Billy Long: I never thought I'd live to see a president worse than Jimmy Carter, but here we are

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

President Biden and his allies in the media are trying to paint a picture that America is back. On several fronts, they are trying to show that the Democrats’ policies are working, and our country is booming. They could not be more wrong. 

The Afghanistan debacle left our country embarrassed on the world stage, our non-existent Southern Border has allowed record amounts of fentanyl to flow freely into our country, and created an “olly olly oxen free” immigration zone, all who are out may come in without penalty, and most importantly, our economy is not booming. 

While the most recent jobs report was better than expected, it is a rarity in the Biden Administration, and many other factors show that the economy is in trouble. Inflation is having significant impacts on all Americans, and it’s all due to the Democrats’ policies.

This didn’t have to be the case. Coming out of the COVID lockdowns, our economy was ready to boom, and President Biden would have gotten all the credit. Of course, it wouldn’t be thanks to anything he’d done, but he would still get the credit from the media. 

Before COVID, President Trump had overseen the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, and that was true for all demographic categories. COVID forced businesses across the country to shut their doors, and when the time to reopen came, our economy would come back stronger than ever. Unfortunately, this is not what happened.

President Biden came into office still trying to look like a nice old moderate. Since then, he has governed as the most radical president in American history. 

He won the Democratic nomination because he was not Bernie Sanders, but his policies in office have been closer to the progressive wing of the party than they have to the old Joe Biden we were promised. 

Almost immediately, President Biden started spending more money than was ever thought imaginable, $6 trillion to be exact. This radical spending was totally uncalled for, and not necessary but he decided to Build Back Better.

The result of this excessive spending has been the highest inflation in 40 years. Yesterday, the January Consumer Price Index showed inflation was 7.5% higher than it was a year ago. And it’s not only major corporations that are raising prices. 

Just this week, the National Federation of Independent Businesses released a report showing the number of small businesses raising their prices is at its highest rate since 1974. These prices are going up because the cost of operating theses business has gone up. 

And it’s happening across the board. Gas is up 40%, the cost of food is up anywhere from 10-20% depending on the item, used cars are up 41%. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. The cost of everything has gone up since President Biden came into office, and real wages have decreased nearly every month. This means that Americans are seeing less of their paychecks today than they were when President Trump was in office.

It doesn’t take an economic “expert” to understand that this situation is unsustainable. Americans are continuing to see less and less of their paychecks, and it’s all because of President Biden’s policies. So what has he done to fix this crisis? Nothing. 

In fact, he has doubled down on his radical spending plans, even when members of his own party reject them. He is so entrenched in the idea that government can solve everything, he can’t see that the government has caused more problems for the American people, while solving none. I never thought I’d live to see a president worse than Jimmy Carter, but here we are.