Think I’m gonna just bite the bullet and change the name of this blog to The Lazy Republican…at least based on the number of blogs I publish these days.  And never being one to shy away from a shortcut or the easy way out, I’m now simply going to share my latest guest commentary published in the Orlando Sentinel several weeks ago.

Besides, I’m off on another cruise, currently docked in Greenland, ultimately sailing over to Iceland.  And getting motivated to do anything beyond eating, drinking sleeping, and sightseeing is a total non-starter.

OK, maybe drinking should be first on that list…he said in a rare moment of self-awareness.

So, the Orlando Sentinel slapped a title on this that read, “Biden’s Economic Claims Lack Context.”  That’s more sugar-coated than a box glazed donuts, for shit’s sake.

The Liberal Schmucks of the mainstream media.  Enemy of the people, right Donald?  Hahaha…GOTTA LOVE’EM.

Anyway…Enjoy the following rare “expletive free” dissertation…

Joe Biden’s numerous and repeated economic claims are a fact-checker’s paradise.  No, I’m not simply talking about good old-fashioned political spin, typically easier to spot than a bad toupee.  What we are regrettably confronted with are continued, outrageous claims about the economy that are either overt falsehoods, or grossly out of context.  And Americans deserve better from their President.

Let’s start with inflation.  In comments made on April 10 after the release of the March Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, Mr. Biden asserted that “inflation was skyrocketing” when he took office.  Interesting claim, since according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation was a mere 1.4% in January 2021 when Mr. Biden was inaugurated.  1.4%?  Skyrocketing?   A breathtakingly false claim that Biden stunningly repeats over and over again.

Mr. Biden has also become quite adept at economic slight of hand by citing numbers that are woefully out of context and intellectually dishonest by ignoring the disastrous effects on the economy of the pandemic.  Let’s take job creation.  In the State of the Union address in March, Biden boasted – as he does quite often – that 15 million jobs have been created in his first three years in the White House.  The pandemic ratcheted down employment in the country from 152.3 million to 130.4 million, a loss of almost 22 million jobs, according to the U.S Bureau of labor statistics.  When Joe Biden took office, employment had recovered to 142.9 million, rising to 157.8 million by February 2024, an increase of 14.9 million.  From that contextual perspective, however, actual job gains under the Biden administration were just 5.5 million over the pre-pandemic levels of 152.3 million, a far cry from the 15 million claimed.  Biden supporters may cavalierly interpret this claim as “technically” true – others, including myself, view it as intentional deception.

Another economic fantasy Biden often peddles is that the economy was on the verge of collapse when he came into office.  In his January State of the Union address, Biden exclaimed, “I inherited an economy that was on the brink!”  Well, one need not be in the lineage of world renowned economist Milton Friedman to do a quick Internet search that would tell you the economy was recovering from the ravages of the pandemic quite robustly in the 4th quarter of 2020 when Biden was elected, and again the next quarter when Biden was inaugurated.  According to the U.S Bureau of Economic Analysis, those GDP growth numbers were a quite healthy 4.2% and 5.2%, respectively.  On the brink?  Beyond laughable.

Another dubious claim often made by the President concerns deficit reduction.  In an economic speech last year, Biden boasted, “The last two years…we cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion, the largest reduction in debt in American history.”  Even a Biden friendly CNN threw cold water on this assertion on their website in a January 28, 2023 article that fact-checked several questionable claims made by Biden.  Once again, Biden shamefully ignores pertinent context that tells the real story.  From that CNN article – “Biden did not mention that the primary reason the deficit fell so substantially was that it had skyrocketed to a record high under Trump in 2020 because of bipartisan emergency pandemic relief spending, then fell as expected as the spending expired as planned.  Independent analysts say Biden’s own actions, including his laws and executive orders, have had the overall effect of adding to current and projected future deficits, not reducing those deficits.”

I could go on, but the point is clear.  And lest anyone think Mr. Biden’s dubious claims are restricted to economic matters.  Past and repeated assertions by the president and those in his administration like “the border is secure” and “the Afghanistan exit was a success” immediately come to mind.  Regardless of the issue, I sense Americans are sick and tired of being told by the Biden administration, ad nauseam, that the grass is blue and the sky is green.  It’s simple “are you gonna believe me or your lyin’ eyes” politics.  I guess we’ll all find out in November just how sick and tired Americans really are when that final chapter is written.