The Biden Record, and the Democrats Who Supported It, Pt. 4: How Biden Blew Up the Economy With Inflation

   The US economy is in chaos. This is not "spin," or "opinion," but a fact. Some people aren't feeling it as hard as others, because they were well-off before the inflation started. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come, and it will affect those "well-off" people, to a greater degree than it does currently, as the recession sets in. It also will present a crisis for government, as the interest rates for the chronic borrowing that sustains all of their largesse double, triple, or even quadruple. How did we get here, after what was shaping up as a robust recovery from the pandemic response inspired recession?

   When Pres. Biden was elected, almost every policy that had been in place was reversed. We've looked at the disatrous results of this on the southern border, but what's happened to our economy has impacted many more Americans. It started out on day one, when Biden killed the KeystoneXL pipeline, followed by freezing new federal leases for oil exploration. While they didn't affect the day to day supply of oil and gas, they sent market signals that there would be less supply in the future. Prices started to rise.

   As much as the Democrats love to deride oil as a "fossil fuel," it seems that they don't understand how many other everyday products are dependent on it. Plastics, fertilizer, and pretty much anything that is manufactured. Long before Pres. Putin started threatening to invade Ukraine, the increase in US oil prices was working it's way into our supply chain. It didn't help that the Biden economic team not only ignored this inflation, but added fuel to it.

   The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was passed on partisan lines, with no Republican votes. Even noted Democrat economist, and Obama adviser Lawrence Summers predicted that it woud fan the flames of inflation, to no avail. All through this period, Pres. Biden and his Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen kept asserting that inflation was "tranistory," or temporary, and prices of goods would come back to "normal" soon. They spent quite a bit of effort, and political capital pushing that message, even bringing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell into the White House for a talk.

   By the end of 2021, it was clear that inflation was not going away. However, in 2022, Pres. Biden and his team presented a series of other things to put the blame on, from supply chains, to big meat, and local gas stations. Of course, the biggest one was the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which exacerbated the inflation that was already well past "transitory" by the time Pres. Biden started blaming it on Putin. None of this passed the smell test, even with friendly media outlets.

   Inflation wasn't the only destructive force that Pres. Biden and the Democrats unleashed on our economy, after Pres. Trump left office. The details of the legislation they have passed contain provisions that will continue to curtail economic growth, as well as freedom of labor and capital to move in the most productive ways. To be fair, Republicans share responsibility for some of it, specifically the infrastucture bill, and the semiconductor bill, both of which increased burdens on taxpayers, and put government in the role of choosing which businesses to favor.

   One of the most blatant ways that the Dems are harming the economy is by their slavish support of unions, which represent around 6% of the American workforce. Private sector unions have been shrinking, while public sector union membership has been increasing, which should tell you something. Unions have gone from being investigated for corruption by the government to corrupting the government that used to investigate them. It's a pet peeve of mine, so I have to ask it again: Is it fair to allow an employee to contribute money to their employer, to keep them in office?

   Before we get into the issues with public sector unions, we have to look at how Pres. Biden has catered to the private sector unions, at all taxpayers' expense. He continues to throw our money into pensions that were supposed to be funded by private sector unions, without even demanding reforms in the way these pensions are structured. He's pushing his NLRB to be biased on the side of unions in its role as arbiter of labor disputes. He has lived up to his nickname of "Union Joe," as president.

   His support for unions only goes so far, though. It seems that they continue to support him, even as he destroys the economy that supports them, with his green agenda. This is where the growing public sector unions come into play. They don't care about the private economy, because governments can't declare bankruptcy, and many of them have benefits enshrined in state constitutions, or in law. These are almost all states run by Democrats, and Pres. Biden is doing his best to benefit his union cronys, whether public or private. In any case, it is hurting the other 94% of us, and the US economy, in general.

   One of the biggest wastes of taxpayer money are the "prevailing wage" laws, which basically force government projects to use union workers. The federal version is the Davis Bacon law of  1931. Perhaps it was needed in that era, but today it has become a privilege for the select few businesses that get government contracts, leaving the majority of private businesses, especially small and minority owned businesses out of luck. The fact that they survive, and even thrive in the private economy should be proof that taxpayers are being taken for a ride by these laws. No, somehow "Union Joe" and his Democratic cohort continue to claim that "UNIONS" actually represent most working Americans, when the opposite is true.

Let's not forget to mention Pres. Biden's latest fiasco, the "student loan" giveaway. He tries so hard to paint this as having some benefit for the nation, but it looks as if nobody is buying it. It almost parallels his union giveaways: Spending a bunch of taxpayer money to benefit a small percentage of people who are already better off than the average taxpayer. This is not helping the economy in any way. In fact, it's doing two things that are detrimental: It's taking taxpayer money out of the government budget, and giving it to people who didn't ask for it. In fact, they filed multiple papers swearing that they would pay that money back. 

   Pres. Biden has said publicly that this is making college more affordable, which is the opposite of the truth. In fact, colleges are still raising tuitions, because the government is signaling that it will continue to pay off student debt. There has never been a word spoken about the value of the education that these colleges are providing, and whether they should have some financial liability, or "skin in the game," so to speak. This is because academia is one of the Democrats biggest support bases.

   What is interesting is that the Democratic pecursors to Pres. Biden's "forgiveness" gave preference to people that chose to work in government service, and he is continuing it. This is a blatant way to increase the federal workforce with college-indoctrinated bureaucrats and personnell of all types, from teachers to CIA or FBI agents, supervisors, as well as keeping their public sector unions stocked with the same. They know which way the wind is blowing, for government graft.

   Some of these are small examples, but there is a common thread, and it involves one more policy that is contributing to the harm our economy is experiencing: ESG, or Environmental and Social Governance regulations. The Biden admin, and Dems such as Sen. "Fauxcahontas" Elizabeth Warren are trying to use financial regulation to enforce policies that they can't pass through legislation. Why? Because the limited "ESG" policies that have been passed by the federal government, and especially in certain states like California have proven disastrous, or been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Subsidizing intermittent wind and solar energy has caused reliable fossil fuel plants out of business, and when people need reliable energy, the price for it has spiked.

   There is no way that ESG policy will increase shareholder value, or give the public a better product or service at a lower cost. In fact, it does the opposite, as so many progressive policies do. What's worse is that all of the big union pension funds, and private equity investment companies have joined the ESG bandwagon. The basic theme is that "we, as big businesses, are bad, so we have a responsibility to lose money, and eventually go out of business." They don't explicitly say that, but they cover up the fact that their policies are losing money by saying that it is a "long term" positive policy. Not that they have any facts to support that claim.

   Again, the corruption is the cause of this. Green energy businesses donate to Democrats, who give them back billions in subsidies for unreliable energy. The capper is that the Biden administration, as well as a bunch of private equity firms are trying to force this ESG agenda on the nation. What they don't admit is that none of those goals are compatible with growing the economy. Indeed, they have a track record of lagging behind companies that just pay attention to the bottom financial line.

   It seems that the far left has never recognized that capitalism, for all its ups and downs, has been the greatest boon to the human race in all of history. What it looks like to me is that a bunch of rich "fat cats" are feeling guilty about things that they had no hand in creating, but they think that destroying the economy is the way to "fix" them. Specifically, income inequality, whether personal or national. I can't believe that they are so detached from economic reality to think that, but they do.

To these Democrats, politics seems to be a "racket," where you get paid off for your political choices. Pres. Biden represents this, in the most old-school way. It's why he's going along with the progressives that have comandeered his party. He's gotta go along, to get along. The Democrats controlled the House for almost 50 years, when he was first elected to it. Back then, there was still some ideological diversity in both parties: "Blue Dog" Democrats, and "Rockerfeller" Republicans were opposing factions in their parties, but still voted with their own party most of the time.

   Those days are long gone, for the most part. There are still the occasional bills that are passed on a bipartisan basis, but it's much rarer than in the past. What's happened over the last several decades is a malfunction of the process, where bills are bundled together in packages that have to be passed at the last minute, without thorough debate, or any debate. Again, that's a bipartisan problem, but right now, the Democrats are in total control of the government, so they, and espacially Pres. Biden have to take the blame for what has occurred over the last two years.