“Our Work is Far from Over”
A recent fund-raising letter to Democrats from President Biden opened with the title of this piece: “Our work is far from over.” That echoes the words he said before signing the executive order at a Pride Month reception at the White House last June: “We have a lot more work to do, a lot more work to do.”
Frankly, that stance scares the hell out of me.
As of January 20, 2023, President Joe Biden (D) had signed 106 executive orders – 77 the first year in office. That compares with 54 by President Trump.
The February 8, 2023, State of the Union address confirmed my fright regarding his admonition he’s not done changing America.
In it President Biden claimed he had created millions of jobs and expanded access to healthcare.
He also confirmed his contention that the biggest problem facing the country and democracy is white supremacists seeking to overthrow the government.
Sorry, I missed the facts regarding what’s become the usual gaslighting we hear from this WH.
Getting back the millions of jobs lost as a result of the government’s COVID fiasco is not a great achievement. The economy lost 20.5 million jobs in March 2020, an unprecedented decline. But the recovery was also unprecedented, as businesses reopened, and lost jobs were restored. Recovering lost jobs is hardly the same as job “creation” however, that’s the word that the president uses frequently.
Regarding the economy, President Biden is into revising history.
The wild spending accomplished in the last 2 years by one political party in control of Congress and thereby exacerbating both inflation and the national debt is not an achievement.
He claims inflation was out of control when he took office. Fact is that inflation was at a meager 1.4% when he took office. A year and a half later inflation was at 1.3% – a month – on its way to a 9% rate, the highest in over four decades.
The average family has seen real annual earnings fall about $6,000 under Biden, while higher interest rates have increased borrowing costs another $1,400. That means a family effectively can buy $7,400 a year less today than it could in January 2021.
The recovery that began two years ago was unprecedentedly large because the decline before it was equally large. What Biden inherited was an economy growing at a $1.5 trillion annualized rate – hardly “reeling,” as he now describes it. And yet, the economy managed two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth a year and a half after Biden took office, with many economists forecasting negative growth to return this year.
The facts are there are no economic achievements. He gets an “F” on the economy.
Allowing 7+million illegal immigrants into the country the past two years is a problem, not an achievement. I mean, open the borders to this country and what is happening is almost automatic. Throw in the human and drug trafficking open borders invites and we have little to say about his achievement on immigration.
Expanding and escalating the avoidable war in Ukraine to verge of nuclear war is also not an achievement.
Making the country energy dependent again under the façade of “no problem” substituting ‘green’ energy for fossil fuels, thereby increasing by multiples the cost of everything the average family needs to survive, is not an achievement either.
Labeling concerned parents exercising their right to voice their opinions/disagreement on the actions of various school boards as domestic terrorists is not a great achievement.
Grounding all domestic flights creating havoc for the airlines and would be passengers is not an achievement I want on my resume.
The way the withdrawal from Afghanistan was handled, leaving the ‘Al-Qaeda friendly,’ (female unfriendly) Taliban in charge again was a failure. And by abandoning so much military hardware thereby arming the Taliban with untold equipment and weaponry is not an achievement.
Weaponizing the DOJ and the FBI as tools to be used to harass and arrest political opponents is an achievement, but only one for which a despot wants credit. You’re the enemy unless you espouse certain political beliefs.
One of President Biden’s ‘achievements’ is mandating all federal employees get training in Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness (DEI) programs. In other words, all employees must pass the DEI ideological litmus test to stay on any government job or in military service. New hires are given favoritism and priority if they pass the race, gender, LGBTQIA or other immutable, ‘victim,’ characteristics test. It’s called ‘equity’ which is far from the US ethos of equality.
For example, of the 100 federal judges appointed by President Biden so far, 76 are females, 22 have been black females, 68 are people of color, 33 are white with 5 white females. First of all, that’s not ‘diversity’ – that’s bias. Second, one of the nominees could not answer a question in her hearing as what Section 2 or Section 5 of the Constitution says – the very document to be interpreted by her as a federal judge. Constitutional scholar? I don’t think so.
Another example under Biden, newly hired airline pilots and air traffic controllers have similar numbers/percentages of race and gender because more people now qualify with lowered standards.
Dorian Abbot of the University of Chicago and Ivan Marinovic of Stanford University have a proposal I think deserves real attention vs. DEI. They call It MFE – merit, freedom, and equality.
On the point of equity, President Biden uses the word like it’s a synonym with equality. It isn’t. Equity translates to a quota system – affirmative action. In 1978 SCOTUS found it to be unconstitutional. It still is because it violates the guarantee of equal protection under the law and individual rights as outlined in the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act. Preferential treatment of people based on their race or gender is against the law. ‘Equity’ and the panacea of equal outcomes is not what this country is about. A person or group thereof does not have special privileges based on the color of their skin or their gender (preference).
I hit some of the high points of our President’s “achievements” so far and why it scares me when he says: “Our work is far from over.”
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://bestlifeonline.com/what-lgbtqia-means/
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/when-the-supreme-court-first-ruled-on-affirmative-action
SPIDER Bites
This week’s trivia question: What color is your blood when it’s inside your body? The answer to last week’s: 1st National Park: Yellowstone.
I have to mention the senseless shooting and murders at Michigan State U. last week. The apparent felon should never have been allowed to be ‘out,’ much less have a gun. What is it going to take to put and treat these mentally deranged people where they’re not a threat to society?
Last Sunday’s Super Bowl was an exciting game, right to the last seconds. It drew 113M viewers. Non-football fans were drawn by the commercials. The best one winning the Clio award was Tubi’s Bizarre Bunnies. The Chiefs won the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and each winning team player got an extra $150,000. The offensive line, defense, and special teams of KC earned their bonus. Watch the Jaguars next year.
The new season for NASCAR opens today with the Daytona 500.
Our strategic oil reserve is down another 26M barrels after President Biden sold it on the market last week. The SPR is now down to pre-1983 levels. Apparently, the move was made trying to avoid $4 gas this summer. BTW, we burn over 19M barrels/day in this country. While sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves in the ground, this administration just won’t allow the US to increase its oil and gas production.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the February CPI last week. Nothing we didn’t know, but a year ago February inflation was at 7.9% over the February 2021 costs/prices. Last month’s CPI showed a 6.4% increase over a year ago. So, compared to February 2021 inflation is 14.3%. It hurts, doesn’t it? The increase of 0.4% over January suggests the Fed will raise interest rates again next month. And no one is accountable for this mess.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Social Security payments are in jeopardy if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling. Its typical spending spree scare rhetoric. This happens when Congress makes its appropriations without consideration of what those actions add to the debt. Does it feel like they have us chasing our tail?
From not shooting down the first balloon from China a week ago until after it had surveilled the entire country, the administration shot down three more flying objects last week without knowing what they were. Isn’t it good practice not to shoot anybody or anything before knowing what or who you’re shooting and why?
In a special session, the FL legislature passed a measure to relocate illegal immigrants to ‘sanctuary’ cities and states. After federal processing at the border, nobody has any idea who or what these people are. Florida is saying it doesn’t want them, can’t afford them, and they should go to places where officials say they do want these immigrants.
President Biden last Thursday signed an executive order that directs all federal agencies to produce an annual “equity action plan” aimed at removing barriers to agency resources for “underserved communities.” It builds on a 2021 EO which directed a similar approach to federal bureaucrats meaning minorities and women get preferential treatment in hiring and performance evaluation practices – probably unconstitutional.
