Which Crisis Will Be The Next To Catch Biden ‘Off Guard’?
A little over 500 days into his presidency, Joe Biden has an unblemished record — of being “caught off guard” by every major crisis that has engulfed the country since January 2021. The question now is, what’s the next crisis that will catch Biden flat-footed and for which he will have no solutions?
Search for “Biden caught off guard” and see for yourself how often this has made news over the past year and a half.
To save you the effort, here are just a few examples:
- Even Biden caught off guard by his administration’s foreign policy crises
- Coronavirus resurgence catches Biden off guard
- How the border problem caught the Biden team off guard
- Biden Caught Off Guard By Reporter’s Question On The Baby Formula Crisis
- Joe Biden caught off guard by ruling to scrap facemasks
Biden was caught off guard by the Taliban’s rush to victory in Afghanistan. Caught off guard by inflation. Caught off guard by the supply chain crisis.
And remember, this is the guy who, we were told repeatedly, would surround himself with experienced pros. One commentator gushed that “the adults are back in charge, and the American people are about to be reminded of what it’s like to have a competent government working for them.”
The press, of course, was all too happy to parrot White House talking points about how seasoned Biden’s team was.
When he issued a press release about how his “crisis-tested team” would help “lift America out of the current economic downturn and build back better,” the term “crisis-tested” starting turning up in news accounts everywhere, and without the usual scare quotes that the media would put around such a claim if it came from a Republican.
So, the question now is, what will be the next crisis that catches Biden and his team of dunces off guard? Diesel shortages? Insulin shortages? A massive new flood of illegal immigrants?
Will it be the recession?
As we pointed out in this space recently, the country is already in a recession (see “The Biden Recession Has Arrived”), which means it started in January, when Biden stood before Congress and in his State of the Union address bragged about “all the bright spots in our economy” and how he was going to “keep the economy going strong.” As late as April, Biden was declaring that the economy had “gone from being on the mend to on the move.”
And just a few days ago he scolded a reporter for asking about a recession, saying “Now you sound like a Republican politician,” and “there’s nothing inevitable about a recession.”
To paraphrase Richard M. Weaver, ignorance has consequences.
As former CKE Restaurants chief executive Andy Puzder put it recently: “Biden has waved off recession concerns,” and his “refusal to acknowledge the negative impact of his policies has rendered him incapable of implementing realistic policy solutions. Democrats in Congress who enable him share the blame.”
Worse, some are now warning that we could be in for a combination of 1970s-style stagflation and the financial crisis of 2008.
Here’s how Nouriel Roubini, chief economist at Atlas Capital Team, put it:
In the 1970s, we had stagflation but no massive debt crises, because debt levels were low. After 2008, we had a debt crisis followed by low inflation or deflation, because the credit crunch had generated a negative demand shock. Today, we face supply shocks in a context of much higher debt levels, implying that we are heading for a combination of 1970s-style stagflation and 2008-style debt crises – that is, a stagflationary debt crisis.
What will Biden do when the economic collapse becomes undeniable? We don’t claim to be clairvoyant but we’re fairly certain that here’s what will happen.
- The media will report that Biden was caught “off guard” by the recession.
- Biden will then start running around blaming Vladimir Putin, or the now long-ago pandemic, or Republicans, or anyone else he can point his craggy finger at.
- What he won’t do is offer real solutions.
That’s the depressing reality — knowing what’s ahead, and knowing that the leaders in the White House and Congress refuse to accept blame and have no clue how to respond.
The only chance voters have to change this trajectory is to create a political wave in November so massive and so powerful that it not only washes Democrats out of power in the House and Senate, but gives Republicans a veto-proof majority.
Biden would be caught off guard, of course.
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