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Bungling Biden


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Worse than Trump: How Biden bungled the job of leading America's economy

Tim Swarens, USA TODAY
Thu, May 19, 2022, 7:20 AM
 
 

Joe Biden not long ago was eager to take credit for America's soaring stock markets.

"The stock market has gone up exponentially since I've been president," Biden said in September. "You haven't heard me say a word about it."

Well, actually, Mr. President, you said 20 words about it. But let's not quibble over hollow boasts of the fading past. Biden and the rest of us have more important – and more painful – things to worry about now.

So far in 2022, Americans have suffered through the highest inflation rate in 40 years, the highest gas prices on record and the worst start of the year for the S&P 500 since 1939.

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Oh, my aching 401(k).

Now, those Americans who think Biden is doing a good job of handling the economy – both of them – have a ready-made retort: But Trump.

Trump polled higher than Biden on economy

And while that comeback may still work at times, it's laughably ineffective with the economy. In August 2020, when pandemic shutdowns had sent unemployment soaring above 10%, half of Americans still said they approved of how President Donald Trump was handling the economy.

President Joe Biden says his policies aren't the cause of record-high inflation.
 
President Joe Biden says his policies aren't the cause of record-high inflation.

Nearly two years later, only 34% of Americans in a recent CNN poll said they approved of how Biden is managing the economy; two-thirds said he's doing a poor job of leading on an issue that directly affects every American.

Even within his own party, Biden isn't faring well – fewer than half of Democrats said he has improved the nation's economic standing. That's a brutal number in these days of tribal politics when partisans are apt to excuse all sorts of errors in judgment and execution.

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But ordinary Americans' dissatisfaction with Biden isn't surprising given the pain that inflation is inflicting on people from Seaside to Seattle.

Inflation cuts workers' real wages

How bad is it? Workers suffered on average a 2.4% pay cut last year when adjusted for inflation, despite significant wage increases in many sectors.

Just getting to work and back home again is more expensive than ever – average gas prices are up 45% from a year ago, and the average price of used cars is up over 40%.

There's also little comfort in comfort food these days. The price of eggs is up 13%. Poultry prices are forecast to climb at least 7.5% this year.  And the increase in beer prices is expected to be "off the charts." (So much for drowning our sorrows.)

Faced with the steady downpour of bad economic news, Biden and his apologists have tried to argue that it's all temporary, to blame it on Russia's Vladimir Putin, and to declare that Americans just don't understand how good they really have it.

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But Larry Summers, who led the National Economic Council in the Obama administration, explained it to NPR in terms that even progressives should understand: "More unemployment is the difference between a job and not a job for 2 or 3% of the population. More inflation is higher prices for 100% of the population."

President Joe Biden speaks about his plan to fight inflation and lower costs for working families. Biden acknowledged the pain felt by Americans from the highest inflation in four decades, calling it his "top domestic priority," which is being addressed by the Federal Reserve.
 
President Joe Biden speaks about his plan to fight inflation and lower costs for working families. Biden acknowledged the pain felt by Americans from the highest inflation in four decades, calling it his "top domestic priority," which is being addressed by the Federal Reserve.

And that's the bottom line: On Joe Biden's watch, the inflation tiger was let out of its cage after 40 years. He owns it.

The president can argue that it's not really his fault. He can say it will pass in time (which is true; everything in this world is temporary if you wait long enough). Or he can blame it on the evil dictator in Moscow, the dunderheaded Republicans in Congress and the obstinate gentleman from West Virginia who wouldn't get on board with spending an additional $2 trillion.

But none of that really flies with the mother in Topeka or the father in Tallahassee who knows it's getting a bit harder every month to feed the kids and to pay the mortgage.

Misery mounts for millions of Americans

Like Biden, I'm old enough to remember when Americans were well acquainted with the Misery Index, a combination of the inflation and unemployment rates. In 1980, when Biden was still a young senator from Delaware, the Misery Index hit 19.7%, the highest level of pain since 1946. That same year, a first-term Democratic president, Jimmy Carter, lost reelection.

The Misery Index was back in the news this week as it hit a 12-year high. That's not to say Joe Biden is the new Jimmy Carter. At least not yet.

It does, however, help to explain why Americans feel so bearish about their president in our springtime of discontent.

The misery is real. Americans are hurting. And Biden has bungled one of the most important jobs he was elected to do.

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1 minute ago, Mainecat said:

If it was just the US then It’s Biden’s ball. But It’s the Entire world economy that’s down.

 

Well, we'd likely still be a net exporter of oil and we would not be funding a war against Putin because it would have never happened.  Life was good under Trump.

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11 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

If it was just the US then It’s Biden’s ball. But It’s the Entire world economy that’s down.

 

You do realize when you are the world leader everyone's economy is based of of the US??

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‘Doesn’t look good’: Hunter Biden reportedly raked in $11M from overseas biz deals

May 19, 2022 1:50pm 
Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden and a company he ran made around $11 million from his business dealings while his dad served as vice president.Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Hunter Biden and a company he ran raked in around $11 million from his controversial business dealings while his dad served as vice president and shortly thereafter, according to new scrutiny of the first son.

President Biden’s scandal-scarred son also burned through cash at a rate of more than $200,000 a month from October 2017 through February 2018, spending it on luxury hotel rooms, payments on a Porsche sports car and dental work, as well as making unexplained bank withdrawals, an NBC News report found.

The eye-popping figures emerged from an analysis of information stored on the first son’s laptop — the contents of which were first reported by The Post in 2020 — and documents released by Senate Republicans, the network said.

His river of income flowed from 2013 through 2018 as a result of ties to a Ukrainian natural gas company suspected of bribery and a since-vanished Chinese tycoon accused of bribery and fraud, NBC said.

“This is an enormous amount of money for Hunter Biden, whom I don’t believe is an experienced corporate transactional attorney,” former White House chief ethics lawyer Richard Painter told The Post.

Burisma HQ. Hunter Biden’s income flowed from 2013 through 2018 as a result of ties to Burisma. Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA

“All I know is I wouldn’t be pulling that kind of money and I’ve been a securities law expert for almost 30 years. There’s no way I’d be pulling down that kind of money.”

Painter, now a University of Minnesota law professor and Democratic candidate for Congress, also said, “If Hunter Biden cared about protecting the family’s reputation, he would disclose everything.”

“The whole thing doesn’t look good,” he added.

China CEFC Energy Company. CEFC China Energy is accused of bribery and fraud. Yang jin/Imaginechina via AP

NBC’s report came more than 18 months after The Post first revealed emails from the laptop that detailed Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings and Ye Jianming, former chairman of the CEFC China Energy conglomerate.

The mainstream media largely ignored The Post’s October 2020 reports or suggested they were the product of Russian disinformation efforts ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

But both the New York Times and the Washington Post recently authenticated for themselves some of the emails amid a federal grand jury probe in Wilmington, Delaware, that’s reportedly focused on possible tax fraud, money laundering and violations of lobbying laws by Hunter Biden.

Ye Jianming. Hunter Biden’s laptop contained emails detailing business dealings with Ye Jianming, former chairman of the CEFC China Energy conglomerate. China Energy Fund Committee

Congressional Republicans have also vowed to launch investigations next year if they regain control of the House and Senate, with some polls giving the GOP an edge amid surging inflation and President Biden’s low approval ratings.

NBC didn’t detail the sources of the entire $11 million but cited previously reported payments totaling $4.8 million to Owasco PC, a company controlled by Hunter Biden, from a joint venture funded by CEFC and Ye.

The network also cited a previously reported $1 million attorney engagement letter between Hunter Biden and CEFC exec Chi Ping Patrick Ho, who was later sentenced to three years in prison in the US for a pair of bribery schemes involving government officials in Africa.

Joe Biden, second right, and his son, Hunter, right, pictured golfing in the Hamptons with Devon Archer, left, in a 2014 photo. Joe Biden (second right) and his son, Hunter, (right) pictured golfing in the Hamptons with Devon Archer (left) in a 2014 photo. FOX News/Tucker Carlson Tonight

Hunter Biden’s defense lawyer, Chris Clark, declined to discuss NBC’s analysis on the record, the network said.

The Post has reported that Hunter Biden made as much as $1 million a year by serving on the Burisma board of directors, but that the amount was slashed by 50% in March 2017, two months after his dad stopped serving as vice president.

Critics including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) have accused Hunter Biden of profiting off his father’s influence.

Hunter and Joe Biden. A federal grand jury probe in Wilmington, Delaware is reportedly focused on possible tax fraud, money laundering and violations of lobbying laws by Hunter Biden. Andy Wong/Pool/EPA

Shortly after The Post first revealed his son’s emails, Joe Biden angrily denied the accusation, calling it “garbage” and “a last-ditch effort in this desperate campaign to smear me and my family.”

“Ron should be ashamed of himself,” he added during an interview with Milwaukee TV station WISN.

Former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi told NBC that national security can be put at risk when foreign powers like China see an opportunity to get close to someone like Hunter Biden.

Joe and Hunter Biden. President Biden has said that he is “confident that his son didn’t break the law.” Image from Hunter Biden's laptop

“It’s all about access and influence, and if you can compromise someone with both access and influence, that’s even better,” said Figliuzzi, an NBC News contributor who often appears on MSNBC.

“Better still if that target has already compromised himself.”

Walter Shaub, a former director of the US Office of Government Ethics, also told NBC that although government ethics rules don’t apply to Hunter Biden, “it’s imperative that no one at [the Justice Department and no one at the White House interfere with the criminal investigation in Delaware.”

Hunter Biden has denied any wrongdoing and last year told CBS News that he was “being completely cooperative” with the federal investigation in his family’s hometown.

President Biden is also “confident that his son didn’t break the law” and the probe is “something that no one at the White House has involvement in,” White House chief of staff Ron Klain said last

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Meanwhile Jared Kushner worked at the highest levels of the administration, couldn’t get a security clearance until his FIL intervened and just raked in 2 Billion from The Saudis.

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3 minutes ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

Meanwhile Jared Kushner worked at the highest levels of the administration, couldn’t get a security clearance until his FIL intervened and just raked in 2 Billion from The Saudis.

Why did the Saudis give Kushner a 2 billion pay off?

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7 minutes ago, Rigid1 said:

Why did the Saudis give Kushner a 2 billion pay off?

Who knows…it’s supposedly a simple transaction between a client and money management firm but let’s not forget about this….

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

Who knows…it’s supposedly a simple transaction between a client and money management firm but let’s not forget about this….

 

 

Oh gotcha, the Saudis gave Kushner's company 2B to invest, not 2B to him or paid him 2B. 

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1 hour ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

Who knows…it’s supposedly a simple transaction between a client and money management firm but let’s not forget about this….

 

 

He wants to know what Hunter's position was?  Simple Bagman for his fathers shady deals.

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1 hour ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

Replace Biden with Trump and that is how 99% of the people here sound.

Difference is one side is trying to cover up everything(calling it Russian disinformation so it didnt effect an election)and the other side is transparent. Why is that I wonder?

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