March 10, 2024
The biggest takeaways from Biden’s State of the Union – he did not fall and proved he can still read from a teleprompter- he cleared the low bar of expectations. The proof of life speech was a success.
But, if you expected Biden to give a unifying, non-partisan speech addressing the issues concerning most Americans, he fell far short. Biden delivered an angry, divisive speech riddled with lies and spin.
Indicative of his priorities, Biden began by speaking about the importance of funding the war in Ukraine. He then segued into lying about January 6th, hyperbolically comparing it to the Civil War. Repeating the Democrat narrative, Biden falsely referred to the three-hour protest turned riot as an insurrection and implied his “predecessor” (Biden never called Trump by name) is a threat to Democracy- Ironic coming from the man who pressured his attorney general into prosecuting his political opponent and is now imploring the Supreme Court to strip the former president of presidential immunity.
Continuing his threat to freedom theme Biden fear mongered about IVF and abortion. Blatantly lying, he claimed Trump wants a “national ban on reproductive freedom”. Never mind Trump recently said he would “strongly support the availability of IVF” and does not want a federal abortion ban.
In a show of just how much Biden respects Democracy and the independence of the judicial system, looking directly at the seated Supreme Court justices, he threateningly said, “With all due respect justices, women are not without electoral or poliriacl power…you’re about to realize just how much.”
Biden never uttered the word “Bidenomics”, but spewed plenty of lies and spin about the state of the economy. He claimed that his administration created 15 million jobs. True, only if you count the 20 million people who went back to work after they lost their jobs due to the government-mandated lockdown are not “created” jobs.
Nor did he inherit an “economy on the brink” as Biden declared. The economy was already rebounding when he took office. In January 2021, GDP was on the rise, up 1.4%. And the inflation rate was only 1.4%. Under Biden, inflation is up almost 20%- Spending on food as a share of income is at a 30-year-high.
Biden’s assertion that he cut the deficit over one trillion dollars leaves out so much context that it is beyond spin and just a lie. The only reason the deficit was lower in 2023 than it was in 2020 and 2021 is because unprecedented bipartisan emergency Covid spending expired.
Biden also neglected to say that his administration spent more than any other president in US history during peacetime with no emergency. And that his actions significantly grew the deficit, just not as much as during the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic when the government mandated businesses to close, and federal money was flying out the window to keep the economy from collapsing. Biden claiming he cut the deficit is like boasting after gaining two hundred pounds the year prior, this year you only gained 125. Bravo.
Biden, of course, attacked the left’s boogeymen- big pharma and the rich who do not pay their “fair share”. God help medical innovation if Biden successfully expands price controls on prescription drugs. So much for ever finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease or cancer. Why will a pharmaceutical company invest billions without the chance of significant financial rewards? But, long-trem issues do no matter to Biden, or to whoever is pulling his strings behind the scene.
And the tired narrative that lower and middle-class Americans pay a higher percentage of their incomes in taxes is a fallacy. Almost half of all US income earners pay no income tax, while the top 1% paid 46% of all income taxes in 2022- the most recent year data is available.
No Democrat campaign speech (which is what this was) would be complete without the pitch to buy votes with taxpayer money: Biden announced a new giveaway- a $400 a month tax credit for first-time home buyers, raising the pay of public school teachers, “free” preschool, “free” tutors, more “free” housing, and more college subsidies. As if the federal government’s interference in the cost of college has not distorted the market enough. College tuition has grown four times the inflation rate since the federal government began the quest to make college more “affordable”.
Not until forty minutes into the hour-long address did Biden mention illegal immigration. Only after being forced by Rep Marjorie Taylor-Greene to mention Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student brutally murdered by a Venezuelan who illegally entered the US in 2022, did Biden say her name- although incorrectly, calling her “Lincoln”.
But, of course, he ceded no responsibility for the tragedies and crisis he created when he signed 94 executive orders within his first 100 days in office, reversing every Trump-era immigration enforcement policy, allowing ten million and counting unvetted illegals to cross into the US. Nor did he mention the immigration enforcement bill the House passed last year, but blocked by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Never mind that Biden inherited from Trump the most secure border in half a century, Biden blamed the border crisis (which for three years he and his administration falsely claimed was secure) on Trump and the GOP for blocking passage of the recently proposed so-called immigration enforcement bill sponsored by Senator James Lankford. No one who wants to secure the border would support a bill that allows over two million illegals to enter the US every year, as outlined in the Lankford bill.
The truth is Biden could close the border immediately with the swipe of a pen, reinstating the Trump policies he reversed with a pen. But that would require admitting culpability and placing the welfare of Americans above politics and his reelection bid. So, no chance that will ever happen.
Biden ended his speech by claiming “to embrace freedom and Democracy…Honesty. Decency. Dignity. Equality”.
Reality- the man who is seeking to imprison his main political rival, who supports censorship and cancel culture, puts the lives of illegal foreign nationals over American lives, pathologically lies for political expediency, and constantly fuels racial hatred, embraces none of those core values.
For almost three and a half years, Biden has proven he is not cognitively, physically, or morally fit for the highest, most powerful office in the land. His divisive, factually challenged speech, for which he had to clear his calendar for a week to rest and prepare, confirms that a vote for Biden is a vote for ineptitude, moral bankruptcy, dishonesty, and a continuation of the policies that are failing our nation.
