President Joe Biden paid a call on Wisconsin Wednesday, touting job creation and boasting that the Big Government agenda he laid out in this week’s State of the State address will get the nation’s economy humming.
But the president’s cheerleading tour conflicts with the realities on the ground for Badger State businesses dealing with higher prices, supply chain issues and labor shortages.
Biden landed in friendly territory, at a Laborers’ International Union of North America training facility in suburban Madison — one of the most liberal cities in America.
“We’ve created 12 million jobs. A half a million jobs last month,” the President told supporters. “The Biden economic plan is working.”
The Wisconsin stop, like his State of the State Speech, sounded a lot like a president gearing up for another run next year. So it’s not surprising that there’s another side of Biden’s economic plan the Democrat and his union friends aren’t interested in telling.
While Biden bragged about the creation of “12 million jobs,” he left out the 25 million jobs lost during the run of the pandemic, in no small measure because of pandemic-related policies he supported. He’s omitted the fact that Midwestern states like Wisconsin have lost thousands of jobs, particularly in the critical, family-supporting manufacturing sector.
And Biden doesn’t seem to like to talk about historically high inflation that has hit small businesses — the lifeblood of the U.S. economy — particularly hard.
The Republican National Committee didn’t mince any words.
“After a speech filled with lies and empty rhetoric, Biden’s victory lap is out of touch with American families who are struggling to keep up with Biden’s failed economy,” newly re-elected RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “Every day is a crisis for American workers facing rising costs to feed their families, yet Joe Biden continues to deflect, divide, and duck blame without offering solutions.”
The latest National Federation of Independent Business Optimism Index declined again, to 89.8, marking the 12th consecutive months the index has been below the 49-year average of 98. Small business owners are less confident in the future, with inflation remaining the single most important business problem.
“It’s true. Main Street is not feeling optimistic about the next few months, and much of that is tied to the uncertainty of the economy led by inflation, supply chain problems and labor shortages,” said Bill Smith, NFIB/Wisconsin state director.
Smith noted Biden, who has billed himself as the “most pro-union president”, didn’t visit a small business. The photo-op took place as a “big training facility built and run by organized labor.”
“A lot of the answers that Big Government has just don’t apply, just don’t work for small business,” he said. “Washington really has to get out of the way. They keep putting out roadblocks and continue to hold our small business economy back rather than promoting it.”
Biden was surrounded by Big Government liberals —Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI-02), and Gov. Tony Evers, Democrats all, who praised Biden’s support for the $1 trillion Infrastructure law. The massive spending plan will pump billions in federal taxpayer dollars into road projects, as well as a host of liberal pet projects such as climate change initiatives.
Biden called Evers a “great partner.”
It is Evers who has proposed significant tax increases on Wisconsin manufacturers in his previous two budgets. It is Evers who has pushed a “Carbon Free” by 2050 plan that would sock electricity ratepayers with nearly $250 billion in increased costs and subject them to periodic blackouts, according to a study by the Center of the American Experiment. That’s the same extreme green strategy that the Biden administration has pushed, and it’s one of the reasons energy prices have soared over Biden’s first two years in office.
“Workers across the country have seen their real pay fall by 1.7% over the past year. Labor force participation remains well below pandemic levels,” said U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI-01) “As Biden touts creating jobs in Wisconsin today – I hope he remembers the union workers in Wisconsin he laid off after canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline.”
“From his war on energy to excessive spending, Biden’s policies have hurt workers. When the President returns to Washington, I encourage him to engage with Congress to truly help workers.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Joe Biden” by Joe Biden.
