One of the few areas that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been able to crow about since they took office has been employment. Even as inflation has soared with prices up 20% and real incomes down by $2,100 per family on their watch, hiring has been strong and unemployment low - until recently.
But now we learn that much of this was a statistical illusion. The new re-estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics find that the agency overcounted some 800,000 jobs. Over the last year, employment was nearly 30% lower than originally announced. Oops.
It gets worse. The original headline numbers released each month have been revised DOWNWARD by another 300,000 in subsequent months. Add it all together and we have 1.1 million fewer Americans working than originally announced.
Either the Labor Department has been manipulating the numbers (which we think is unlikely), or the agency under Biden is incompetent in counting. Either way, there should be an investigation.
Oh and by the way, the new revisions also reveal that the private sector jobs that matter most - business services, construction, manufacturing, finance - were lower than originally announced, while the jobs in government-related activities were revised UPWARD.
More evidence that we keep adding jobs where we don't want them and shedding jobs where they are most needed.
This latest headline from the Free Beacon demonstrates the ongoing failure of the Biden-Harris electric vehicle "transition":
Ford Motor Company announced Wednesday that it is canceling plans to develop an all-electric three-row SUV amid slowing consumer demand, despite the billions of dollars in tax incentives and direct subsidies the automaker has received to scale up EV production...
Overall, the federal government and State of Michigan have collectively promised roughly $10 billion in taxpayer funds to support Ford's unprofitable EV plans. And the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-Harris administration's crowning climate achievement, set aside billions of dollars for domestic EV and EV battery manufacturing and tax credits designed to incentivize greater EV adoption.
The Biden-Harris EPA mandate is that 32% of all vehicle sales in model year 2027 must be plugin-electric vehicles. That is only two years away, and it rises steeply after that.
It's presently stalled out at less than 10%.
If these rules stay on the books we are looking at a total collapse of the US auto market.
3) The Left Has Controlled the White House for 12 of the Past 16 Years - But Blame Trump for the Economic Crisis
Our quote of the day from Scott Jennings on CNN:
She [Kamala] is in the White House right now. Democrats have controlled the White House for 12 of the last 16 years. And for all of the talk about division and the problems in the country and people are hurting, Democrats have mostly controlled this country.
Trump had it for four. The Obamas and Biden had it for the rest of the time. And somehow it's still all Trump's fault, and somehow she hasn't been at the center of it...
How do you explain all of the problems that will be solved by the person who is currently in there for the last three and a half years who is supposed to already be working on solving it?
It's a fun video to watch as the four stunned liberals stare at Jennings with dropped jaws and open mouths - and no response.
4) The Left's Next Big Regulatory Target: Farmers and Ranchers
Don't be surprised if Kamala Harris uses her acceptance speech tonight to embrace a federal tax on methane emissions from oil and gas operations.
The Green New Deal bill passed by Congress in 2022 (with Vice President Harris casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate) is scheduled to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030.
By the way, methane is not a conventional pollution. No one gets sick from methane as might happen with particulates from lead or sulfur or carbon monoxide.
The methane regs are part of the left's lunatic war on natural gas - because gas is clean and efficient and cheap. But methane is also emitted by cows and livestock.
This raises the question of whether burgers and steaks will be outlawed under a Kamala Harris administration.
Don't laugh. The biggest defense of the Green New Deal at the DNC this week came from Biden-Harris wingman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. In 2019 AOC sanctimoniously lectured: "Maybe we shouldn't be eating a hamburger for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Like, let's keep it real. We have to take a look at everything."
5) Do You Want Free Market Capitalism or Socialism?
Speaking of the Dems whose convention this week has been a four day ode to all the virtues of a big and intrusive government, we thought we'd take a look at the latest NASA satellite photos of the Korean Peninsula. It was 70 years ago that North Korea went comminist and South Korea went to free market capitalism. The only light on in dark North Korea is Kim Jong Un's castle.
We would hesitate to show this to AOC: she'd probably celebrate North Korea for doing its part to combat global warming.
Which country do you suppose has the superior economic system?
