The Biden administration’s way of resolving burning issues

Early this week Joe Biden claimed the US had "zero inflation" in July. The claim was a direct contraction of federal Consumer Price Index data that showed annual inflation dropped only marginally to 8.5 percent. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was on ABC News’s “This Week” to talk about a range of issues including inflation.

Host Jonathan Karl began his questions on the economy by citing an ABC News/Ipsos poll from early August where only 37% of Americans approve of Joe Biden’s handling of the economy and 70 percent thought the economy under Biden had worsened.

Karl asked Jean-Pierre why so many Americans disapprove of Biden, despite inflation coming down of late.

Jean-Pierre responded that lowering costs is the number "one priority" of the Biden administration.

She claimed that gas prices are down by over $1 which caused Americans to save around $100 bucks per month and credited Biden for this.

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1558827324577030147

She claimed that the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act would help curb inflation.

The $739 billion measure was unanimously rejected by Republicans, who argued that gratuitous spending will not address rising inflation The GOP also cited data published from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that said the legislation will have a "negligible" effect on inflation.  

Karl presented these CBO findings to Jean-Pierre wondering why it is called the Inflation Reduction Act when it will barely impact inflation at all next year.

“Isn’t it almost Orwellian?" wondered Karl.

At this juncture, Jean-Pierre switched to her Press Secretary mode. She interrupted Karl and went straight to Democrat talking points claiming that billionaires don't pay their fair share

"We've actually addressed this, the CBO. It was the top line number, there's more in there that shows that it will have the money from -- remember how we're doing this, too, it's making sure that billionaires in corporate America are paying their fair share, making sure that it’s -- that the tax code is a little bit more fair, and so when you do that, when you put it in its totality, you will see that it will -- it will bring down -- lower the deficit, which will help fight inflation."

Karl attempted to interject and follow up by asking Jean-Pierre if she rejected the data published by the CBO, but Jean-Pierre refused to answer directly. She continued talking over him till the end of the segment and a partisan Karl allowed her to skate by.

To see how poorly Biden has done, we travel back to January 2021.

When Biden was inaugurated, President Trump gifted him an inflation rate of just 1.6%. This was remarkable considering COVID-19 restrictions were still imposed across many states which caused businesses to either shut down or operate in partial capacity. 

Bidenflation numbers are more troubling since most pandemic-related restrictions across the U.S. have been lifted. 

Based on the response to the inflation crisis from the White House for over 18 months, we can deduce the formula the Biden administration had developed to combat any crises.

Step 1: Issue denials and instead focus on the trivial 

Talk about the relentless ‘threat to democracy from domestic terrorists such as Trump supporters'. Dedicate time to the ‘January 6^th events by branding it as insurrection and a coup. The likes of Psaki and Jean-Pierre have quite mastered the art of dodging, reciting talking points irrespective of the question, focusing on distractions and talking a lot, and saying nothing.

Step 2: Concede that the problem exists. 

This acceptance of the problem only occurs when all spin and methods of denial cease to work even among their allies in the media. 

Step 3: Blame all but themselves

Immediately after acknowledging the issue, they blame it on Putin or Trump or some external factor. Never ever will they accept responsibility. Their media allies work overtime in spinning and passing the blame.

Step 4: Stop talking about the issue completely

They continue to focus on distractions such as the ‘January 6th Insurrection’ and 'domestic terror' hoping that the crisis will fade away from public memory.

This may work for the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan or the war in Ukraine since the conflicts are occurring in faraway lands.

However, inflation is a different matter because individuals from every stratum of the economic class have to either pay or approve bills. 

Some have firsthand experience of the considerable rise in price while buying consumer goods and filling their car with petrol. Some run businesses and get a rude shock when they see their monthly invoices for purchased raw materials. 

Step 6: Pass legislation with appropriate and catchy nomenclature 

In addition to the CBO report, the University of Pennsylvania Penn Wharton Budget Model, released a report late last week that the Inflation Reduction Act would only reduce annual inflation by 0.1 percentage point over the next five years. 

But that hardly matters.

Most people will be deceived by the name of the act, they will be convinced by the Democrats in the media.

Step 7: Exploit this issue to further their agenda. 

Tackling Climate Change has always been among the top items on the Democrat agenda. This is used as an excuse to increase government spending, facilitate favoritism, and install intrusive regulations and restrictions.

The Inflation Reduction Act dedicates hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change including $369 billion over 10 years for electric vehicles and clean energy tax breaks. 

Step 8: When the trend changes declare Victory and claim credit

Whenever there is even the slightest sign of improvement due to external factors they rush to the nearest mike to claim credit and announce that mission has been accomplished.  A coordinated media blitzkrieg pushes this message usually follows.

We have seen this occur last week. 

The slight reduction in inflation rates and the passage of the Inflation Reduction bill are being portrayed as some kind of a comeback and a triumph for Joe Biden. It is also being claimed as a significant boost  for the Democrats ahead of the midterms.

As Abraham Lincoln observed  - you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

The lies from the Biden administration and their media allies only convince a small percentage of partisans. 

The Biden administration with their myriad catastrophes stand totally exposed and no amount of spin can disguise their appalling record of misgovernance. 

Also appears on American Thinker