Biden’s Broken Promises: Presidential Disappointment

Do you remember when former President Donald Trump said, “You cannot go to a 7-11 or Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian Accent?” or, “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids” and “I’ll tell you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me… then you ain’t black.” In reality, not one of these quotes was said by President Trump, but rather by current President Joe Biden. I believe his presidency has been so disappointing because he has failed to strive for normalcy which is what he promised. Instead, we’ve seen a Trojan-horse-like effect: poor fiscal policy and economic oversight and a lack of a strong southern border (to name a few). However, a select few quotes from his political tenure do not accurately illustrate his egregious presidency. 

To start, President Biden has made our economy significantly worse for the lower and middle class, thereby fueling a deep-seated national issue. President Biden has also waged a war on the nation’s energy supply. Notably, his destruction of the KeyStone pipeline destroyed 11,000 relatively long-term jobs for Americans and $1.2 billion in wages. When Biden took office, crude oil traded at roughly $59 per barrel; as of writing, it’s trading at $80. Americans are feeling the consequences of these inflated prices every time at the pump. 

Meanwhile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was created in 1975 to act as a backup energy facility for emergencies. Before Biden, presidents had used the SPR only three times. The SPR contained approximately 650 million barrels when Biden entered office, and at present day, the SPR holds roughly 347 million. The SPR is not the president’s personal oil supply, yet Biden treats it as a political tool to lower oil prices during critical periods. The United States is at the mercy of foreign nation’s oil reserves, giving potential adversaries a bargaining chip; so in late 2022, the administration pleaded with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) not to reduce oil production. Days later, OPEC+ announced plans to cut production by 2 million barrels per day. As a result of the political checkmate, the administration turned to their favorite source: the SPR. The American people are suffering from incremental day-to-day price hikes (not just in gas) as a result of the president’s virtue signaling, lack of foresight, and utter incompetence. 

Furthermore, Biden has also devalued the nation’s currency through poor fiscal policy. Early in his presidency, he created the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. The plan, aimed at injecting money into the economy for the American people, was correctly characterized by former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as the most irresponsible budget policy measure in the last forty years. Additionally, his $3 trillion COVID stimulus response has contributed to overheating the economy and forced the Federal Reserve to unload its balance sheet to increase interest rates. This has had a double effect: market liquidity has dried and the new generation cannot afford homes. The result of all these fiscal policy faux-pas resulted in a peaked inflation rate in June 2022, when the consumer price index reached 9.1% (the highest since 1981). However, this percentage does not include shrinkflation and the numbers are cherry picked; therefore, the real rate was likely much higher. An independent study by The Winston Group found that energy prices rose by 37.2%, food by 18.3%, and rent by 13.5%. The nature of money flow results in the top 1% aggregating wealth at highly disproportionate rates, as they own businesses. Businesses can also increase prices in accordance with increased costs, and wages have also been outpaced by inflation. Therefore, the wealthiest quartile remains virtually unaffected by his horrendous  economic policy, while the lower and middle classes suffer due to the increased costs, relatively lower wages, and the destruction of our nation’s energy independence. 

Meanwhile, our weak southern border has resulted in increased illegal immigration, to which the extent of the damage is unknown and potentially catastrophic. Biden has undermined American border security and the integrity of our immigration system as with his policies, illegal immigration is at an all-time high. In 2021 alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered 1.7 million illegal immigrants at the southern border, the highest number recorded in a single year. This number does not include the number that evaded border patrol, and according to an estimate by the Internal Border Patrol, that number could top 273,000. The 2022 statistics outpaced 2021’s numbers dramatically. In March 2022, the U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said that the US would hit one million encounters with illegal migrants for fiscal year 2022 in just a fraction of the time. Fiscal year 2022 began on October 1, meaning there were one million illegal immigrants in just six months. On May 11, 2023, Title 42 expired, which has had draconian effects on illegal immigration. According to USA Today, more than 2.8 million illegal migrants have encountered the Border Patrol as of September, compared to 2022’s 2.7 million through the calendar year.  The sheer number of illegal immigrants lends itself to a whole new set of problems.  

I urge you to reexamine your political choices and pay closer attention to the mainstream media’s stark double standard with respect to Democrats vs. Conservatives. My zeal for the democratic party has waned as a result of Biden’s poor leadership. His incompetences have become more noticeable than ever. He promised to deliver us normalcy, a separation from Trump’s volatile presidency. However, he ultimately delivered extremisms and is leading the country down a path towards what can be described as a new world order; a world in which our adversaries dominate the home of the brave and land of the free.