Government spending ‘changing people’s lives’ as economy sinks
Finally, a statement President Biden and his critics can both agree on.
The commander-in-chief insisted during a speech to AFL-CIO union members in Philadelphia Tuesday that government spending was “changing people’s lives.”
His opponents ironically concurred, pointing to annual inflation that soared to 8.6% last month.
“I don’t want to hear any more of these lies about reckless spending. We’re changing people’s lives!” Biden shouted at one point during his remarks.
“Under President Biden, Americans’ lives have changed for the worst,” tweeted Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.).
“Pres. Biden is right,” tweeted Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). “40-year-high inflation, formula shortages, and $5 gas are changing lives …”
“You’re changing their lives alright,” snarked Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “$5+ gas, no baby formula, historic inflation, historic crime wave”.
Back on the Philadelphia stage, Biden denied the charge by Republicans, federal bankers and even Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos that his spending had spurred inflation, which has driven up prices more steeply than at any time since 1981.
The president invoked two large spending bills: his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which Democrats passed last year without Republican support, and last year’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The Rescue Plan Act wasn’t offset by new revenue and therefore contributed to the $30.5 trillion national debt. The Congressional Budget Office said the infrastructure bill would add $256 billion to the federal deficit.
The larger bill gave state and local governments $350 billion, along with $1,400 stimulus checks to most Americans, an extended $300 weekly unemployment supplement and an expanded annual child tax credit to $3,000-$3,600, up from $2,000 per child.
Biden has previously said the spending improved people’s lives — while also causing them to compete for scarce resources.
“The irony is people have more money now because of the first major piece of legislation I passed. You all got checks for $1,400. You got checks for a whole range of things,” Biden said in November. “It changes people’s lives. But what happens if there’s nothing to buy and you got more money to compete for getting [goods]? It creates a real problem.”
A study released in late March by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said that in the final quarter of 2021, about 3 percentage points of US inflation — or nearly half of it at the time — may have been caused by government pandemic spending.
Biden went on to claim Tuesday that he “put America in a position to tackle a worldwide problem that’s worse everywhere but here: inflation” — even though US inflation actually is higher than in most other Western nations.
Inflation in the US in May — 8.6% — was…
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