Vice President Spouts Economic Untruths as Working Families Suffer

Just when you thought you might never again hear from Vice President Harris, she popped up yesterday in a talk at Bowie State University in Maryland. Then, after hearing what she said, most wish she hadn’t spoken. Very much like her boss, President Biden, Ms. Harris is incapable of telling the truth about the economy. She said that the Biden administration has done a great job lowering heating and electricity bills, and that that’s freeing up money for working people to spend on things like school supplies or a new dishwasher or a family vacation. The trouble is, her so-called facts are wrong. These are what we would call “untruths.” Over the past year, electricity costs are up 12 percent, fuel is up 28 percent, and natural gas is up 27 percent. Gasoline prices are up a dollar a gallon since Mr. Biden took office. On Inauguration Day in 2021, the average was $2.39 nationwide, according to AAA. Today, it’s $3.39. Plus, the principal reason gas prices have come down from their peak is that the Bidens have destroyed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, selling roughly one-third of the reserve for their adventures in pre-election political price-fixing. Let’s hope there’s no OPEC+ oil embargo or gigantic emergency storms in the Southwest or other regions in the country. The Bidens willy-nilly whacked the SPR and damaged both our energy and national security. The height of irresponsibility. Ms. Harris undoubtedly neglected to mention that in her speech at Bowie State, so I’m obliged to remind her. Incidentally, although the overall inflation rate is gradually coming down, it’s still about three times the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target. Remember when the Bidens, and the Fed for that matter, told us there was no inflation, and then told us it was transitory? Then finally came Secretary Yellen’s hostage truth-telling video, when she said yes, Mr. and Mrs. America, there is an inflation problem. Remember? Then her former colleagues at the Fed proceeded to freak out, as they started jacking up interest rates at a pace not seen in many decades. Because of this inflation, some families are estimated to have lost $2,250 due to higher energy costs since Biden took office. I hate to flood you with numbers, but according to the Consumer Price Index overall energy prices are up 32.8 percent since February 2021, while fuel oil is up 70 percent, electricity is up 23 percent, and utility services are up 56 percent. Sorry, Madam Vice President, but these are factoids. Then there’s food. Since February 2021 the food price component of the Consumer Price Index is up nearly 18 percent, and groceries are up more than 19 percent. Food away from home, at restaurants, is up 15 percent. Wait, there’s more: New car prices are up 19 percent, used cars and trucks are up 24 percent, and, speaking of travel, if you can get on a plane, airline fares are up 34 percent. So this whole inflation story is really very simple: For the past two years, Americans have been clobbered. And, though they’re working hard and they’re getting paid, after inflation and taxes are factored in, take-home pay for typical families has been going down for two years. That is the soft underbelly of the Biden-Harris economy. That is why the economy in last year’s first half declined. It was an inflation attack. Now, inflation is easing some, but it’s going to take another couple of years for the Fed to get back to its 2 percent target — and that assumes that the central bank gets some cooperation from the White House and Congress. Overheated spending must be stopped, and while no one’s really talking much about it, the Trump tax cuts — which are slowly expiring and which have already been under siege from Mr. Biden, who has turned into Bernie Sanders — should be renewed and made permanent. Low marginal tax rates that will rejuvenate incentives to work and invest will help the economy grow out of the Bidenflation, while the central bank continues to take excess cash out of the economy. Tax cuts and tighter money was the policy successfully pursued by JFK, the Democrat, and Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, the Republicans. It’s a winner. Save America. Tell the truth, Biden-Harris-Sanders. Restore prosperity. Make people happy. From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.

Vice President Spouts Economic Untruths as Working Families Suffer

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