Joe Biden has always had a casual relationship with the truth. Just ask any Gold Star parent who has had to listen to him lie about his son Beau dying in Iraq. During Thursday's State of the Union address, Biden fully displayed his fabulist tendencies. His assessment of the administration's accomplishments and his impact was not anchored in reality.
He accused Republicans of burying the "truth" about January 6, 2021. This is odd since the January 6 Committee that existed prior to the Republican majority "lost" encrypted files. The Republican majority has also released thousands of hours of tape of the event to the public. Apparently, Biden does not believe Americans can watch the footage and make their own assessment.
Biden falsely asserted that President Trump has proposed an abortion ban. Trump actually proposed a 16-week restriction, which is more generous than most European countries and in line with voters' views on the procedure. It is also not clear whether any federal law will affect abortion, as the issue was given back to the states with the Dobbs decision.
Biden also wants credit for some kind of post-Covid renaissance. He said, "I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history. And we have. It doesn’t make the news, but in thousands of cities and towns, the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told."
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This week, San Francisco voters passed ballot measures to set minimum police staffing levels, allow officers to chase suspects on foot and with drones, and establish facial recognition systems. They also decided that anyone receiving public assistance must pass a drug test or enter a treatment program.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul is sending the National Guard into New York City subways to essentially stop and frisk people. No search, no train ride, according to the governor. Crime was so bad in Portland, Oregon, that the city just reversed its drug decriminalization laws.
These are three progressive hellholes trying to claw their way back and combat retail theft gangs, homelessness, and violent crime. That is the reality everyone can see.
The administration is also fond of claiming it created 15 million jobs, a number Biden repeated this evening. Recovering jobs lost to pandemic shutdowns is not job creation. Almost 22 million jobs were lost in April and May of 2020. Even CNN called foul on claims like this, previously noting:
Biden is free to argue that his stimulus legislation and other policies have helped the country gain jobs faster than it otherwise would have. (As always, it’s debatable precisely how much credit the president deserves for job-creation.) Nonetheless, it is clear that there could only be such an extraordinary number of jobs added in 2021 and 2022 because there was such an extraordinary number of jobs lost in early 2020.
Because Biden takes no accountability for anything, he once again blamed inflation on corporations with the made-up "shrinkflation" and price fixing in consumer goods and housing. He also touted a 3% inflation as the "lowest in the world." This may fool Cookie Monster, but it does not ring true with the public.
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Cumulative food inflation from 2019 to 2023 is 25%. It shocks no one who goes to the grocery store that prepared foods will either be more expensive or contain less. Housing is up over 20%. Blowing $5 trillion into an economy full of post-pandemic pent-up demand, not corporate greed, is what has working Americans cutting corners.
Biden also claimed that consumer confidence is "soaring." At no point during his administration did it reach Trump-era levels, and the most recent trend is downward.
Then he bragged about the number of projects announced thanks to the Infrastructure Bill. Announcements mean nothing. Major projects take years to get permitted and can get caught up for years in the legal system if local communities object. Right now, engineers and lawyers are the only ones getting paid.
Of course, Biden chose to blame the crisis at the border on Republicans refusing to pass the "border security bill." Like the Inflation Reduction Act, the bill's name had nothing to do with its contents. It was the "process people faster, grant more asylum and make as many as we can citizens" bill. Biden created the current crisis by reversing about 90 Trump-era policies. He can end it by reinstating them. He doesn't need Congress to do anything.
Then, in a huge gaffe, Biden mispronounced Laken Riley's name, calling her "Lincoln Riley" and acknowledging an illegal immigrant killed her. He added, "How many thousands of people are being killed by illegals?" Great question, Joe. Then he went on a weird rant about human smuggling and asserted that fewer people would pay coyotes if waited for six weeks for a hearing rather than six months.
Then he yelled, "Send me the border bill now!" Perhaps he didn't know that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been sitting on HR-2, an actual border security bill, since early 2023.
Of course, he went on a "pay your fair share" rant, accusing Republicans of giving corporations and the wealthy tax cuts. The top 10% of taxpayers pay roughly 75% of all federal tax collected. And the U.S. Treasury begs to differ. The wealthy pay a much larger share of their total income.
In an apparent swipe at his rival Donald Trump, at one point Biden said, "My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America: honesty, decency, dignity, equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. Now some other people my age see a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me."
Biden believes in democracy so much that he refused to allow a primary challenge from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He is still denying Kennedy Secret Service protection despite credible assassination threats. Then he had the unmitigated gall to mention his "hero" John F. Kennedy's assassination. Swell guy, that Joe. The obviously coordinated lawfare against President Trump also seeks to deny Americans the ability to vote for a candidate they support.
Biden believes in freedom so much that he prolonged COVID shutdowns and tried to force a vaccine mandate on 80 million Americans through OSHA. Then he used the bully pulpit to scapegoat unvaccinated Americans, calling COVID "a pandemic of the unvaccinated" long after it was evident the vaccine did not stop illness or transmission.
I don't know who this man looks at in the mirror, but he has been blasting half of the country as "MAGA Republicans" and accusing them of racism and bigotry for months. His Department of Justice has arrested hundreds of non-violent grandmothers, veterans, and, most recently, journalists for entering the Capitol on January 6. Some detainees have been held in a D.C. jail for years at this point, still awaiting trial and denied exculpatory evidence.
As far as honesty and decency go, all anyone needs to do is listen to a recent interview with author Peter Schweizer about his new book, "Blood Money," to get all the details of Biden's corruption and shady dealings with China. Even his son Hunter admitted Joe was "the Big Guy" during congressional testimony.
There was so much more. Biden yelled about Social Security, price fixing, healthcare, the war in Ukraine, a two-state solution neither party wants, and voting rights. All without blinking and poor volume control. It is going to be a long election season.
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