On Thursday, the United States officially entered a recession, at least as far as the accepted definition of the term throughout modern history is concerned. 2Q GDP fell by -0.9 percent, marking the second straight quarter of declining growth in the US economy, exacerbating economic woes that have been punctuated by sky-high inflation and supply chain issues.
For his part, Joe Biden tucked his tail and ran when asked about the report, refusing to answer any questions on the matter. He then went off to hold an economic roundtable with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, a setting that offered more control to the president’s handlers.
Still, things didn’t go well. In one viral clip, Biden vomits a stream of consciousness on America’s economic woes that would make Kamala Harris proud.
“Does that make sense to anybody,” the president asks after making absolutely no sense at all. And while I’m going to do my best to translate that word salad here in a moment, the senility never ceases to slap onlookers right in the face. Imagine being Janet Yellen, having to pretend that Biden just said something incredibly “right” and profound while having no idea what he actually said.
As I said, though, I’m not here to just dunk on the president’s mental state, a worthy cause nonetheless. We all know it’s lacking, to say the least, but what was he actually trying to say? It appears to me that Biden was once again attempting to make the case that Americans are just too stupid to understand how great things are.
The president saying “Woah, I feel worse off but then again, I didn’t get a check for $8 grand from the government” was probably him trying to say “I did get a check for $8 grand” as a way of mitigating the fact that inflation is 9.1 percent. Yet, how many reading this article right now got a check for $8,000 during the pandemic? I know I didn’t. I did get a few lesser stimulus checks that have in no way paid for themselves as far as increased prices go. In fact, they were a drop in the bucket.
Biden seems to truly believe that he can keep peeing on your leg and telling you it’s raining, though. What kind of messaging strategy is this? “Yeah, inflation is terrible and GDP continues to shrink, but you got some checks from the government a year ago!” It’s idiotic, ineffective, and insulting. If anything, the president’s nod to government subsidies is a testament to how bad such policies are. You can’t spend your way out of an inflationary boom, but Biden is going to destroy his presidency trying.
Lastly, the president’s insistence on continuing to pretend he’s an everyman who understands the pain normal Americans are going through is just not relatable. We are talking about a guy who is a multi-millionaire and who has leeched off of taxpayers for half a century. When is the last time he even pumped his own gas? In other words, Biden’s political persona is just incredibly inauthentic, and his attempts to redefine “recession” are simply adding to the fakeness of it all. As they say, if you are explaining, you are losing.