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Friday, March 29, 2024 - 10:06 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

News flash: Prices are going up. They are going up broadly across many products and services. And they are going up quickly. Inflation is here. It's already bad, and there are many signs that it could get worse.

In the wake of this news, President Joe Biden has announced that he's committed to continuing with his massive new government spending program. It's hard to overstate how crazy this is. The good news for Republicans is even amid all their problems and disarray, with his reckless and rigidly ideological spending plans, Biden may soon be passing them political power. The bad news for America is we are all likely to suffer from it in the interim.

The federal government is on an unprecedented spending binge. Even before Biden took office, the government passed COVID-19 emergency spending bills totaling: $8.3 billion, $192 billion, $2.2 trillion, $484 billion and $868 billion. Some of this was justifiable. COVID-19, and the government restrictions that came with it, devastated many businesses. But much was also wasted.

By the time Biden took office, there were signs that the economy was beginning to recover. There were also signs that the direct payments and enhanced unemployment benefits included in the COVID-19 spending bills were reducing the incentive for Americans to go back to work. They would make more staying home and collecting benefits. On top of this, the federal government was passing emergency spending bills faster than they could even spend the money. With a full $1 trillion in prior federal emergency relief still unspent upon his taking office, Biden nonetheless pushed through the so-called American Rescue Plan, an additional purely partisan $1.9 trillion COVID-19 spending package.

In total then, the U.S. government spent more than 30% of the country's annual total economic output to try to stimulate the economy. This was unchartered territory. Many on both sides of the political aisle warned at the time that all this government spending could overheat the economy. Larry Summers, Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and National Economic Council director under President Barack Obama, summarized the concerns succinctly: "While there are enormous uncertainties, there is a chance that macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels will set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation, with consequences for the value of the dollar and financial stability ... Stimulus measures of the magnitude contemplated are steps into the unknown."

The White House response to those on all sides of the political spectrum who dared to question them was withering. Inflation was just "transitory," we were told. Ten months have now passed, and we have the answer. The White House was wrong. Inflation has not been transitory. It's here, and it's getting worse. This week, the Consumer Price Index was up 6.2% from a year ago. Prices are up across the board. Energy costs are worst, with heating oil up 59%, gasoline up 49% and natural gas up 28%. Food prices are way up too: Beef is up 20%, pork 14%, fish 11%, eggs 11% and chicken nearly 9%. And many other categories are at or near records: Furniture is up 12%, new cars 9%, used cars 26%, TVs 10%, hotel and motel rentals 25%, car rentals nearly 40% and the list goes on.

These are real price hikes hitting real Americans' pocketbooks. Summers' warning that we could see inflation not seen in a generation may have been viewed as hyperbolic, but it has come true. The price increases announced this week are the biggest since 1990. They were driven by many factors, but excessive government spending was a major one.

Biden's response is hard to comprehend. He wants to spend more. Even in a world of bizarre and radical policy proposals like open borders and defunding the police, calling for additional massive new government spending as we are seeing inflation spike to record levels is hard to fathom. Biden has always been a liberal, but he was not known as a wide-eyed radical. Yet what we are seeing today is truly radical. It's putting ideology over all else. The left wing of the Democratic Party may want to transform America into a much more socialist country, but all this spending as record inflation is already setting in is the opposite of sane.

Why doesn't the White House understand this? As with every White House before them, Biden and his staff are now in an insular bubble that's hard to penetrate. They spend their days speaking mostly with each other and those on the outside who share their worldview. They coax each other into believing crazy things. They think they can get away with saying there's no inflation and then saying, "Sure, there's inflation, but it's just temporary" and then saying, "Well, OK, there is inflation, but it's actually a good thing, and what's more, a ton more government spending is going to fix it."

The corporate media's zeal to prop up Biden as the antidote to former President Donald Trump is now being tested. Will they report at all on the radical nature of what is being proposed? Will they call out the administration's contradictions and inconsistencies? They have begun to break the dam just a little bit. They should all remember that in the end, there is no amount of bias or even Big Tech algorithm censorship that's going to hide this truth from the American people. People are not dumb. They see prices going up. They see government spending now permanently pegged at emergency levels. They sense that something is not right with all of this.

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Neil Patel co-founded The Daily Caller, one of America's fastest-growing online news outlets, which regularly breaks news and distributes it to over 15 million monthly readers. Patel also co-founded The Daily Caller News Foundation, a nonprofit news company that trains journalists, produces fact-checks and conducts longer-term investigative reporting. The Daily Caller News Foundation licenses its content free of charge to over 300 news outlets, reaching potentially hundreds of millions of people per month. To find out more about Neil Patel and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com

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Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel

Tucker Carlson currently hosts Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (weekdays 8 p.m. ET). He joined the network in 2009 as a contributor.

“Tucker Carlson Tonight” features powerful analysis and spirited debates, with guests from across the political and cultural spectrum. Carlson brings his signature style to tackle issues largely uncovered by the media in every corner of the United States, challenging political correctness with a "Campus Craziness" segment and tackling media bias and outrage during "Twitter Storm."

Carlson co-hosted “Fox & Friends Weekend” starting in 2012, until taking on his current role at “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

While at Fox News, Carlson has provided analysis for “America's Election Headquarters” on primary and caucus nights, including in the 2016 and 2012 presidential elections, as well as the 2014 midterm election. He also produced a Fox News special, "Fighting for Our Children's Minds," in 2010.

Prior to working at Fox News, Carlson hosted “Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered” on PBS from 2004 to 2005 and “Tucker” on MSNBC from 2005 to 2008. He joined CNN in 2000 as its youngest anchor ever, co-hosting “The Spin Room” and later CNN's “Crossfire,” until its 2005 cancellation. In 2003, he wrote an autobiography about his cable news experience titled "Politicians, Partisans and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News."

Carlson graduated with a B.A. in history from Trinity College in Connecticut.

Neil Patel

In addition to his role as publisher of The Daily Caller, Neil Patel is co-founder and managing director of Bluebird Asset Management, a hedge fund investing in mortgage-backed securities.

Before starting his two companies, Neil served in the White House from 2005 to 2009 as the chief policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. From 2001 to 2004, Neil was staff secretary to Vice President Cheney. Prior to joining the Bush administration, Neil was assistant general counsel at UUNET Technologies. Earlier in his career, Neil practiced law with Dechert Price & Rhoads. He also served as Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China. 

Neil received his B.A. from Trinity College in Connecticut and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as associate editor of the Journal of Law and Policy in International Business.

Neil lives in Washington, D.C., and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with his wife, Amy, their two daughters, Caroline and Bela, and their son, Charlie.

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