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By Ramzy Baroud
Mainstream US media continues to rejoice the supposed energy of the US financial system. Nearly each day, headlines converse of hopeful numbers, sustainable progress, optimistic developments and fixed beneficial properties. The truth on the bottom, nonetheless, tells of one thing fully totally different, which raises the questions: Are People being lied to? And for what function?
“US Economic system Grew 1.7% in Fourth Quarter, Capping a Sturdy Yr,” The New York Instances reported. “US Economic system Grew 5.7% in 2021, Quickest Full-Yr Clip,” The Washington Submit added. Reuters, Voice of America, The Monetary Instances, CNN, Market Watch and lots of others all concurred. But when that’s the case, why then is US President Joe Biden’s approval score at an all-time low? And why are many People actually going hungry?
In a nationwide opinion ballot performed by Reuters/Ipsos and printed on February 3, solely 41% of US adults accredited of Biden’s efficiency in workplace. A whopping 56% disapproved. The numbers weren’t an entire shock because the downward trajectory of the Biden presidency has been in impact quickly after he moved to the White Home over a yr in the past.
The reality is, Biden was not the Democrats’ best choice nominee for president. Judging by numerous opinion polls and the early outcomes of the Democratic primaries in 2020, it was Bernie Sanders who represented the Democratic hope for actual, substantive change. Occasion politics, liberal media insistence that Sanders was not ‘electable’ and fear-mongering relating to a second Trump time period in workplace pushed Biden by way of the ranks of nominees to be introduced as America’s solely hope for salvation.
Whereas Republicans stay dedicated to the Donald Trump legacy and are nonetheless largely politically and ideologically united, Democrats are growingly unconfident of their management and unsure relating to the way forward for their democracy, governance and financial system. In fact, they’re innocent in holding such views.
Whereas the Democratic management continues to obsess with its worry of Trump, and whereas liberal media insists that the US financial system is as wholesome as it may be, the typical American continues to wrestle towards encroaching poverty, inflation and lack of future prospects.
Listed below are some sobering numbers: 56% of all People can’t produce a meager $1,000 as an emergency expense from their present financial savings, CNBC reported; 1 in 10 US adults have gone hungry final December because of poverty, Forbes.com reported; Columbia College Middle on Poverty and Social Coverage revealed that little one poverty fee within the US stands at 17%, “one of many highest amongst developed international locations”.
If American employees are studied individually from the bigger inhabitants, the numbers are much more grim: three quarters of American employees stated that “it was very or considerably tough to make finish’s meet,” in accordance with a research performed by Shift Undertaking, and reported in NBC Information on-line. 40% of the polled employees stated that they aren’t in a position to provide you with $400 in emergency cash. However probably the most stunning of all, in accordance with the identical research, is that “round 20% stated that they went hungry as a result of they couldn’t afford sufficient to eat”.
Except for occasional authorities handouts, which have been supplied by each the Trump and Biden administrations, little has been accomplished by means of structural adjustments to the US financial system that may guarantee higher equality amongst all sectors of society. As an alternative, the administration’s priorities appear to be allotted to one thing else fully.
Writing in Politico, David Siders describes the present political discourse inside Democratic Occasion circles, the place “Democrats are dropping their minds over 2024”. For the reason that Democratic President’s public approval scores are “dismal”, Democrats worry the return of Trump. “All anybody can discuss is Trump —donors, coverage people, occasion insiders, the media,” Siders quoted a Democratic advisor as saying. The identical advisor described “a bizarre cycle” the place the “dialog retains coming again to Trump”.
Whether or not acutely aware of this obsession or not, the Biden administration appears to function fully in accordance with a political technique that’s predicated on tarnishing Trump and his supporters, retelling, over and over, the story of the January 6 revolt, hoping for a Republican break up or every other miracle that may bolster their probabilities of sustaining their Congressional majority within the subsequent November mid-term elections.
Whereas doing so, the Democratic management appears oblivious to the tough actuality on the bottom, the place meals costs are skyrocketing and the place inflation has reached insufferable ranges. In accordance with new information, launched on February 10 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US client value index (CPI) rose by 7.5% in January in comparison with the identical month a yr in the past, making it the “quickest annual tempo since 1982,” the Monetary Instances reported.
The rise in inflation shouldn’t be a one-time-off occasion, as CPI has been rising at a sustainable degree of 0.6 % on a month-to-month foundation. Unusual individuals can really feel this enhance nearly each time they buy groceries. Small enterprise house owners, particularly eating places, bakeries and grocery shops, are left with one out of two choices: both rising their costs or shutting down utterly. Consequently, massive segments of the already weak US inhabitants are rising extra determined than ever.
To keep away from offering actual solutions to tough questions in regards to the welfare of thousands and thousands of People, about the actual perform of their democratic establishments and about present corruption inside the US political system – no matter who controls the Congress or resides within the White Home – Democrats and their media are both blaming their Republican rivals or creating international coverage distractions. They proceed to talk of a ‘China risk’ and an ‘imminent’ Russian invasion of Ukraine and such, whereas the actual risk is that of indifferent politicians who’re amassing wealth, combating for energy and status whereas their countrymen and ladies proceed to go hungry.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He’s the creator of six books. His newest ebook, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Imaginative and prescient for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Converse out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Analysis Fellow on the Middle for Islam and International Affairs (CIGA). His web site is www.ramzybaroud.internet
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