then, Mr. Biden brags about his Medicare drug price controls, which will damage any number of pharmacological breakthroughs and innovations to cure diseases and save lives. Merck, by the way, is bringing a lawsuit on First Amendment free speech grounds and Fifth Amendment takings grounds. Good for Merck. 

We’re in year three of a socialist experiment called Modern Monetary Theory, where allegedly you can spend, tax, regulate, and print money as much as you want with no negative consequences. This high school-level experiment has failed.  

The economy has stalled and headed lower. The Biden untruths continue to pile up. The polls show voters are not being fooled.  

Save America. Return to free-market capitalism.  

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