Making Matters Worse: Joe Biden’s Biggest Misses from his April Address to Congress

Joe Biden is giving his first State of the Union address, but it is the second time he has addressed the nation from inside the House chamber. In his first address last April, Biden made proclamations about the year ahead that have come nowhere near true. 

In fact, some of the challenges that Biden discussed addressing have worsened under his watch.

The New York Times: “A Key Inflation Metric Is Still Rising. War In Ukraine Could Make It Worse.”

“A measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve watches closely accelerated again in January, hitting a new 40-year high and speeding up on a monthly basis as food and energy prices climbed sharply.

“The Personal Consumption Expenditures index, which the Fed targets as it aims for 2 percent annual inflation on average over time, rose 6.1 percent over the past year, the fastest pace of increase since 1982. Prices climbed 0.6 percent in January from December, up from 0.4 percent the prior month.”

New York Post: “220,000 Illegal Immigrants Have Evaded Border Patrol Since October” 

“The source said that there are approximately 220,000 known “gotaways”, meaning those who get past Border Patrol when coming across the border. That number is separate from encounters, in which Border Patrol has either caught the migrant or the migrant has turned themselves in.

“Known gotaways are those who have been spotted on cameras and sensors etc., but Border Patrol does not have the manpower to get to. It is harder for officials to estimate the number of “gotaways” who have avoided detection altogether — meaning the number of actual gotaways is likely much higher.

“That 220,000 come during the traditionally slower months at the border, meaning those numbers, along with the number of those encountered, are likely to ramp up significantly as the spring and summer months approach.”

February 27, 2022 Philadelphia Inquirer Headline: Utility bills are soaring in the Philly region and so is customer outrage (Philadelphia Inquirer)

“The price has indeed gone up: A typical Peco customer who used 150 hundred cubic feet (ccf) of gas was billed $171.25 in January, up 38% or $46.90 from January 2021, according to PUC data. A Philadelphia Gas Works customer who used the same amount of gas was billed $261.71 in January, up 17% or $37.91 from a year ago.

“Electricity bills also went up in Pennsylvania on Dec. 1, though not as much as gas bills.

“The reason your utility bill has increased is pretty straightforward: Energy prices are up across the world. You see it at the gas pump. Residents with furnaces that use heating oil or propane are experiencing it. And natural gas prices, which set the market rate for electricity, have doubled in the last year.”

CNN: Biden’s Public Advocacy On The Opioid Crisis Fell To The “Wayside

“On the campaign trail, Biden presented a comprehensive plan to address the opioid epidemic, but his public advocacy on the issue has largely fallen by the wayside as he focuses his presidency on his legislative agenda and the coronavirus pandemic. Now, more than halfway through Biden’s first year in office, as National Recovery Month comes to a close, his administration is facing calls to do more to stave off the crisis.”

CNBC: Drug overdoses are costing the U.S. economy $1 trillion a year, government report estimates

“Fatal opioid overdoses are thought to be costing the U.S. economy $1 trillion each year, government officials have said.

“In a report published Tuesday by the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking, it was revealed that synthetic opioids — primarily fentanyl — were responsible for almost two in three reported drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in the year to June 2021.

“More than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses during that period, an increase of 30% from a year earlier, it said. And overdoses have been responsible for more than 1 million deaths in the U.S. since 1999, according to the report — that’s more than double the number caused by firearms or car accidents.”

New York Post: “US Border Officials Made A Record 1.9 Million Arrests Along The Southern Border In 2021, New Data Reveals.” 

“US Border officials made a record 1.9 million arrests along the southern border in 2021, new data reveals.

“The numbers, whose release stemmed from a lawsuit against the Biden administration filed by the GOP attorneys general in Missouri and Texas, revealed that just over 20 percent of those arrested, or 402,000, were released into the US for further processing or asylum hearings.”

New York Post: Kamala Harris not fit to handle border crisis, Arizona sheriff says

Vice President Kamala Harris is “not the right person for the job” to handle the US border crisis, an Arizona sheriff said Wednesday, as he blasted her for still refusing to visit the crossing months after she was tapped as border czar.

Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, whose turf sits about 200 miles north of the Mexican border, said during an interview on “Fox & Friends” that Harris hasn’t taken the crisis seriously enough.

“She keeps proving time and time again why she’s not the right person for the job,” Lamb said. “This isn’t an important issue for her.”

ABC News: How Sky-High Inflation Is Evaporating Americans’ Savings, Imposing ‘Cruelest Tax’ On The Poor

“For Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck, the impacts of inflation can be even more devastating. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned lawmakers on Tuesday that high inflation takes a toll “particularly for those less able to meet the higher costs of essentials,” such as food, housing and transportation.

“‘People sometimes talk about inflation being kind of ‘the cruelest tax’ that really hurts poor people disproportionately, and I can see that certainly to be the case,’ Spatt told ABC News.”

Penn Wharton Budget Model: Impact of Inflation by Household Income

“We estimate that inflation in 2021 will require the average U.S. household to spend around $3,500 more in 2021 to achieve the same level of consumption of goods and services as in recent previous years (2019 or 2020). 

“Moreover, we estimate that lower-income households spend more of their budget on goods and services that have been more impacted by inflation. Lower-income households will have to spend about 7 percent more while higher-income households will have to spend about 6 percent more.”