New York Post, September 5, 2023

The media is finally waking up to the sham stats behind Biden’s economy boasts

by James Bovard

How could Washington’s “best and brightest” be so clueless for so long?

After perennially and uncritically repeating President Biden’s false claims about cutting the federal budget deficit, The Washington Post admitted Sunday that Biden will double the deficit this year to $2 trillion.

The paper’s elite editors and reporters are mystified that “U.S. deficit explodes even as economy grows.” But did the Beltway get suckered on a Biden boom that exists largely due to sham statistics?

Cynics now claim that the Commerce Department no longer refers to its Bureau of Economic Analysis but instead to Biden’s Economic Alterations.

Americans have seen years of bait-and-switch statistics — glorious job-growth numbers followed by downward revisions long after the victory lap.

Almost all the “errors” in federal economic reports have been biased in Biden’s favor.

How much of recent economic growth has been a statistical mirage or a political fraud?

The Washington Post laments that “the surge in red ink has confounded many economists’ expectations.”

This brings to mind President Harry Truman’s quip: “Give me a one-handed economist! All my economists say ‘on the one hand . . . [and then] on the other.’ ”

Maybe DC needs economists who look at something aside from presidential press releases — such as the ledgers of federal outlays and revenue.

Federal spending increased 16% in fiscal year 2023 — at the same time tax revenue plunged by 7%. Soaring budget deficits should be a surprise only to people who failed arithmetic in fifth grade.

The Biden Deficit Explosion changes the storyline on the spring debt-ceiling showdown.

At the time that compromise was brokered, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy boasted, “The systemic reforms we set in place mark the beginning of historic change in Washington.”

But as former Republican Rep. Justin Amash observed, “Biden got the biggest win in the ‘deal’ with a debt limit suspension . . . until 2025. The rest is smoke and mirrors.”

Naming that deal the Fiscal Responsibility Act was a legislative disgrace for a bill that authorized perpetual trillion-dollar deficits. Luckily for Congress, budget deals are not covered by federal regulations prohibiting financial fraud.

Government spending equals power for politicians. Asking politicians to reduce spending is like asking a king to abdicate his throne.

Congressional Republicans and the Biden administration will likely have another showdown on federal spending at the end of the month.

Biden said in May he wanted federal courts to rule the president is entitled to unlimited spending thanks to his perverse interpretation of the 14th Amendment. 

But the real problem there — and with Biden’s reckless spending — is with the 13th Amendment, which prohibited involuntary servitude. Americans are increasingly seeing their financial independence ravaged thanks to DC’s plundering and blundering.

The dollar has lost 17% of its purchasing power since Biden became president.

Home mortgage rates have nearly tripled to 7.5%, and consumer credit-card interest rates have almost doubled.

Mr. ‘Middle-Class’

Biden reminded listeners Monday his nickname was “Middle-Class Joe.” That honorific is proof of the craven press coverage he has almost always received. In 1974, he moved into one of the largest mansions in Delaware. NPR reported in 2019 that Biden had earned $17 million since leaving office. His connections to an endless array of shell companies and wire transfers from shady foreigners are also untypical for the middle class.

Is the latest focus on Biden’s soaring deficits a sign the liberal elite is ready to toss him overboard ahead of the 2024 presidential election?

Team Biden claims to have everything under control, but was shocked and outraged last month when US debt was officially downgraded by a top credit-rating firm. Perhaps The Washington Post’s readers are comforted by the assurance that the US budget crisis is not nearly as bad as Argentina. But that is the Scarlet A-word for any discussion of the specter of America plunging into downward financial and economic spirals.