{"id":67334,"date":"2021-04-29T02:44:40","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T07:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=67334"},"modified":"2021-04-29T02:44:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T07:44:40","slug":"67334","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=67334","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The mendacity of Joe Biden\u2019s address to Congress<\/a>
\nBiden is here to bring us MAPA: \u2018Make America Poor Again.<\/em><\/p>\n

John Maynard Keynes is alleged to have said \u2018When the facts change, I change my mind \u2014 what do you do, sir?\u2019 I am no fan of Keynes generally, but there is something to be said for that pithy \u2018second-thoughts\u2019 comment. It pains me to admit it, but the President\u2019s address to the joint session of Congress put me in mind of Keynes\u2019s observation. After all, was it not a rousing address? Even long-time critics acknowledged it. One described it<\/a>\u00a0as \u2018a perfect blend of strength and empathy\u2019. I have to agree. That same commentator\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0that \u2018Tonight, I was moved and inspired. Tonight, I have hope and faith in America again.\u2019<\/p>\n

I think a lot of people felt that way. Many people agreed with him. Yes, it\u2019s early days yet. But let\u2019s face it. The President has already racked up significant victories. Think about his energy policy, his attack on illegal immigration, his efforts to dismantle or at least pare back the leviathan that is the administrative state, his proposals to reduce the tax burden for both businesses and individuals while also strengthening America\u2019s military: in these and other initiatives has he not taken bold steps to fulfill his campaign promises to return power from Washington to the People and \u2018make America great again\u2019.<\/p>\n

Oops: I was talking about the wrong speech! That was about Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a02018 State of the Union<\/a>\u00a0address, in which he called upon Americans to put aside the partisan passions that divide us in order to go forward as one people united in the goal of making a better America.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was his next State of the Union address, in 2020, when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, sitting directly behind President Trump, capped the evening picking up a copy of the speech and tearing it in two.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t do that tonight. The speech was in the same chamber. But somehow it was not the same chamber. Watching Joe Biden tonight was like visiting a theater after hours. Lots of ghosts.<\/p>\n

One ghost was St Anthony Fauci, who was responsible for Joe Biden\u2019s doddering entrance to the depopulated room. No handshakes, just fist or elbow bumps to the bemasked denizens of that melodrama.<\/p>\n

What Biden called \u2018the worst pandemic in a century\u2019 was at center stage. On taking office, he said, he promised 100 million vaccine shots in 100 days. To date, he said, 220 million shots have been delivered.<\/p>\n

Who or what accomplished that? If you look at the Biden press pool \u2014 also known as\u00a0CNN<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the Biden administration is responsible for America\u2019s robust response to this latest respiratory virus. But in fact, it was Donald Trump\u2019s \u2018Operation Warp Speed\u2019 that produced several effective vaccines in record time \u2014 and it was Trump\u2019s plan that provided the entire plan for distributing it.<\/p>\n

Joe then went on to describe what he called, without cracking a smile, the \u2018American Rescue Plan\u2019. In essence, it is the same plan that was outlined, but in more modest terms, by a certain Italian politician in the 1920s. \u2018All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.\u2019<\/p>\n

The word \u2018jobs\u2019 occurred nearly 50 times in tonight\u2019s address. But here\u2019s an embarrassing fact. Donald Trump\u2019s economic policies led to the lowest general unemployment in decades. They led to the lowest minority unemployment in our history. They also led to a robust rise in wages at the lower end of the scale.<\/p>\n

Joe did not mention any of that. Instead it was all Bernie Sanders-esque class warfare: raise taxes, eat the rich, take control of \u2014 well, everything.<\/p>\n

But along the way there were some strange echoes. Biden said his mantra was \u2018Buy American\u2019. \u2018American tax dollars are going to be used to buy American products made in America that create American jobs.\u2019 Where have we heard that before?<\/p>\n

MAGA? Nope. Biden is here to bring us MAPA: \u2018Make America Poor Again.\u2019<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how we do it. First, spend more money than anyone thought possible. Promise free stuff for everyone (except Republicans). Second, destroy the engines of prosperity. Start with the energy industry. Tax it, regulate, mount a huge \u2018green- new-deal PR campaign against cheap, abundant energy. It\u2019s working! Hundreds of thousands are out of work and gas prices are up some nine percent in just 100 days! Good going, Joe!<\/p>\n

I think my favorite part of this dog\u2019s breakfast was the part where he asked, how are we going to pay for all this. \u2018I\u2019ve made clear that we can do it without increasing deficits.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Who knew that Joe Biden, like Hamlet, had an antic disposition.<\/p>\n

The deficit is already skyrocketing. But Joe is going after the \u2018millionaires and billionaires who cheat on their taxes\u2019. Did you know that the top one percent of earners already\u00a0pay more than 40 percent<\/a>\u00a0of all income taxes? Think about that. The top 10 percent pay more than 71 percent, while the top 25 percent pay nearly 90 percent of all income taxes. So what is Joe talking about?<\/p>\n

Of course, it would not have been a Democratic talk if there were not some invocation of the mel\u00e9e at the Capitol on January 6.<\/p>\n

\u2018As we gather here tonight, the images of a violent mob assaulting this Capitol \u2014 desecrating our democracy \u2014 remain vivid in our minds.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Lives were put at risk. Lives were lost. Extraordinary courage was summoned.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018The insurrection was an existential crisis \u2014 a test of whether our democracy could survive.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t an insurrection It wasn\u2019t an \u2018existential crisis\u2019. And it wasn\u2019t a test of \u2018our democracy\u2019 (i.e., not\u00a0your<\/i>\u00a0democracy).<\/p>\n

I thought it was a horrible speech \u2014 clich\u00e9-ridden, yes, but also deeply mendacious. The latest import from China is not \u2018one of the worst pandemics ever\u2019. We were not \u2018staring into an abyss of insurrection and autocracy\u2019 on January 6. There were a small number of bad hats and many who were exercising their constitutional right to dissent. This, of course, was in sharp contrast to the hundreds of thugs who rampaged through dozens of cities setting fires and destroying property over the summer \u2014 and even now. But forget all that. Here was the geriatric specimen blinking into the cameras:<\/p>\n

\u2018We came together.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018United.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018With light and hope, we summoned new strength and new resolve.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018To position us to win the competition for the 21st century.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018On our way forward to a Union more perfect. More prosperous. More just.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018As one people. One nation. One America.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

I thought at first that the few dozen people in the Capitol were wearing face masks. I didn\u2019t consider the possibility that they were air-sickness bags.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mendacity of Joe Biden\u2019s address to Congress Biden is here to bring us MAPA: \u2018Make America Poor Again. John Maynard Keynes is alleged to have said \u2018When the facts change, I change my mind \u2014 what do you do, sir?\u2019 I am no fan of Keynes generally, but there is something to be said … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crap-for-brains","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67335,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67334\/revisions\/67335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}