Op-Ed: 130 Years Ago a President Brought Economic Disaster to US, Now Look What Biden's Doing
“There has never been a time in our history when work was so abundant, or when wages were as high.”
No, that wasn’t President Joe Biden in this week’s White House address celebrating his economic “success” while the stock market plunged dramatically.
It was the outgoing President Benjamin Harrison in his final boast to Congress back in January 1893.
It is said that history repeats itself. Sadly, presidents and political parties more than a century apart can make the same mistakes.
Anyone remember the 1890 midterms?
Way back in 1890, the people of the United States were coming up to critically contested midterm elections, similar to our own midterms this November.
With the narrowest of victories in the 1888 election, the Republican Party had come to power. The Democratic Party’s contender, sitting President Grover Cleveland, had won the vote count by more than 100,000 votes. But it was Harrison who won the election through some slick ballot chicanery in New York and Indiana, giving him the win in the Electoral College.
One would have thought that, with such a dubious and slender victory, there was no clear mandate for Harrison to go full-speed ahead with extravagant spending policies that would wreck the economy. But that’s just what he did.
Not unlike our own president.
Two years was all it took…
By the 1890 midterms, Harrison had emptied the U.S. treasury.
What the Democrats dubbed his “Billion-Dollar Congress” had squandered an actual surplus and put the country into massive debt. He had indulged in grotesque pork barrelling for certain wealthy elites. His Silver Purchase Act was patently designed to cause inflation so that farmers and others who had accumulated huge debts could pay them off more easily with cheaper dollars. His Tariff Act then levied almost 50 percent tariffs on imported goods.
With reckless policies like these, it was no surprise that in the midterm elections, many Republicans were turfed out and the Democrats regained a large majority in Congress. Further mega-spending and taxing bills were thwarted.
But it was too late.
The rest is history.
Regrettably, by the time Cleveland was re-elected in 1892, irreparable damage to the economy had been done. The Democrats tried their hardest to make things right. But to no avail. The U.S. slipped into a disastrous economic depression.
That was 130 years ago. But right here and now in 2022, we need to ask ourselves this question: Is the nation threatening to sink once again into just such a depression?
Different president, different party — but much the same mistake.
Again, two years was all it took…
In less than two years, the Biden administration has wrecked our energy independence, inflicted the highest inflation rate in 40 years, and tolerated and failed to curb crime rates now out of control in dysfunctional cities across the nation.
Biden has opened the southern border to an unchecked influx of illegal immigrants and to rampant child trafficking and drug smuggling. Fentanyl, much of which is manufactured in China, is now the leading cause of death in the U.S. among adults aged 18 to 45.
No shortage of fentanyl. But, ironically, plenty of shortages of essentials for ordinary families, sending living costs soaring. Transport costs are rocketing grocery prices to nearly double the current 8.3 percent inflation rate. (Inflation under President Donald Trump was 1.4 percent.)
Supply-side shortages have severely damaged manufacturing and industry across all states. Gross mismanagement of COVID with its extensive and costly shutdown of workplaces and schools has exacerbated the rush towards economic and social disaster.
Biden’s self-congratulatory speech — a masterpiece of delusion
Biden tried desperately on the White House lawn on Tuesday to act the part of a responsible leader who was bringing everything beautifully right with the passage of the “Inflation Reduction Act.”
But it was all an act — all bluster and blithering. What was presented as grandiose achievement and benevolence is actually an utterly irresponsible spending spree.
There can be no doubt that the Biden administration has overspent.
It has pushed through an epic spendathon of sprawling mega-bills with deceptive, highfalutin names like the Inflation Reduction Act, which comes in at $740 billion. The $550 billion Critical Infrastructure Act was hailed as a triumph but is already being compromised, with projects canceled or delayed as costs balloon with record inflation.
All of this and more remains unpaid for. It’s simply added to the nation’s $30 trillion debt.
Yes, that’s $30,000,000,000,000. All those zeros spell big trouble for ordinary Americans and their families.
Is it too late to stop the damage?
A few immediate measures can be taken to remove Biden’s barriers to natural gas projects and regain energy independence so that the costs for American families to heat and power their homes and small businesses become affordable again.
But how do you cut spending in a world that is hell-bent on eliminating carbon emissions?
All the costs and hardships endured by American families with the false promise of saving the world from climate change are for naught while China is building new coal plants and funding massive military expansion.
Ordinary families are being priced out of home ownership as inflation and rising interest rates take their toll. Home rentals are rising.
The real cost of the Biden administration’s incompetence is beyond any simple calculation.
Never too late
The history of the depression in the 1890s should warn us that if the Republicans take control of Congress and try to slow down the Democrats’ humungous spending too quickly, there will be immediate danger of triggering a spectacular crash over a fiscal cliff into another depression.
Reversing the mega-spending must be gradual. Economic recovery must be carefully measured. Frankly, Biden and the Democrats are not up to the task.
It’s time to restore American economic wisdom and know-how. It’s time to vote for policy prudence and fiscal responsibility.
It is up to all ordinary, sensible Americans to get out and vote to restore security and prosperity for their families and their country.
For all the hurting but undefeated in our communities, for all the good-hearted and honest men and women working hard for their children right across the United States of America, let’s bring this right in the midterms and beyond.
And may God bless America once more!
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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