How is Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan working out for us?

Joe Biden’s been in office almost one year. How is his “Build Back Better” plan working? How long should it take to make a pretty good situation better?

Inflation is skyrocketing. “Prices for U.S. consumers jumped 6.8 percent in November compared with a year earlier as surging costs for food, energy, housing and other items left Americans enduring their highest annual inflation rate in 39 years.” So said the Associated Press earlier this month. Prices of some products have doubled, and others have more than doubled. 

Among reasons, the AP said, are that “Employers, struggling with worker shortages, have also been raising pay, and many of them have boosted prices to offset their higher labor costs, thereby adding to inflation.” And, while many workers have gotten raises, inflated prices often negate the higher wages they now have.

A CNN report in December said that “Biden now sports the lowest net economic rating of any president at this point through their first term since at least Jimmy Carter in 1977.”

“In the latest CNN/SSRS poll, Biden comes in with a 44 percent approval rating to 55 percent disapproval rating among registered voters on his economic performance.”

One bright spot, however, is that jobs are being added at a high level, despite all the negatives in the economic data.

Many goods are in short supply, as ships sit off the coast waiting to unload for many days longer than normal. Yes, other ports have expanded or opened up to assist with the problem, but a long and broad list of supplies are still backlogged, including some foods, baby supplies, men’s and women’s products, and other things people need. This is a good reason to start again producing many goods in the U.S.

While lower taxes and government spending support a strong, positive economy, we are seeing both higher taxes and more government spending being enacted and proposed. Biden and Congress had their way on two spending bills, adding more than $3 trillion to the National Debt.

And legislation that Biden supports will move control over elections to the federal government, changing a process that was initially controlled by the states by design of our Founders.  This will eliminate “the most popular and proven safeguards that preserve Americans’ confidence in democracy,” according to Real Clear Politics.    

How are Biden’s plan for ending the pandemic going? "I am not going to shut down the economy, period," Biden said. "I'm going to shut down the virus; that's what I'm going to shut down." Yet, there have been more Covid deaths in 2021 than there were when he criticized how the pandemic was being handled in 2020. And this after he inherited Covid vaccines produced in record time.

Gasoline prices, which were under $2.00 in most places last year, are now near or above $3.00 everywhere, and as high as $5.00 a gallon in some places in California. 

Biden shut down the XL Pipeline here at home that would have moved oil more safely, quickly and less expensively than trucks, but he approved a pipeline that benefits Russia. In addition to negatively affecting US oil production and distribution, shutting down the XL Pipeline also put many Americans out of work.

Crime has gone through the roof in several cities/states. Is that Biden’s fault? No, he didn’t start it, but he hasn’t done much if anything to stop the crime wave. 

His Attorney General, Justice Department and the FBI, instead of focusing on the factors that lead to increased crime, are focused elsewhere: replacing state and local law enforcement in watching parents who are complaining about schools and school systems that indoctrinate their children. And, yes, indoctrination in schools does happen.

The federal governments involvement in keeping an eye on parents, and agents presence outside of school board meetings, serves as intimidation to parents, who are now afraid to speak out on a subject they have every right to speak on.

The debacle in rushing out of Afghanistan left 183 people dead, including 13 American military personnel. In the rush to leave, we abandoned thousands of Afghani allies and Americans trapped there, and a fortune in military equipment, which is now in the hands of the Taliban.

The New York Post reported, “The Taliban has seized US weapons left in Afghanistan worth billions — possibly including 600,000 assault rifles, some 2,000 armored vehicles, and 40 aircraft, including Black Hawks, according to reports.” A more sensible plan for leaving without chaos was ignored.

The southern border is essentially non-existent. The border catastrophe has allowed tens of thousands of illegal aliens to cross the southern border easily, without being controlled by authorities, without anyone knowing whether they are vaccinated, or if they are drug dealers, gang members or child smugglers, etc. 

And while people are allowed to enter the country illegally without being checked for vaccinations, American citizens cannot go do many things, like get on an airliner, without showing evidence of up-to-date vaccinations!!!

All of this bad news in his first year in office calls for Biden’s three-B plan to be renamed: “Biden Blunders Bigly,” or “Building Backward Better” are two possibilities.

Biden and the Democrats want to increase the size and cost of government

President Joe Biden’s rushed and ill-conceived exit from Afghanistan was a true disaster, with 13 American military personnel and other innocent lives lost, and many Americans and allies still trying to get out of there, without any American assets left in the country to help make that happen.

This colossal mess has damaged our relations with some allies, caused others to question our strength and direction, and has strengthened our adversaries.

Our southern border, which the Biden administration insists is “closed,” still allows and encourages thousands of illegal aliens to enter the country every day. These people — whose identity and character are unknown, and few if any of whom have been vaccinated against the Covid virus — are mostly left in the country, while some are deported.

In the chaos at the border our Border Patrol (BP) officers are now under fire for doing their job: trying to prevent people from illegally entering the country. 

People who see what they want to see, or who never fact-check their perceptions, falsely accused the mounted BP officers of carrying whips and beating the illegal migrants, when in fact the only migrants who received any sort of physical action were those who refused to obey the officers, or were trying to interfere with them by grabbing the reins of their horses as the officers tried to keep them out of the country.

Why aren’t these critics more concerned with the safety of our BP officers than that of the trespassers?

After launching an attack on Border Patrol officers, now Biden has launched an attack on wealthy Americans and large corporations, saying, "I'm sick and tired of the super-wealthy and giant corporations not paying their fair share in taxes. It's time for it to change."

First, let’s look at who pays what in taxes. The bottom 50% who make less than $43,600 per year pay only 3% of total income taxes; those making $43,600 to $87,000 pay 10%; those making $87,000 to $152,000 pay 16%; those making $152,000 to $218,000 pay 11%; those making $218,000 to $540,000 (the top 2% to 5%) pay 20%; and the hated top 1% making more than $540,000 pay 40% of total income taxes, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

If 1% of taxpayers pay 40% of income taxes and the top 5% pay 60%, while those in the lowest tax bracket pay only 3%, what would the fair share of total taxes paid be?

Just like there is some fraud in elections, there is some fraud among tax payers. But you likely would find that most wealthy people and large corporations follow the tax code pretty strictly.

If corporations are not paying enough in taxes, or maybe nothing in taxes, don’t suggest they are “un-American,” change the tax code.

Biden wants to change the reporting requirements for financial institutions, and for the IRS to be able to view transactions of all bank accounts with $600 or more in them. This is aimed at anyone who doesn’t report their income accurately, the tax dodgers. But it puts most people under the IRS microscope.

Biden’s “American Families Plan calls for banks and other financial institutions to report more than just a taxpayer’s interest earned, capital gains and losses,” Forbes magazine reported. “Banks and other financial institutions would also be required to report ‘aggregate account outflows and inflows.’

“In other words, the IRS will know about all of your bank accounts, whether you earned income on that account or not, how much is in the account in a given year, and how much was transferred in and out of the account,” the Forbes report continued. “It is unclear how this would work, but what is clear is that this new reporting obligation will create a massive compliance effort on the part of financial institutions, and eliminate a massive blind spot that the IRS is currently enduring.” Some good things, but also some bad things.

This new big government plan prompted Sen. Chuck Grassley, R–IA, to say, "Instead of promising a chicken in every pot, Biden's plan promises an auditor at every kitchen table."

And to make sure all bank accounts properly report everyone’s financial activities, the IRS will hire 87,000 new employees, and everyone can expect more scrutiny of the flow of money to and from their accounts.

Assuming that these employees make minimum wage, each one will receive gross pay of $15,080 for a year of 40-hour weeks. Figured for all 87,000 new IRS workers, that comes to an additional $1,311,960,000 per year. Most likely, they will make a bit more than the minimum wage, and probably at least double that figure. And that is only the wage cost of the new employees, not including office space and the needed equipment, etc.

Supposedly, this process will find additional income to be reported and taxed. But what it also does is increase the size and cost of government, and increase the weight of government on the shoulders of those who pay the salaries of Joe Biden, and everyone else who is employed by the federal government.

None of this represents the government that our Founders designed.