President Joe Biden delivered what many Americans hope will be his last State of the Union address last night.
The polarizing and divisive speech touched on Ukraine, Jan. 6, abortion, Obamacare, and gun control.
The issues Americans care about most — inflation, the cost of loving — were glossed over, but he covered them this week in other ways.
In the days leading up to the president’s speech, he blamed "greedy" corporations for price hikes and "shrinkflation," for ruining the economy.
But, of course, he had it backwards — the economy caused the price hikes.
"Today, I'm launching a Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing to crack down on corporations who break the law while keeping prices high for American consumers," he said Tuesday.
However, other than actual price gouging, where merchants temporarily inflate prices to take advantage of a local disaster, there’s no such thing as "illegal pricing."
But that didn’t stop Joe.
He had to look like he was doing something in preparation for last night’s speech.
The White House Strike Force honed in on consumer credit card debt as its first assignment. Consumer debt amounted to a staggering $.1.23 trillion as of January.
Rather than address the reason so many Americans are relying on credit cards in order to survive, the administration announced an $8 cap on all credit card late fees.
Prior to this the average late fee was $32.
Assuming $32 represents the actual cost of collecting on a late payment, all that means is that banks and credit card companies will have to find other ways to make up the difference — increased interest rates or charging annual fees.
It’s similar to something the White House did last month.
Biden went after what it believed was price-gouging by the commercial airline industry.
"You ought to be able to fly with your child — and sit next to them — without paying an additional fee,” he said.
"It's time all airlines offered fee free family seating."
If Biden wanted to reduce the cost of commercial flights, he should consider reducing federal taxes on tickets. They include:
- Passenger Ticket Tax (domestic flights): 7.5%
- Frequent Flyer Tax: 7.5%
- Flight Segment Tax (domestic flights): $5.00
- International Departure Tax: $22.10
- International Arrival Tax: $22.10 (they get you coming and going)
But lowering taxes isn’t in his DNA.
Given that this is also an election year, the president enlisted the services of "Sesame Street" characters to promote his efforts.
When Cookie Monster tweeted, "Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller,"the White House responded, "C is for consumers getting ripped off. President Biden is calling on companies to put a stop to shrinkflation."
What Biden doesn’t understand is that the job of any business is to make money for its owners — whether it’s a mom and pop convenience store or General Motors (GM).
In order to do that they have to provide quality goods and services at a reasonable price.
If American Airlines starts gouging its customers, they’ll turn to United.
If Ford begins building unsafe vehicles, customers will buy Chevy.
That’s the beauty of the free market system — they’re self-regulating in price and quality.
Also, setting price controls for businesses is how socialism starts, and it never ends well. Nixon’s 1971 wage and price freeze was a prime example — and a colossal failure.
Perhaps Biden should concentrate on his own job, and leave business to the experts.
Biden went into last night’s address with horrible approval ratings, a dismal economy, and two days after losing his primary election in American Samoa to a relative unknown.
He followed that up with a Twitter/X promotion of the speech, calling it the State of the Union 2023, on Feb. 7.
Wrong year.
Wrong month.
Hours ahead of the speech House Republicans released a video depicting the true state of the union, using media clips of the border crisis, withdrawal from Afghanistan, inflation, escalating crime and his denial of reality on these and other policy issues.
The video closed with a final humiliation: Biden tripping up the stairs of Air Force One.
But the video that truly captured the failure of the Biden administration was caught inadvertently at Eagle Pass, Texas Thursday morning — hours before the speech.
It showed a Honduran man illegally crossing the border, wearing a Biden-Harris t-shirt. He explained that ". . . I have it on so they can let me in."
The best thing Biden could have done last night would have been to be honest with the American people — to have said "I’m sorry, I really screwed this up, but if you give me another chance, I promise to do better."
But honesty, like intellect, cutting taxes and hard work, has never been a part of Biden’s DNA.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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