Devastating inflation cripples fixed income and low-income citizens
To the editor:
The blinders donned by this administration during the first 24 months of their occupation of the White House speaks to the incredible ignorance of not only Biden, but his entire cadre of economic “advisors.”
In 2021 inflation was measured at 7% and 6.5% for 2022 and we’re waiting for the final numbers for 2023.
Noted economic scholars like Larry Sommers and Mohamed El Erian were sounding the alarm bells in mid-2021 saying that this round of inflation was not “transitory” as was being claimed for two years by the Biden administration. And, indeed, it was not transitory, and the Federal reserve began using a limited array of tools to counteract, as best they could, some of Bidens hyper-inflationary legislation like the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, borrowing another $1.9 trillion dollars to stimulate an economy that was already recovering from COVID under the guidance of the previous administration. That “rescue” plan rescued nobody. It threw more fuel on the fire for the worst inflation spiral seen in the U.S. in 40 years.
Those numbers of 7% in 2021 and 6.5% in 2022 don’t tell the whole story. Inflation is like a compounding interest rate and without a recession, the prices you paid for your food, your insurance, your new mortgage rate, your clothing and transportation will never go back to where they were. Sure, the higher income earners in our country can absorb those increased costs but what about the majority of Americans just coming out of the pandemic on fixed or low incomes? They can’t earn more money and just have to consume less. Less food, less medicine, less of everything they need in order to just survive. If inflation slows to 3%, that’s a 3% increase on top of the increases we’ve already suffered under this president.
An ABC News Poll taken in November 2023 revealed that 76% of Americans think the country is moving in the wrong direction and the poll was taken by political affiliation. 54% of Democrats polled said the country is going in the wrong direction along with over 70% of the independent voters. A Forbes poll shows 88% of respondents believe the country is going in the wrong direction.
This president has been a complete and utter failure as a leader and as a commander-in-chief. He has made us less safe, poorer, less free and with 76% of the people polled saying the country is moving in the wrong direction, he’s made most of us much less happy than before he got here. If you are one of those voters who’s only criteria for electing a president are free abortions paid for by our taxpayers then maybe you are among the 23% that thinks the country is going in the right direction under Biden.
Max Christian
St. James City