Joe Biden spent Labor Day doing what he does best: staging a limp and meaningless photo-op amid a crisis. Biden, dressed as if he himself were a working man, popped out of an SUV in New Castle, Delaware, on Monday, armed with boxes of sandwiches from Capriotti’s, a Wilmington restaurant chain. He proceeded to hand out the sandwiches to members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 313 in New Castle. Nobody mentioned the abysmal jobs numbers, or inflation, or the catastrophe in Afghanistan – hey, he gave out sandwiches, man! Why spoil a pleasant occasion by bringing up uncomfortable issues?
The Associated Press reported that Old Joe “shook hands and chatted with the group of mostly men, who were clad in jeans and union T-shirts. Biden spent several minutes chatting with the union members in groups before telling them, ‘C’mon, let’s go get something to eat.’”
As the union members enjoyed their cold cuts, the latest jobs report showed that 235,000 new jobs were added to the economy in August, fully 765,000 fewer than in July. Biden didn’t say anything about that, or what he planned to do about it. If anyone had asked him, he would likely have responded much the way he did when he was asked about Afghanistan on July 2: “I want to talk about happy things, man. Look, it’s Fourth of July. I’m concerned that you’re asking me questions that I will answer next week, but it’s the holiday weekend. I’m going to celebrate it. There’s great things happening.”
Great things may be happening, but not to the American economy. Bank of America economist Joseph Song said: “The weaker employment activity is likely both a demand and supply story — companies paused hiring in the face of weaker demand and uncertainty about the future while workers withdrew due to health concerns.” This is a direct result of Biden’s handlers stoking hysteria about the Delta variant and doing everything they can to keep Covid paranoia alive. No immediate end is in sight: Citigroup economist Andrew Hollenhorst noted that “the 5.2% unemployment rate and rapidly rising wages suggest building inflationary pressure.”
But if any of the union members Biden met in New Castle are facing professional uncertainty, well, hey, at least they got a free sandwich from the president of the United States. The sandwich photo-op was classic Biden: Here is a man who has been a politician for fifty-plus years doing what he does best—glad-handing people and giving the appearance that he cares about them, thereby deftly deflecting attention away from the fact that his policies have caused immense harm, not least for the very people he is glad-handing. It has worked so well that he was a senator for 36 years, vice president for eight more, and is now president of the United States. Ultimately, however, visits like the one to New Castle on Monday are as empty as the calories in the sandwiches Old Joe handed out.
Biden wouldn’t be in a position to bestow ham and cheese on the grateful masses if it weren’t for the establishment media that has covered for him indefatigably for half a century (with the notable exception of his disastrous 1988 presidential campaign), and that hasn’t changed. On Tuesday, the New York Times surveyed the abysmal economic numbers and published a story with this headline: “Inflation Is Popping From Sydney to San Francisco. It May Be a Good Sign.”
Of course it’s a good sign! What else could it be, with a Democrat in the White House? The Times says happily: “If inflation does fade as policymakers expect, the current burst could actually offer benefits: In the United States, it has helped to nudge inflation expectations back out of the dangerously low zone, to levels that are historically consistent with healthy price gains. It has proved harder for central bankers to move prices up than it is for them to cool them off, so that opportunistic inflation could help the Fed to nail its price goals in the longer run.”
Got that? Inflation is good, because it accustoms us to expect more inflation, and that’s a good thing. If this doesn’t convince you, remember: Old Joe handed out those sandwiches in New Castle at no charge! If you had been there, you could have gotten one, too! See? He is one of us, and he has our best interests at heart. Forget all that dismal economic news, and remember: he is the bringer of cold cuts.
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