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Democrats Have Only Themselves to Blame for the Inflation Fiasco
Townhall.com ^ | November 12, 2021 | David Harsanyi

Posted on 11/12/2021 5:48:52 AM PST by Kaslin

It's been quite a spectacle watching people who credit Democrats with every job created and every percentage point gained in economic growth suddenly arguing that the White House is completely powerless in the face of our current economic predicament.

Presidents generally get far too much credit and/or blame for our fortunes, but they can certainly exacerbate existing problems. And our political class has certainly aggravated them with unbridled spending and support for policies that disincentivize work and inhibit energy production.

Wholesale prices rose 8.6% from a year ago in October, another record annual gain and the biggest spike in more than a decade. Inflation hit 6.2%, the highest rate of annualized inflation since the 1990s. Whereas once voters were promised "transitory" inflation, today, economists warn that we'll be in this for a while.

"Reversing this trend is a top priority for me," resident Joe Biden said Nov. 10, after months of his administration's dismissing inflation as a "high-class" and short-term predicament -- there's "nobody suggesting there's unchecked inflation on the way -- no serious economist," the resident promised a few months ago. Biden's National Economic Council Deputy Director Brian Deese had argued that inflation was actually a good thing, and the entire administration had pushed the notion that the best prescription to alleviate inflation was more big progressive spending -- part of a broader trend of Democrats saying utterly absurd things about the economy.

Democrats have seriously underestimated the frustration that voters, unable to get the things they desire nearly instantaneously, are going to feel, as people such as Jen Psaki crack jokes about supply-chain problems, "the tragedy of the treadmill that's delayed." What about rising prices?

Last week, liberal punditry spent a day mocking a Texas mother of nine who groused about rising milk prices on CNN. I'm not sure if Krista Stotler had her all stats entirely correct, but I suspect most voters don't really care to pinpoint price points. Inflation is something they feel.

Perhaps even more than the education issue that helped sink Democrats in Virginia, inflation remains the most consequential issue in politics right now. It's hard to spin your way out of a wealth-destroying tax. There's no one to accuse of racism. No Trump to blame. If we account for inflation, real average hourly earnings, for instance, have decreased over the past year. And all Democrats want to do is spend more money -- lots of it.

This week, Democrats, with an assist from some Republicans, approved another $1 trillion-plus infrastructure bill, even as they push through an unprecedented multitrillion-dollar reconciliation bill. All this comes after $6 trillion of deficit spending during the pandemic, which many Democrats argued wasn't even enough.

Meanwhile, a third of recent inflation increases has been propelled by energy prices, which spiked 6.7%. Biden defenders such as Paul Krugman, who have no compunction blaming Republican governors for seasonal variances in the spread of viruses, contend that Biden has no control over gas prices. Well, the first thing Biden did was freeze new oil and gas leases and shut down future pipelines. Biden now begs OPEC to increase production and help lower worldwide gas prices, but his domestic political goals and action run contrary to this position. Virtually every "green" plan in existence will intentionally, through mandates or bans or taxes or contrived "markets," make fossil fuels more expensive or reduce use. Expensive gas is their goal. So how can Democrats credibly maintain they have a plan to stop rising prices?

On top of all that, Democrats continue to push for a major expansion in the welfare state during a tight labor market. It is reminiscent of their insistence that unemployment insurance be expanded even after the pandemic had ebbed. Biden's spending plan includes programs that disincentivize work. Typically, massive "safety net" programs are instituted by Democrats during times of recession, not of growth. There are more jobs than jobseekers in the country.

It's true that governments caused much of the demand shock we are experiencing, needlessly shutting down entire economies during the pandemic. Yet, Democrats have allowed their strident ideological wing to take over the party, aggravating these underlying trends. Why Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema (or Biden, once considered a moderate himself) would follow progressives off into this quagmire defies logic -- not only economic but political logic.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bidenadmin; joebiden
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1 posted on 11/12/2021 5:48:52 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

No, they have Trump to blame. Trump is their magic bullet.


2 posted on 11/12/2021 5:50:34 AM PST by brownsfan (It's going to take real, serious, hard times to wake the American public.)
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To: Kaslin

I just read that they’re actually contemplating shutting down yet ANOTHER pipeline, which will drive energy prices and inflation even higher. They simply don’t care.


3 posted on 11/12/2021 5:50:52 AM PST by jpl ("You are fake news.")
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To: Kaslin

Any time you hear somebody kvetching about the prices on the shelf, just remind them, ‘y’all voted for that guy.’


4 posted on 11/12/2021 5:55:35 AM PST by Terry L Smith
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To: Kaslin

Inflation is part of their plan to destroy independent America, and turn us into a Vassal state of Red China.


5 posted on 11/12/2021 5:58:07 AM PST by MuttTheHoople (The best slaves put their own chains on )
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To: brownsfan

The Marxists game plan to power is to inflict as much emotional, financial and physical pain on their future subjects. Its right out of Karl’s playbook, Attested by Alinskey and Cloward and Piven.


6 posted on 11/12/2021 5:59:11 AM PST by Don Corleone (leave the gun, take the canolis)
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To: Kaslin

We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.

Barack Obama May 17, 2008

Recall the high energy prices under Obama. The “peal” oil” lie. The assertion that we can’t drill our way out of high gas prices. Trump decisively disproved these lies.

High energy prices is how Dems fight climate change. Little people be damned.


7 posted on 11/12/2021 6:00:27 AM PST by DeplorablePaul (s)
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To: brownsfan

Of course they’ll blame Trump, they won’t blame themselves, but have to keep them from controlling the narrative, just like the headline skews the proper framing of the issue.

It should be that ALL AMERICANS have ONLY the DEMONKKKRAPS TO BLAME FOR INFLATION. (Sub headline - Party in power refuses to accept responsibility.) That needs to be repeated over and over and over and over again .... right into 2022 (s)election day.


8 posted on 11/12/2021 6:01:23 AM PST by Susquehanna Patriot
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To: MuttTheHoople

No, you are wrong

The goal is not to make America a vassal of China. The goal is to transform America into a European socialist state. California and New York already are

American progressives are intellectually deficient. Every program they come up with is derivative of an existing program in the socialist UK or Europe


9 posted on 11/12/2021 6:02:01 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Free Republic has gone to hell is a Covid handbasket)
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To: Kaslin
It is far worse than what is being reported and is probably going to go into hyperinflationary territory. Almost nothing can be done to protect oneself financially from that. It ruins almost everyone but the super rich who own the means of production and those who live an isolated life off of the grid for the most part.

No investment is going to turn out well. Land/property investments will increase in taxation such that people will not make enough to keep them. The people in charge are setting the nation on fire.

10 posted on 11/12/2021 6:02:54 AM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: Terry L Smith

I agree.....I could care less how the American voter retards that cast their votes for Democrat, Low Lifes, like Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Schumer, etc.!!! Those fools deserve every hardship that comes their way!!! These people made their own beds...now let them lay in the bed they themselves created!

By the way, Biden dummies, ya all better learn to speak Chinese, because Joe Biden and the entire Democrat Party are controlled from top to bottom by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)!!! Sad & tough times ahead for the USA!!! Ya all did it to yourselves...fools!!!


11 posted on 11/12/2021 6:05:07 AM PST by JLAGRAYFOX (Defeat both the Republican (e) & Democrat (e) political parties....Forever!!!)
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To: Kaslin
I know this might be the unpopular opinion here, but aren't Jerome Powell, the Fed, and even Trump partially responsible?

How many rounds of stimulus checks did Trump push? He had been pushing negative interest rates for years.

Biden is certainly exacerbating everything, but much of the groundwork had been laid out in 2020.
12 posted on 11/12/2021 6:21:08 AM PST by millenial4freedom (The Left: We hate the white male, but we need his money)
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To: Kaslin
I am amazed at how many on our side (i.e. America as founded) still consider things like inflation to be a mistake on the Left's part due to incompetence.

It is not an act of incompetence, but rather an act of WAR.

This is by design, part of a general plan to destroy America in order to rebuild a global society over which they have complete control.

One only needs to google "Cloward Piven" or "Saul Alinsky" or go to the "John Birch Society" web page to verify this.

13 posted on 11/12/2021 6:26:32 AM PST by SecondAmendment (This just proves my latest theory ... LEFTISTS RUIN EVERYTHING !!!)
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To: bert

This is why USA needs to cut its involvement with EU. Let EU deal with their ideological ally Russia, only then will they wish Trump and the USA were on their side. EU fears and despises China, yet they grovel to the CCP, won’t insult them like they do America.

As time passes on, I am hard pressed to come up with what EU has that is of such vital importance to the USA. Seems their biggest exports are bad ideas, cultural and moral decay, socialism-communism, and insults to Americans. They did after all export the idea of involuntary servitude and slavery, that America could not extricate from its founding because of the ties, influence of the European ancestors.


14 posted on 11/12/2021 6:27:11 AM PST by Susquehanna Patriot
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To: millenial4freedom

at least one stimulus was under Trump before the election


15 posted on 11/12/2021 6:32:43 AM PST by JerryBlackwell (some animals are more equal than others)
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To: Susquehanna Patriot

Amen Bro...... preach it like it is!!. Freepers don’t understand this simple fact.

No EU nation is our friend and all are worthless allies in the instance of war.

The future is East Of Suez. Europe was


16 posted on 11/12/2021 6:34:55 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Free Republic has gone to hell is a Covid handbasket)
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To: Kaslin

Being a democRAT means never having to take responsibility.


17 posted on 11/12/2021 6:36:01 AM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: Terry L Smith

ha......

my line to those useful idiots is “anybody but Trump, right?

..and then turn and walk away


18 posted on 11/12/2021 6:37:06 AM PST by QualityMan ( I got nuthin...)
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To: millenial4freedom

One can go all the way back to W if you want to be even more accurate. (doubled debt 5 to 10 trillion; obozo doubled it to 20 trillion...) Others will say one should start in 1913 when the Federal Reserve and the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.

Yes, Trump did not run on nor act on reining in federal givernment fiscal. We can argue whether he not been hampered with some many working against him to the point of immobilization - fake hoax investigations, a lying media, fake impeachment and two years of GOP Congress that worked against him. My financial reading during those years was that it didn’t matter who was in the WH really, the system is on such an auto-pilot, a print and spend, etc that the day of reckoning would come. The question would only be who would be standing during musical chairs when the last song stopped. Xiden and enemies have sure accelerated the decline, and they may be last ones standing.


19 posted on 11/12/2021 6:39:05 AM PST by Susquehanna Patriot
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To: millenial4freedom; JerryBlackwell
but aren't Jerome Powell, the Fed, and even Trump partially responsible?

yes, the twin decisions to go along with a lockdown, then issue stimulus money started the ball rolling. Up to that point, Trump had been flawless on economic policy. That said, we had already recovered from the lockdowns when the Dem's stole the Presidency. Without that theft, I'm sure Trump would have kept us on a sound path economically.

20 posted on 11/12/2021 6:54:42 AM PST by ghost of nixon
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