LOS ANGELES.–Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, 77, should be play shuffleboard, not run the Treasury Department, crunching her own numbers, claiming, beyond all disbelief, that people are better off under 81-year-old President Joe Biden then they were under 77-year-old former President Donald Trump. Yellen asks voters to believe her not their own wallets, where paying for groceries and gasoline has increased over 25% since Binden took office Jan. 20, 2021. Democrats successfully demonized Trump during the 2020 election, with Biden and his 58-year-old VP Kamala Harris, blaming Trump for the Covid-19 global pandemic, both saying there was no end in sight to the death-and-disease under Trump. Once week after the election, Pfizer released the first Covid-19 vaccine, giving millions in the U.S. and around the world hope for containing the staggering death toll.
Trump was so demonized by Biden and Harris in 2020, both said they would never trust a vaccine developed under Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, Trump’s full-court press to develop a vaccine. Much of Democrats’ campaign in 2020 revolved around Trump mismanaging the Covid-19 pandemic, with Washington Post journalist of Wastergate-famed Bob Woodward saying that Trump didn’t take the Covid-19 outbreak seriously. Woodward and Trump’s chief medical officer Dr. Anthony Fauci teamed up, ripping Trump for the Covid-19 crisis. Nether Woodward nor Fauci believed in the lab-leak theory espoused by Trump, blaming the Covid-19 global pandemic on a leak from a Wuhan, China virology lab, something Fauci and Woodward called an unfounded conspiracy theory.
Woodward and Fauci, to this day, insist that the deadly novel coronavirus originated naturally in a wet market in Wuhan, the most dubious explanation of all. Fauci had his reputation on the line knowing that he funded “gain-of-function research” at Roberts Daszak’s New York-based EcoHealh Alliance. Fauci denied everything sticking to his absurd natural occurrence theory to exonerate himself for creating the deadly novel coronavirus. Fauci demanded, together with his Covid-19 team, that Trump shut down the U.S. economy to stop the flow of infections swamping the country. Shutting down businesses and government for over a month in 2020 killed the U.S. economy, driving up deficits, debt and slowing down economy growth, including adding to the unemployment rate. Voters went to the polls in 2020 blaming Trump for the Covid-19 hardship.
Yellen, a Biden political hack, tries to sell voters on the idea they’re better off than they were under Trump. Well, if she’s talking about the pit of the Covid-19 crisis, when businesses and government were shut down, yes things are better off today without Covid-19 killing some million Americans. But when it comes to what if’s about had the U.S. not been stricken with Covid-19, you can make the argument. But Biden changed the post-Covid economic atmosphere Feb. 24, 2022, slapping Russia with severe economic sanctions, including boycotting Russian oil. Once Biden imposed his Russian oil embargo, the U.S. and world faced shrinking supplies, skyrocketing demand and prices, fueling the worst inflation in over 40 years. Biden’s answer to the Russian oil embargo was to buy up the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserv, flooding the market in hopes to bring down skyrocketing prices.
Yellen’s statement that people are better off today than before Biden took over drew strong resistance from many sources. “If people are better off then why are people saying there’s going to cut back on eating out, entertainment, clothing, and vacations?” asked Anthony Sanford, economist at HEC Montreal. Sanford said Yellen is “absolutely out of touch.” Yellen insists the the Fed’s ever-popular Consumption Expenditures Index [CEI] rose to 2.7%, from 2.5% reported the in March. CEI ran about 7.1% in June 2022. Yellen sees a moderation in the Consumer Price Index [CPI], a measure of inflation that excludes food and energy. Imagine that, the government excludes food and energy, the two most important factors along with rent in monthly expenses. Bringing down CPI to 3.5% with 23-year high is interest rates shows the extreme measures taken by the Federal Reserve Board.
Yellen argues that wage growth compensates for an increase in CPI happening under Biden over the last two years. But Yellen knows it’s complete poppycock that consumers are better off under Biden, only in the sense that Covid is no longer wiping out thousands of Americans. Yellen claims that the Employment Cost Index, which reflects labors costs to employers, workers earned 0.8% more over the 12 months since March 2023. How does 0.8% compensate for the over 25% increase since 2020 in gas and grocery prices, squeezing consumers from spending in the economy. Yellen claims the unemployment rates holds steady under 4%, the lowest level in over 50 years. Yellen mentions nothing about how part-time, zero benefit jobs, now dominate the U.S. labor market. Voters will decide for themselves whether they’re better off today than under Trump. Most voters don’t agree with Yellen.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
