Sen. Joni Ernst: Middle America residents struggle to live paycheck to paycheck under 'Bidenomics'
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, discusses the impact of ‘Bidenomics’ on Americans and shares her concerns over China buying up U.S. farmland.
The Biden administration and its allies in Congress and the mainstream media say the president’s economic policies – frequently called "Bidenomics" – are delivering unprecedented benefits to American families. The data, however, tell a very different story.
President Biden’s economic policies can be summarized in three words: massive government spending. After promising to rein in federal expenditures, Biden has shackled Americans with trillions of dollars in new spending.
Even worse, Biden has offered absolutely no pathway for paying for his gigantic expansion of government. The 2023 fiscal year is expected is produce a $1.54 trillion budget shortfall, the largest deficit in U.S. history, excluding 2020 and 2021, when COVID-19 lockdowns closed much of the economy.
President Biden speaks about Bidenomics at Ingeteam Inc., an electrical equipment manufacturer, on Aug. 15, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Biden’s spending programs have helped to keep unemployment at levels that match much of the pre-COVID period of the Trump presidency, but his policies have come with huge new costs that extend well beyond the national debt.
Under President Biden’s leadership, America has experienced some of its highest levels of inflation, causing substantial harm to all Americans, especially working and lower-income families.
One of the most important but least-talked-about indicators of the state of the U.S. economy is the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. The survey asks American families of various socio-economic backgrounds about their spending habits, challenges they are facing, anxieties, and other concerns.
Unlike other government surveys, the Household Pulse Survey results are published throughout the year, rather than annually, and there is a relatively short turnaround from the time a survey is conducted to its publication date.
BIDENOMICS IS REALLY JUST A PLOY TO DESTROY AMERICAN ENERGY
Survey data from July 2023 show that millions of Americans, especially lower-income and working-class families, are struggling to keep up with basic household expenses compared to when Biden first entered the White House.
For example, in January 2021, an estimated 23.75 million Americans "sometimes" or "often" did not have enough food to eat. Recent data from July 2023 show that number has skyrocketed to 27.09 million, an increase of 3.34 million Americans.
African Americans have been hit particularly hard. More than 5 million black families said in July 2023 they sometimes or often don’t have enough to eat, an increase of more than 848,000 in just two years.
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Other parts of the survey also indicate that Americans are struggling increasingly more. In July 2023, greater than 85.46 million Americans used "credit cards or loans" to "meet spending needs in the last 7 days," compared to 74.89 million in July 2022.
Similarly, 4 million more Americans in July 2023 had to tap into savings or sell assets or possessions to cover their costs than they did just one year earlier.
That’s not to say there’s no positive news for the White House in the survey. The data show that fewer Americans are behind on their rent and mortgage payments than when Biden took office.
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That victory, however, pales in comparison to the problems plaguing the Biden economy. Despite campaigning as a champion of the working and middle classes, Biden’s policies have largely failed them. Inflation, fueled mostly by Democrats’ reckless spending, has lowered the quality of life for millions of people and put the nation on the road to long-term economic ruin.
If the Biden administration doesn’t change its strategy on spending soon, millions of additional American families will soon suffer.