The Biden Variant — Not Omicron — Is Behind The Shortages Everywhere
https://issuesinsights.com/2022/01/12/bareshelvesbiden-saved-christmas-but-not-the-new-year/
Just before the holiday, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki took to the press room podium to laughably brag about how “we’ve saved Christmas” because President Joe Biden supposedly fixed the nation’s supply chain crisis. She said that “President Biden recognized this challenge early, acted as an honest broker to bring key stakeholders together, and focused on addressing practical problems across the global supply chain.”
That was good enough for the mainstream media, which had turned a blind eye to the supply chain problems once Biden claimed he had a plan to fix it.
Except, less than three weeks later, #BareShelvesBiden is trending on Twitter, shoppers are sharing pictures of empty store shelves, and the media are being forced – however reluctantly – to report that shortages are actually a worsening problem.
Shortages are everywhere. Whether it’s goods, food, people, COVID tests, you name it. The CEO of the Gristedes supermarket chain is warning of meat and egg shortages. The Daily Beast reports that “shortages of glass and other materials continue, coupled with extensive shipping delays and skyrocketing freight costs.” One site asked readers to send examples of shortages, and cold medicine was in the top five.
A newspaper in Cape Cod finds “empty grocery shelves and downsized restaurant menus rising amid supply chain struggles.”
A Chicago news station reports that “as an ongoing computer chip shortage continues to affect the auto industry among many others, a shortage of used cars has led to a shortage of used semi-trucks as well, further affecting the supply chain.”
Hospitals and fire departments are reporting critical staffing shortages. Those hoping to get tested for COVID find themselves unable to find one or end up stuck in long lines at testing centers. (Biden also promised to fix the testing shortage problem.) Fox News the other day broadcast a scene that looked like something out of the old Soviet Union, with mask-wearing New Yorkers lined up around the block amid piles of trash bags.
All this is coupled with spiraling prices that show no signs of abating despite Biden’s other promise that it was a transitory problem. On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation in December rose to 7% from a year earlier — a 40-year high. For the second half of 2021, inflation surged 6%.
OK, you say, but how could it have been otherwise? Isn’t the current wave of shortages the result of the sudden surge in the Omicron variant? How can Biden be to blame for that?
Well, let’s leave aside the fact that Biden promised, in no uncertain terms, that he would “end the virus” because he said that, unlike President Trump, he had a plan, he had the experience, he’d “follow the science,” and he’d bring on a highly capable team.
Of course, none of that has turned out to be true. Biden’s “plan” has been a miserable failure, based on the number of cases and deaths since he took office. (Deaths on Biden’s watch are fast approaching those that occurred under Trump, despite the availability of three vaccines.)
No one in the Biden administration — from Biden on down — appears to be in the least bit competent at their jobs. The scientists Biden is bending the knee to, especially Anthony Fauci, have proved to be wholly untrustworthy.
Team Biden is even attacking its own hand-picked leader at the CDC, who is coming under fire for confusing messages and a lack of transparency. The Washington Post reported Friday that “With coronavirus cases surging to record levels in the United States and around the world, that criticism has been particularly stinging of late.”
Even the pliant media are starting to eke out stories critical of Biden, like this one by NBC News headlined “COVID confusion snarls Biden White House.”
As we said, leave all that aside.
The truth is that, that even with the spread of the new COVID variants this year, today’s multiplying crises of shortages and price spikes were avoidable.
Had the country not been under the sway of professional scaremongers for the past year, there wouldn’t be widespread panic about increasingly mild strains of COVID.
Had Biden been on top of the testing problem and lifted regulatory roadblocks in front of new ones, there’d be plenty to go around. Had he not decided to impose an illegal vaccine mandate on businesses, worker shortages would be less of a problem.
Had he followed the lead of politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — instead of attacking them — and projected calm, avoided needless mandates and shutdowns, and trusted people to do the right thing, shops and factories and schools would be humming along. Instead, they’re shutting down.
Had the federal government not wasted $2 trillion on a Biden “rescue” plan that managed only to discourage work (last month produced another dismal jobs report) and fuel inflation (which has risen in each of the past four months) we wouldn’t be saddled with both.
In short, had someone else been in charge the past 12 months, the country wouldn’t be in the terrible fix it’s in right now.
Unfortunately, far too many voters were duped into believing that Biden was competent, or at least more competent than President Trump. And now we’re all paying the price for their gullibility.
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