As with my last post, this is something I have said before that needs to be said again: Just because Donald Trump was not a good president (how’s that for understatement) and would be even worse in a second term (see, inter alia, here and here), that does not mean Joe Biden is doing a good job. He’s not. In President Biden’s case, I am not talking about his character (though some have done so). I am talking about his policies. Here is a short list of some of them (there are more):
- While supply chain disruptions from Vladimir Putin’s renewed invasion of Ukraine may have added to inflation, our inflation started long before Putin’s invasion. It was a result of the huge Covid stimulus package in 2021 that we did not need. The stimulus package in 2020 was necessary. The one in 2021 was not. All that money had a big role in the inflation that followed. Some may say that people needed the money, but people always want free money from the government.
- While President Biden is doing pretty good on Ukraine, he could be doing better. His approach to supplying Ukraine with weapons seems to be no-no-no-yes. As I have said before (here and here), we should send the Ukrainians what they need to win this war and we should do it now. Let’s get this thing over sooner rather than later. That is the best way to stop the killing.
- I think President Biden’s “foreign policy for the middle class,” instead of a foreign policy for all Americans, is a bad idea. See my comments here.
- Some people might like the way he is trying to expand the president’s power – on the grounds that what he is doing is “good”. But it is going to be a terrible precedent when the other side gets into office, especially if the other side is former President Trump. Every recent president has pushed the limits of presidential power further than his predecessor. President Biden is no exception.
- He is continuing former President Trump’s protectionist policies. The MSM, in ripping on former President Trump, complain that former President Trump abandoned our allies by leaving the Trans Pacific Partnership his first day in office. What they don’t say is that President Biden has not gone back into the TPP (now the CPTPP1). His proposals for economic cooperation in the Pacific offer virtually nothing in terms of trade with the United States, a terrible idea. (Once again, see my comments on President Biden’s “foreign policy for the middle class” here.)
- Domestically, President Biden is all in for “industrial policy.” President Biden and his people believe that “government knows best” when it comes to running the economy: what to invest in, etc. I don’t. Yes, the market needs reasonable rules and appropriate guardrails. No, the government does not know enough to run our economy.
- President Biden thinks subsidies are the best way to solve climate change. They aren’t. President Biden’s regulations, subsidies, and other government rules will cost more and accomplish less than market-based policies that provide incentives to people and companies to cut carbon.
While some might say President Biden is staying in the middle of the Democratic Party, the middle of the Democratic Party has moved sharply to the left and will continue to go further left. That is not something I can vote for. I understand some people think that you have to vote for President Biden because a second Trump term would be so bad. I agree that a second term for former President Trump would be terrible. It’s just that President Biden’s policies are so bad, I cannot vote for him, either.
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1 The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Tran-Pacific Partnership.
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