I & I Editorial BoardNew COVID-19 cases are plunging. Vaccination rates are booming. The economy is rebounding. States are running budget surpluses. Schools are reopening. All without the benefit of President Joe Biden’s “urgently needed” $1.9 trillion spending spree. So why aren’t supposedly moderate Senate Democrats standing up to oppose this Treasury theft, which will be paid for by future generations?
Just this week, we learned that Texas has dropped its mask mandate and is lifting limits on businesses. So is Mississippi. Biden said that vaccines will be available to all Americans by May. A report showed that manufacturing is growing at the fastest pace in years.
If you listen to Biden and his fellow leftist Democrats, none of this is supposed to be happening. To hear them talk, the economy is flat on its back, the virus raging, and the nation desperately in need of a massive dose of federal aid.
On Wednesday, Biden went on TV to say that “If we act now, decisively, quickly, and boldly, we can finally get ahead of this virus, we can finally get our economy moving again, and the people of this country have suffered far too much for too long.”
But every day, the news has been getting brighter and brighter before Congress even votes on the $1.9 trillion “relief” plan. Which calls into serious question not only why Biden continues to push the bill, but why any Democrat who claims to be a moderate would support this monument to waste, fraud, and abuse.
Let’s go through the reasons why every justification for Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending spree has vanished.
Public health doesn’t need it. The data show indisputably that the virus peaked in early January – before Biden took office – and new cases in the U.S. have tumbled, falling from 315,179 on Jan. 8 to just 50,505 on Feb. 28. At the same time, vaccination rates are skyrocketing. According to the Centers for Disease Control, almost 79 million vaccines have been administered. Why push a massive new spending plan for vaccines? None of these positive trends is the result of anything Biden has done.
Workers don’t need it. The explosion in joblessness early last year is quickly being erased as state governments allow businesses to get back to business. The unemployment rate is already below 5% in 18 states, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has data only through December (meaning more states are likely below 5% now). If it weren’t for big shutdown-happy leftist states such as California (where joblessness is 9%), New York (8.2%), New Jersey (7.6%), the national unemployment rate would likely be under 6% by now. What’s more, if anything, Biden’s COVID “relief” bill will slow job growth by rewarding those who stay unemployed with fatter checks.
The economy doesn’t need it. The current “nowcast” from the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank – which compiles its GDPNow for the current quarter based on available data – has the economy growing at another record-setting rate of 10%. That means the economy will have already fully recovered from the pandemic shutdowns by the end of this month. As CNBC put it this week, “the U.S. economy is on fire.” Again, this is not the result of anything Biden has done.
Households don’t need it. The Commerce Department reported Friday that personal income surged 10% in January, and household wealth increased nearly $2 trillion for the month, while spending rose just 2.4%, or $340.9 billion.
Schools don’t need it. As the Committee to Unleash Prosperity noted this week, nearly three-quarters of students are now back in school in one form or another, and schools still haven’t spent $60 billion of the COVID funds from the four stimulus bills approved by President Donald Trump.
States don’t need it. Even the New York Times admits that states are doing far better in terms of revenue than anyone expected. “By some measures,” it reports, “the states ended up collecting nearly as much revenue in 2020 as they did in 2019.” It says that Moody’s Analytics found 31 states now had enough cash “to fully absorb the economic stress of the pandemic recession on their own.” As we noted in this space, many states are running significant budget surpluses.
Future generations don’t need it. Biden’s plan would drop nearly $2 trillion on top of an already mountainous pile of federal debt, and just as entitlement costs are set to explode as the baby-boom generation retires in earnest. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported last month that, even without Biden’s $1.9 trillion in borrowed money, publicly held debt will equal 107.2% of the nation’s GDP by 2031 – the highest in the nation’s history. Who is going to be forced to pay off this debt? Not Biden. Not Nancy Pelosi. Not Chuck Schumer. But our children and grandchildren.
There are still supposedly a couple of moderate Democrats in the Senate who, if just one of them voted against Biden’s bill, could end this madness. If they don’t, voters should end their political careers first chance they get.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Armando Simón
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
A great editorial. Economic reality matters little to the party in power, which marches in woke goosestep formation to an ideological drumbeat. It is all about an Agenda, and divvying up the spoils of an election victory (which half the population believes stolen by voting machine software algorithms, mail-in ballots, etc.).
Looting and pillaging always go with victories on the battlefield, which in 2020 was in the streets and electoral. The party in power, which sees looting of urban stores and businesses as mostly peaceful and justifiable protest, similarly lacks scruples when it comes to the public purse. To expect otherwise from them is an irrational expectation. Scoundrels empowered to go full throttle with the fiat money-printing engines of government will never pass up the opportunity. Power is what matters, and they buy it with the public purse. That is what this is about, rewarding those who put them in power with spoils. That is their only reality.
“So why aren’t supposedly moderate Senate Democrats standing up to oppose this Treasury theft,”
There are no moderate Senate democrats, only Senate tow-the-line democrats.
Your first sentence is a flat out lie. 63,000 cases just yesterday, and over 8.9 million current infections. Over 150,000 of those people will die.
But hey, tax cuts for billionaires, amirite?💩🤡🖕
Not a lie, just a tad imprecise. We added the word “new” so the first sentence now reads: “New COVID-19 cases are plunging.” In early January, there were more than 300,000 new cases in one day. On February 1, there were more than 128,000 new cases. On March 3, there were just over 60,000. Looks like a plunge to us.
Yes, quite a good change from the numbers of Trump.