As kids, we used to do flips off local sand dunes, head over heels until we crashed, shook ourselves off, and got back to work. Ground comes up fast. If risks are good, blind leaps are bad. Biden’s blind leap – overspending, overregulation, cutting energy, mass debt – had us tumbling for a mighty crash.
Biden’s economy – senseless policies pushed through a Democrat Congress – is about to produce a hard landing, unnecessary pain for average Americans.
We have now seen three years of gluttonous, unaccountable spending – led by spendthrift Democrats, joined by shrugging Republicans. That has driven our national debt, money owed, to 33 trillion dollars. We now pay half a trillion in interest each year, just lost money, hard earned and wasted.
Democrats harangued Ronald Reagan for raising defense spending to put the Soviets away, but even with entitlements and discretionary spending, the debt was one trillion. Last year’s national debt, driven by excess, was a 3,300 percent higher.
To put a fine point on it, Biden’s economic polices – supported by Democrats who think they are buying votes – is a tumbling disaster. Non-subsidized technologies and stable sectors – including energy – have seen near-record hits, dissolutions.
Consumers are suffering a dramatic erosion in buying power, watching their life savings plummet in value. Inflation spiked in 2022, never returned to 2020.
Since the Fed interprets inflation as a “hot economy,” even though this inflation is driven by energy cuts and overspending, they raised interest rates – on everything.
What did that do? It raised the cost of borrowing, for everything from homes and fix-it projects to credit cards and cars. So, on top of higher energy costs, we now have high interest – highest rates in 22 years.
And what has that done? Slowed consumer purchases and investment, raised the cost of debt, and led to cutbacks in private employment as supply follows demand.
Now, we have potential rollbacks in jobs, wages, and benefits, unions grousing, tense negotiations and strikes. The endgame is clear, job cuts or higher wages, which will mean higher prices.
This would be bad enough, but is exacerbated – made stomach-churningly worse – by overregulation, top-down, climate-obsessed mandates defying economic reality.
Democrats, while holding power, are trying to squeeze the life out of some sectors, punishing those who believe in consumer choice, free markets, and fossil fuels.
The irony is, beyond making people mad, these top-down mandates put people at risk of life and limb, while raising prices. Going “all electric” is illogical. Gas is more reliable, consistent, packs more punch. Electricity is generated – at the grid – by fossil fuels anyway, so the footprint is the same.
Finally, driving all things to the grid is a formula for disaster – longer term. Why? The aging grid is likely to collapse, and adversaries get a one-stop-shop for terror. Shut down the grid, out go lights, cars, heat, communications, stoves, done.
Near term, things are simpler. Biden’s economy is headed for a crash, and those in government know it. So does the stock market, which lost all 2023 gains last week.
The word recession is overused and underused, but amounts to a slow-motion crash of the economy, as growth stalls under the weight of economic mismanagement, overspending, overregulation, and loss of trust in leaders.
You begin to see pressure on consumers, persistent inflation, high interest, reduced confidence, employment, and sense of well-being. And what are we seeing?
If that does not describe the present flipping economic indicators, it will soon. Interest rates are bound to stay high, wage inflation will drives price inflation, federal benefits induce people not to work, businesses shrink, and people get fearful.
Why is all this happening? Is it inevitable, ground coming up fast? Are we in a dizzying “end of times?” No, we are not. We are in a time of ugly, avoidable government mismanagement.
We are on a rollercoaster, a bad leap, head over heels flipping, crashlanding coming, results of irresponsible, uninformed, indifferent federal leadership.
How do we get on track? Listen to the Founding Fathers. They spoke of limited government – no debt, no unnecessary undertakings, entanglements, dependency.
What we need is simple: Responsible leaders who take The People’s will into account, our interest in freedom, free markets and limited government.
We need leaders who stop spending, borrowing, and creating dependence. We need leaders who know history, respect it. Then we can stop tumbling, get up, shake ourselves off, and get back to work.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
