The liberal outlet Politico is already attempting to shield former Vice President Joe Biden from criticism of a potential economic failure by — wait for it — blaming President Donald Trump.
The outlet’s story was pathetically headlined “Trump Strips Biden’s Options to Boost the Economy.” The main argument: “Joe Biden is entering the White House with big hopes of juicing the economy with new spending and a Federal Reserve ready to unleash its arsenal of lending programs to prevent the country from slipping back into a recession. He might get none of it.”
Politico financial services reporter Victoria Guida alleged that “A rare public spat between the Trump administration and the Fed last week exposed the stark reality of the economic policy ammunition Biden will inherit: a stick rather than a bazooka.” Ah, so if the economy ends up imploding, according to Politico, Biden shouldn’t be held responsible.
Typical. But, as New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker put it when former President Barack Obama first came into office, “Blaming the Guy Who Came Before Doesn’t Work Long.”
Politico didn’t appear to learn this lesson. Instead, Guida fear-mongered about the “danger” of Democrats losing their mission to control the Senate, leaving it up to the print-and-spend Federal Reserve “to pump up the economy in the face of congressional intransigence.”
But, Guida complained that interest rates were already at zero. She griped: “The Fed has given billions in aid to companies and municipalities, but it’s not putting money in consumers’ pockets, which is what millions of Americans need most.”
The outlet blamed the Trump administration for this as well:
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s move last week to wind down most of the emergency lending programs that the Fed introduced at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic for the time being deprives the central bank of one of its most direct ways of boosting the economy.
The primary solution for Guida, which she sees as being inhibited by the Trump administration, is for the government to just spend its way out of the nation’s economic problems. According to the article, “The most direct way the Fed could increase its aid to the economy is through two temporary lending programs designed to help [mid-sized] businesses and municipal governments — two of the programs Mnuchin is shutting down at the end of the year.” More Trump blame. [Emphasis added.]
Apparently, Guida doesn’t like the fact that the Trump administration wasn’t keen on just using massive government programs to buoy the economy, and dubiously characterizes this as potentially crippling to Biden’s administration.
But there are other reasons to doubt Biden’s ability to help the economy at all, and it has nothing to do with blaming his predecessor as Politico did. In fact, it has everything to do with Biden’s own atrocious economic agenda, which those in the media have routinely championed.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board recently reported that Biden’s tax, health-care, energy and regulation proposals would lead to “$6,500 less in median household income by 2030.” Not only that, but Biden’s plans are projected to reduce “real GDP per capita by more than” a whopping “8 percent.”
On a dynamic basis, the Tax Foundation had reported September 29 that Biden’s tax plan, in particular, would “raise about $400 billion less revenue than on a conventional basis over the next decade.” On the same basis, Biden’s plan was projected to lead to a reduction in “after-tax incomes by about 2.5 percent across all income groups over the long run.” [Emphasis added.]
Guida didn’t provide any of this context to readers when providing premature cover for Biden.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Politico at 703-647-7999 and demand it report fairly on the catastrophic consequences of Biden’s leftist economic agenda.
