Last Friday, President Biden traveled to Pittsburgh to make a case that the American economy is on the right track and hopefully help resuscitate his collapsing popularity. But political speeches don’t change economic realities, and an honest assessment of the situation makes clear that Biden’s first year was an abject failure on the economic front. Inflation has raged for months with no end in sight, worsening Americans’ purchasing power considerably. Businesses are struggling to fill open roles as the labor shortage slows recovery. Store shelves remain empty as supply chain issues endure.
Yet Biden spent his first year ignoring these real-life crises, instead trying to push – through historically narrow congressional majorities – a radical partisan agenda completely disconnected from real-life concerns. Americans noticed.
Since taking office, Biden’s approval rating has fallen by an astounding 15 points to just 40.6 percent, while disapproval is up almost 20 points to 55 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average as of January 28. A recent CBS/YouGov survey shows in greater detail just how unhappy the American people are with the results of Year 1 of the Biden presidency. Among the lowlights: just a quarter are satisfied and believe things are going well; 70 percent disapprove of Biden’s handling of inflation; two-thirds say Biden and his party are focusing on issues they either “don’t care about” or only “care a little about.”
It’s easy to see why. Biden’s lone partisan economic accomplishment, the $2 trillion “American Rescue Plan,” made basically no impact on jobs despite promises that it would add 4 million. Inflation is up 7 percent from a year ago, pulling real wages down 2.4 percent. And despite running as a unifier, Biden has spent the last several weeks assailing political opponents as racists for not wanting to change longstanding Senate rules – rules he himself has previously supported – to make it easier to ram through his partisan priorities.
Despite all that, there is still a clear opportunity for Biden to improve his fortunes. Among those who disapprove of the president, 63 percent say their opinion of Biden would improve if he gets inflation down, but an astounding 76 percent say their opinion of Biden would not improve if he passes “Build Back Better,” a $2 trillion grab-bag of left-wing political wish-list policies. The bill is stalled because it cannot even gain the support of all members of Biden’s own party in the Senate.
The American people simply do not want an extreme left-wing agenda imposed on them – they want their actual concerns addressed and they want a sense of stability.
Now Biden faces a choice: continue down this road of kow-towing to progressive demands and further dividing our country– or return to his promise of unity which he made so clear at his Inauguration, by shifting focus to the real problems Americans are facing.
If he chooses the former path, Americans should beware executive overreach. Unable to get his agenda through Congress, Biden could attempt to push as much of it as he can through agency regulations. This is more than an end-run around the American people and their elected representatives. Much of it will likely be illegal.
We have already seen several examples of executive overreach, from the CDC eviction moratorium to the OSHA vaccine mandate, neither of which stood up in court. Going forward, the Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to impose regulations that would fundamentally transform corporate governance in America and insert federal bureaucrats into everyday business decision-making. The National Labor Relations Board and Department of Labor are poised to push through regulations to virtually eliminate independent contracting, a proposal which has been repeatedly rejected by Congress. The EPA is likely to pursue multiple mandates – some provisions of which were included in the failed Build Back Better measure – worsening the increase in energy costs that is hitting poor families hardest.
None of these executive branch actions have any basis in federal law. Congress makes laws and it has chosen not to enact many that Biden wants. That’s a feature of the system, not a bug. The administration is simply choosing to regulate where Congress has rejected its agenda, regardless of how unconstitutional the regulations might be.
Federal agency actions are often obscure and done quietly – by design, with minimal input from the American people or their representatives and implemented by unaccountable bureaucrats. The Biden administration is hoping most people won’t catch wind of their unpopular actions.
But Americans can rest assured that in 2022, we will take the fight against the failing Biden economic agenda to the halls of Congress and beyond. We will do so in federal agencies and the courts. Americans deserve leaders who listen to them and respond to their concerns. The Biden administration isn’t doing that. Americans will hold the president accountable if he persists.
