PATHETIC!
I talked with a homeless man this morning and asked him how he ended up this way.
He said, “Up until last week, I still had it all.
I had plenty to eat, my clothes were washed and pressed,
I had a roof over my head,
I had HDTV and Internet, and I went to the gym, the pool, and the library.
I was working on my MBA on-line.
I had no bills and no debt.
I even had full medical benefits coverage.
I felt sorry for him, so I asked, “What happened? Drugs? Alcohol? Divorce?
Oh no, nothing like that,” he said. “
“Because of Coronavirus, I was unexpectedly paroled.”
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The Ross Rant January
We now hear that Goldman and a former FOMC member forecast 4 rate hikes in 2022. I retain my view that they might raise by 50BP in October and one more 25BP in December as they are already behind the curve by a lot. Two 25 BP raises in the first half of the year will do nothing to catch them up. Four 25BP hikes over the year will also do nothing. That implies a 2.75% -3.0% ten year by year end. Not enough. They need to raise, reverse QE, and use the open market desk to begin to reduce money supply, and possibly even raise the rate they pay for bank deposits so they begin to reduce the massive liquidity in the system and slow things down. Liquidating some of the portfolio might have the same impact as raising rates, so if they do both then maybe by 2023 there will be some minor impact. If they do all these things then the stock market will decline. Given who they are nominating for the Fed it will be politicized and there will likely not be enough raises as they try to keep the economy pumped up for the November election. This is another example of what the House of Lords study warned against can happen to central banks.
Corporations have $3.8 trillion of cash on their balance sheets. That is nice for the sake of a lot of safety with flush companies, but it also portends a lot of cash coming out in the form of dividends and buybacks which could further stoke consumer spending and inflation. While you might say great for stock prices to have that happen, but in the end it is inflation that can kill the market. Some of the cash will undoubtedly be used to upgrade technology to deal with the labor shortage. One mantra I keep harping on. In these times it is always best to invest in companies with very strong balance sheets and lots of cash liquidity, and with pricing power, to get the safety in a downturn, and the bigger dividends. The big tech growth companies will survive well, just as they did in the shutdown. They may suffer stock declines for a while as rates go up and stock prices get hit again, as they just did, based on a rise in rates, but in the end they are where you want to be, if not in cash. The hot IPO stocks, and SPACs is not where you want to be now. Positive cash flow will matter a lot as the year progresses. I don't buy the analyst argument that software companies have seen their best growth. I think the strong growth is yet to come as labor stays short and as wages rise too much.
Inflation will slow as the year progresses, and as Covid gets under control and recedes. However, recedes is not the same as return to 2%. At some point the inflation rate will come down. But down to 5%, or even 4%, is still too much inflation. It is unlikely to return to the 2% level until sometime in 2023, and it might take a recession to get there. It will mean the ten year will rise to over 3% at some point in early 2023 if we do not have a recession. Wages will not decline, rents will remain high into 2023, energy prices will remain high unless Biden releases oil to be drilled and transported by pipe. The real question is, will inflation last so long on basics that consumers have to spend too much on day to day expenses that they do not have enough left over to maintain a robust growth economy.
The Fed is in a bind now. If they raise as they need to, they risk unemployment not falling further, but that is better than continued high inflation which in the end will lead to even more unemployment when things turn to recession due to inflation. With Brainard as vice chair and with 3 nominated left wing members of the FMOC about to be appointed, it is unlikely the Fed will be as hawkish as they need to be, and it is unlikely they will do the things that will tamp inflation. Joe Manchin saved us from economic crisis if BBB had passed. We will have continued inflation problems for many more months no matter what the Fed does in the short run. Wages are now going up too fast, the supply chain issues remain bad and will take more months to fix. There are still over 100 ships backed up in the Pacific. Store shelves are empty in some aisles. When I went to Publix this week there were empty shelves in every aisle and Publix has a very strong logistics system. There are still nowhere near enough truckers or warehouse workers. Ports in China still face shut down in a few places due to Covid outbreaks. If you own bonds you are in for more losses. If you own the hot stocks of young companies with unproven markets and not enough cash, you will lose. It is time to hunker down with safe big companies where costs can easily be passed on, and where margins and net cash flow are huge like APPL. Cathy Woods is going to crash and burn. Rents are skyrocketing in many markets, and the young and lower income workers are more likely to be renters. They are getting badly squeezed. Expect some left wing cities to copy the disastrous policies of NYC and implement rent control. That is a guaranteed way to stop new supply, and to bring about deferred maintenance. Price controls of any kind distort markets.
While the unemployment rate may appear low, it is misleading. The labor participation rate is much too low, and so that creates a unemployment rate that appears low. We remain 4 million jobs less than in 2019. That is a big problem because it means wages will continue to rise at a high rate due to continuing labor shortages, and so inflation will continue to be too high. Biden claiming he created more jobs than anyone just exposes his stupidity and BS. Real wages are now 2-3% negative. Possibly even worse for low wage workers who often are renters and not home owners. A lot of people retired because they have a lot of unexpected equity in their home and 401K plan. It is very possible stock prices will decline further this year and that stock values might decline 20%, and those 401 K people will not know how to get out early, nor to deal with that. As rates rise more quickly, and as house prices rise further, it is very possible house prices will then decline late this year. Then all of those retirees will have a dilemma, and they will stop spending. Jamie Dimon is right that consumers have never in history been in better financial shape as they now are with low debt, historically high savings, and home equity. But if inflation remains very high into late summer, those same consumers very likely will have pulled back as their 401K loses value and as the value of their home possibly could start to decline with higher rates. Especially retirees. Renters will find just paying rent is eating their discretionary income. All that savings now in the hands of consumers will make it far easier to get through, and if there is a recession, it will be shorter and consumers will be in much better shape than in past recessions, but we could go through a period of several months or longer when consumers hunker down as inflation rises.
Now the SEC is going to try to force private companies with large values to report like they are public even though the investors are sophisticated funds and institutions, not individuals. The funds may have numerous individuals inside them, but the people doing the investing are the fund managers, and so the issue of small investors being defrauded is eliminated. While fund managers are sometimes fooled, the whole point is, individuals give money to these funds to invest because they have a sophisticated fund manager representing them. This is another gross example of vast over reach of the left wing trying to get control over everything , and thinking they know better. If the SEC tries to do this there will be massive lawsuits to stop it. This is why we need to Take Back America and stop this concentration of power in DC.
Based on information from medical sources, it appears Omicron might be the end of massive infections, and maybe life can start to return to normal in February. It appears it provides immunity against Delta and possibly against other variants. From then on it will be like flu. We just live with it. The other important news is there are a variety of over the counter and generics that treat Omicron successfully for most people. The issue is the big pharma companies do not make any money off these drugs and so FDA does not push them. The handling of the whole Covid situation has become corrupted and politicized. CDC and FDA have become so politicized they have lost all credibility. CDC is run by a diversity head instead of by a truly qualified agency expert. We are seeing, and all paying the price of what happens when you hire and promote based on diversity instead of merit. If the objective medical experts are correct, we are nearing the end of Covid as a crisis, and the whole fear mongering by Fauci and the press needs to be ended. Summer season will be back to being free and travel will boom.
The teachers union needs to be sued, and put out of business. They are destroying kids lives and wrecking the future of the country by wrecking the education system. Lightfoot should just fire the teachers and open hiring and stop this disgrace. It is the minority kids who are already denied the best education they need due to union rules that keep dedicated teachers from taking the extra time to mentor and help these kids from homes where education is not promoted. Instead of lowering standards and cutting out AP, schools should punish and fire teachers who do not turn out successful kids. The teachers unions just force the school to keep them on payroll. Instead of lowering standards, schools need to develop programs that make up for the lack of education culture in many black homes and communities. Asian kids come from very poor homes of immigrants, but they excel. It is all about culture, and being tough on crime to make the kids safe. The left has it all backwards, and are doing irreversible damage to the black communities. Where is all the cash allocated for schools to fix themselves for Covid. We will find billions got siphoned off and wasted.
The real issue of the Covid mandates is not Covid, it is what are the limits of what the federal agencies can mandate us to do without Congressional legislation. If they can mandate vaccinations, what else can they mandate in the name of health etc. You must drive an EV by 2030? You must put solar panels on your roof. There can be no end to the left declaring a health and safety emergency due to climate change, and then issuing new mandates with no legal authority. This is a key decision by the court which has enormous ramifications with a radical oriented administration, and a set of agency heads who are chosen for their diversity and left wing politics. After hearing Sotomayor make statements that were plainly false, one must wonder what has happened to SCOTUS where such statements get made by a justice. Another example of choices made on the basis of diversity vs merit. One wonders what research her clerks do if they got this so wrong on something that is widely public information. The vote of the liberals was based on politics and not staying with what is the law. They decided to be medical experts and political instead of just deciding what is the legal question at the bar. The Covid mandates have caused the real healthcare crisis which is severe staff shortages at hospitals. That should have been the argument before the court. It has also caused shortages of drivers and other workers key to growing the economy. Since getting shots does not apparently stop spread, the whole idea of firing people who don't get shots is based on a false premise and fear mongering from the White House and press.
Biden's comments about people who are against his voting bill were not just disgusting, but also divisive, and a clear sign of desperation by the White House. I do not think Manchin is going to cave, nor will Sinema. McConnell was great in his response. Biden sounded just like Trump in his attack, only worse. Trump attacked individuals. Biden attacked the majority of the country. The bill is dead now, and Biden and Schumer and the MSM will attack Republicans, Sinema and Manchin mercilessly with totally false charges. Dems do not have a majority in the Senate even with Manchin, and they also have no proof there is a problem with voting having just attacked Trump for his claiming there was. So if Trump falsely claims there is a problem with voting, they say there is no problem and Trump made false claims, but when they try to pass a bill that would set up real problems, they say there is a massive problem that needs fixing. Hypocrisy knows no limits in DC
A recall effort is already begun to get rid of the new Manhattan DA since he says he will not prosecute any but extreme violence offenses. People with a functioning brain realize the city will be destroyed if he is allowed to go on. There were three carjackings in Midtown Manhattan in mid-day this week. Unfortunately Adams has not spoken out against him, and has actually said he is a good prosecutor. Adams has already proven himself to be DeBozzo II. All of this is terrible for NYC.
Take Back America
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This is story about our friends who started a bakery. Dan, unfortunately, got cancer at at early age and has fought it for decades. They make a delicious product and have been good to those in their little neighborhood and now they have reaped what they sowed as Dan is now in Hospice. Americans, by and large, are good people and yes we have made mistakes but you never hear the other side of the ledger and the progress we have made to overcome them. This is why the national media is no longer trusted and deservedly so:
Mother nature, like Hillary, can be a bitch:
Five Reason You Should Not Deliberately Catch Omicron To Get It Over With
By Sandee LaMotte (CNN)
(CNN)The question hung in the air like a bad odor, silencing the small group of fully vaccinated and boosted friends and family at my dinner table.
"Why not just get Omicron and get it over with? It's mild, right? And it can boost immunity?"
The fully vaccinated, boosted, well-educated friend who asked was sincere, echoing opinions heard on many social platforms.
The idea of intentionally trying to catch Omicron is "all the rage," said Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, with an exasperated sigh.
"It's caught on like wildfire," agreed Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
"And it's widespread, coming from all types of people, the vaccinated and boosted and the anti-vaxxers," he added, with a warning. "You'd be crazy to try to get infected with this. It's like playing with dynamite."
In case the thought had crossed your mind, here are five reasons why you should not purposely try to catch Omicron
1. It's not a 'bad cold'
Significant fever, body aches, swollen lymph nodes, sore throats and heavy congestion are often reported even in milder cases of Omicron variant, Murphy said, leaving people debilitated for days.
"People are talking about Omicron like it's a bad cold. It is not a bad cold," Murphy said. "It's a life-threatening disease."
A recent study of over a million people published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the risk of a severe outcome from Covid-19 was higher in vaccinated people who were 65 or older, people with weakened immune systems, or people who had at least one of the following health conditions: diabetes or chronic kidney, cardiac, pulmonary, neurologic or liver disease.
'Mild' Covid-19 doesn't always feel that way
However, even people without any underlying health conditions can get severely ill, Murphy said. "I have a vaccinated, boosted patient right now -- over 65 with no underlying risk factors — who is in the hospital and doing poorly."
It is true that if you catch the Omicron variant of Covid-19, as opposed to the Delta variant, "you're less likely to be hospitalized, less likely to go to the ICU (intensive care unit), less likely to be put on a mechanical ventilator and less likely to die -- and that's true of all age groups," Offit said.
"But that doesn't mean that it can't be a severe illness," Offit added. "It's just less severe. But you don't have a 0% chance of dying. You should never want to get infected."
2. You could get long Covid
Losing your sense of smell (and therefore your sense of taste) has become a more common symptom in mild cases of Covid-19. Studies show some 80% of people recover the ability within a month or so, but others still can't smell or taste after six months or more. An unfortunate few may never regain those two senses.
As unpleasant as that may be, it's only one of a number of health concerns that can last and last after a case of Covid-19. Called "long Covid," the phenomenon is characterized by such debilitating symptoms as shortness of breath, severe fatigue, fever, dizziness, brain fog, diarrhea, heart palpitations, muscle and abdominal pain, mood changes and sleep difficulties.
Severe forms of long Covid can damage lungs, heart and kidneys, as well as your mental health and may qualify as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal statutes.
"We're still trying to understand long Covid," Offit said. "Because we don't understand it, I wouldn't be so quick to want to get an infection from a natural virus.
"A natural virus is always called the wild type virus, and there's a good reason for that: It's out of control," Offit said. "Don't ever risk catching an infection from a natural virus."
3. You're spreading the disease to children
Just over half (54%) of children between the ages of 12 and 17 eligible for Covid-19 vaccines have been fully vaccinated. Only 23% of children between ages 5 and 11 have received their first dose, according to the CDC.
Because booster doses -- considered a key warrior in the fight against Omicron --were just approved by the CDC for children as young as 12 last week, few children have received that third shot.
That means any risky behavior that might expose you to Omicron, such as not wearing a mask, not following social distancing guidelines, or gathering with crowds, especially indoors, will potentially expose others who may then carry the virus to their children.
Data from the American Academy of Pediatrics shows an upward trend of infections in children, which far exceeds "the peak of past waves of the pandemic."
"For the week ending January 6th, over 580,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported," according to numbers released Monday by the AAP.
"This number is a 78% increase over the 325,000 added cases reported the week ending December 30th and an almost tripling of case counts from the two weeks prior," the AAP stated.
Covid-19 Infections in children have typically been mild so far in the pandemic, but the sheer magnitude of cases caused by the very contagious Omicron variant is sending children under age 18 to hospitals in record numbers, according to data from the CDC.
"I would say the best way to keep those children protected is to vaccinate them as they're eligible and surround them by siblings and parents who are vaccinated themselves," said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky in a Friday news conference.
4. You'll stress the health care system
By deliberately catching any variant of SARS-CoV-2, which is the official name of the novel coronavirus, "you're going to keep the pandemic going and stress the health care system," Murphy said.
Over the weekend, nearly a quarter of the more than 5,000 hospitals that report into the US Department of Health and Human Services said they were suffering a "critical staff shortage." That's a larger number than any other time during the pandemic, the data showed.
Staffing shortages are expected to grow even more as frontline health care workers are either infected or forced to quarantine after being exposed to Covid-19. The dearth of health care staff couldn't come at a worse time -- more than 138,000 Covid-19 patients were in US hospitals as of Saturday, according to HHS.
In addition, the HHS data found that ICUs across the country are more than 80% full, with almost 30% of the beds being used to treat Covid-19 patients. Elective surgeries are being cut, and health care officials are worried that the nation's health system won't be able to do its job.
"The health care system is not just designed to take care of people with Covid. It's designed to take care of kids with appendicitis and people who have heart attacks and get into car accidents," Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, told CNN on Sunday.
"And all of that is going to be much, much more difficult because we have a large proportion of the population that is not vaccinated, plenty of high-risk people who are not boosted," he added.
5. Don't mess with Mother Nature
Was it ever a good idea to catch a disease on purpose? Those of a certain age will recall when parents used to host "chicken-pox parties" to expose their young children to an infected child. Because cases of adult chicken pox are more severe, the idea was to have your child catch it early to "get it over with."
"Oh, that was a bad idea too," Offit said. He told a story about an educational film on vaccines he made years ago, and the cameraman revealed he had a sister who had taken her child to a chicken pox party. Tragically, the child died from the infection.
"Don't mess with Mother Nature," he said. "She's been trying to kill us ever since we crawled out of the ocean onto the land."
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Politicizing COVID-19 From the Start
By Victor Davis Hanson
Thousands of Americans have died needlessly because of weaponized disinformation about China’s culpability, vaccines, useful drugs, lockdowns, racial preferences, and long-term care facilities.
From the moment COVID-19 appeared, the pandemic became inseparable from politics.
Political frenzy was inevitable since the SARS-CoV-2 virus likely escaped from a level-4 security virology lab in Wuhan, China.
The rapid-fire spread soon threatened to indict the communist Chinese government for nearly destroying the world economy and killing millions.
Western elites, in response, feared that their own lucrative investments in China would be jeopardized by such disclosures—and so acted accordingly in defending Beijing.
Nonetheless, the most likely scenario remains that the escaped virus was birthed by gain-of-function research scientists—overseen by elements of the Chinese communist military. Worse, the lab was given subsidies by U.S. health authorities, routed through third parties. Hiding all of that damaging information warped government policy and media coverage.
Belatedly, a panicked China shut down all domestic travel in and out of Wuhan—but not flights abroad to Western Europe and the United States.
The rest is history.
From the outset, the World Health Organization simply spread false talking points about the outbreak from the Chinese government, delaying a robust global response.
Donald Trump’s political opponents initially told Americans to shop and travel as usual—only to pivot as cases mounted and they blamed the president.
The U.S. 2020 ban on travel from China was met with charges of racism and xenophobia from presidential candidates. Ironically, many were simply channeling racist and xenophobic China’s propaganda.
Many doctors kept hammering the need for therapeutics, including taboo off-label use of cheap generic drugs. The use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin was widely ridiculed—despite continuing studies from abroad attesting to their usefulness.
Trump’s Operation Warp Speed project to develop vaccinations was also pilloried. Candidates Kamala Harris and Joe Biden did their best to talk down the safety of the impending inoculations. But once in power, they projected their own prior harmful rhetoric onto so-called “anti-vaxxers.”
Then they claimed credit for the initial success of the Trump vaccinations.
The Pfizer corporation had promised a major pre-election announcement about its likely rollout of a vaccine in October, just days before the 2020 election.
Then, mysteriously, Pfizer claimed the vaccine, in fact, would not be ready before November 3. A few days after the election of Joe Biden, the company reversed course and announced the vaccinations would soon be available.
Then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo obstructed most all federal help with Trump’s fingerprints on it. That way Cuomo became a media, Emmy-winning darling—before resigning in disgrace.
Cuomo’s policies of steering infected patients into long-term-care facilities doomed over 10,000 of the elderly. New York is now illegally using race to grant preferences in the allotments of tests and new drugs.
The rhetoric of the media-progressive nexus that mandatory, massive lockdowns were necessary all but destroyed a booming Trump economy and denied critical medical care to millions. Emphasizing therapeutics, natural herd immunity, and the resilience of the youth to the disease were all pronounced “anti-science” by the demagogues on the Left.
Various celebrities and politicos—such as California Governor Gavin Newsom and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton—boasted the pandemic lockdown offered the perfect crisis that must not go to waste politically. Actress Jane Fonda even crowed that COVID-19 was a “gift from God to the Left” in helping to end Donald Trump.
In the waning days of the 2022 campaign, Biden went so far as to blame Trump personally for all the deaths from the virus.
Once the vaccinations had seemed to work in early 2021, an upbeat Joe Biden boasted that he would end the virus by summer 2021, by following “the science.” He went so far as to claim that no one had been vaccinated prior to his inauguration even though 17 million, including Joe Biden himself, had been.
Then Nemesis answered such hubris.
The unforeseen Delta and Omicron variants hit. A new phrase, “breakthrough case,” revealed that the vaccinations often could only prevent serious illness, but not infection or infectiousness.
Suddenly the best and brightest people with three shots, who had blasted the red-state rubes as the ignorant unvaxxed—got sick. More have now died from the virus on Biden’s than on Trump’s watch.
A warped economy amid renewed COVID-19 outbreaks helped to further destroy Biden’s waning popularity.
In reaction, the Left now calls for realism, emphasis on treatments, and acknowledgment of the value of natural immunities. It is even newly curious about the origins of the virus—and the need to “get back to normal.”
We are suddenly told that thousands had died “with” rather than “because” of COVID—the exact opposite of what we heard in the Trump era.
A skeptic might suggest terror over the impending midterms finally made the Left face reality.
Politicizing the pandemic is a euphemism. In truth, thousands of Americans have died needlessly because of weaponized disinformation about China’s culpability, vaccines, useful drugs, lockdowns, racial preferences, and long-term care facilities.
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Soros is an evil billionare who believes in a "global government" , he doesn't bother investing in Senators or Presidents, because he knows if he can create chaos in American cities, by getting DA's that will not enforce the law elected, he will do serious damage to our system of government -- and apparently since they are all Democrats they must agree with him.
Soros-backed Baltimore State’s Attorney GMarilyn Mosby indicted on 4 felonies
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Self explanatory:
12 Charts Explain Why President Biden's Ratings Are On Life Support
One-year anniversary report of President Biden's performance
As we approach the first anniversary of President Biden's inauguration, the IBD/TIPP Poll shows that Americans have lost faith in his ability to get things done. In both his handling of the pandemic and the economy, the President fails miserably.
Furthermore, his ambitious legislative agenda, driven by ultra-progressive aspirations, has crashed, with no hope of resuscitation.
Americans are also gobsmacked when an embattled President delivers a series of divisive speeches for which prominent Democrats are profusely apologizing.
The IBD/TIPP Presidential Leadership Index, a compact measure of the President's performance, slipped from 49.6 in December to 48.4 in January, a loss of 2.4%.
The Leadership Index by party reads:
- 77.6 for Democrats,
- 18.9 for Republicans, and
- 34.8 for Independents
The Leadership Index fell 1.8 points, or 4.9 percent, among independents, while it fell 4.8 points, or 5.8 percent, among Democrats. Republicans who were in the sub-20 levels at 14.3 in December increased by 4.6 points to 18.9, a 32.2 percent increase. The increase appears large due to the low base levels.
Presidential Leadership Index
Presidential job approval rating has been around since George Gallup introduced it in the late 1930s, and every pollster uses it.
On the other hand, TIPP went above and beyond two decades ago by innovating and developing the Presidential Leadership Index metric. Our Presidential Leadership Index considers three factors: favorability, job approval, and Presidential Leadership.
We compute the favorability component based on the survey question, "Overall, is your opinion of Joe Biden generally favorable, generally unfavorable, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?"
The basis for the index's job approval component is the question: In general, do you approve or disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as President, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?
The question, "How would you describe the leadership that Joe Biden is providing for the country?" forms the basis for the leadership component.
For the index and its components, a reading above 50.0 signals optimism, and below 50.0 indicates pessimism.
All three index components fell in January, but they are slightly better than their November lows.
- The Favorability component dropped by 2.9%, falling from 51.1 in December to 49.6 in January.
- The Approval component, a measure of how Joe Biden is handling his job as President, slipped 1.8%, from 50.1 in December to 49.2 this month.
- The Leadership component declined 2.5%, from 47.6 in December to 46.4 in January.
Comparison Of Presidents (2001-2022)
Our comparison of the first reading of a President's term in February after the inauguration and the 12th reading in January the following year reveals the following.
- Bush had the highest increase of 16.2 points in the aftermath of 9/11 during his first term.
- Obama had the biggest decline in his first term dropping from 71.0 to 50.8, a 28% drop over 11 months.
- Biden finishes slightly better than Obama with a 14.7 point or 23% decline.
- Trump declined 9.6 points or 20%.
- In their second term, Bush dropped 9.5 points or 18%, and Obama dropped 7.5 points or 15%.
Top Issues
The Coronavirus pandemic, economy, and immigration are the top three issues of concern for the 1,308 Americans who took part in our IBD/TIPP poll completed last week.
Now, let's assess President Biden's performance in these critical areas.
Handling The Coronavirus
The share of Americans who give him an A or B has fallen from 56% in April to 41% in January. 67% of Democrats give President Biden an A or B, while only 17% of Republicans and 31% of independents give him good grades.
Early December marked the start of the Omicron variant. Between our December and January polls, his ratings slid among Democrats, edged up among Republicans, and remained unchanged among independents.
President Biden's vaccine mandates have been divisive. Many Americans are quitting their jobs or facing layoffs because of the mandate, increasing the wage pressure and worsening inflation. On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court, by a 6-3 vote, blocked the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test mandate for large private companies.
Today, the death toll from the coronavirus in the United States stands at 845,577, with 424,395 deaths occurring under President Trump and 421,182 deaths occurring under President Biden. The number of lives lost under Biden could soon surpass those lost under Trump at the current death rate.
Handling of The Economy
President Biden is presiding over the worst inflation of the decade. In the IBD/TIPP Poll, 86% of Americans are concerned about inflation.
President Biden's handling of the economy gets good grades only from 34% of Americans.
When it comes to the American economy, he seems to be losing favor within his party. Among Democrats, the share who gives him a good grade has fallen from 82% in April to 60% in January. This month, 76% of Republicans and 54% of independents give him a D or F. Independents have also been disillusioned. They have ranged between 17% to 36% over the past nine months.
Handling Immigration
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported173,620 encounters in November 2021, 164,753 in October, and 192,001 encounters in September along the Southwest Border.
Our data analysis shows that between February and November 2021, the number of encounters under President Biden's watch was 1,776,609, compared to 437,198 and 822,930 during the same period in 2020 and 2019, respectively -- this represents a 306 percent increase over 2020 and a 116 percent increase over 2019.
President Biden gets good grades from only 28% on the immigration issue. 49% of Democrats give him a good grade. But,80% of Republicans and 52% of independents give him a D or F.
Overall Job Performance
Only 36% of those who took part in the survey give him good grades for his overall performance. 64% of Democrats give him good grades. On the other hand, 76% of Republicans and 53% of independents give him failing grades.
The share of Democrats who give him an A or B dropped from 80% in April to 64% in January, a 16-point drop, and the share of independents who give him good grades has declined from 39% in April to 21% in January, an eighteen point slide.
President Biden needs to can his current speechwriters and get new talent. His speech on Jan 6 and the recent speech in Georgia as he pushed voting rights legislation were copybook disasters. In her WSJ article, Peggy Noonan says, "The speech itself was aggressive, intemperate, not only offensive but meant to offend." Even Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said President Biden may have gone "a little too far" with his rhetoric.
President Biden's problems are further accentuated by the lack of an experienced team. For instance, he can't count on Vice President Harris for anything. She comes across as too green or just simply unwilling and lacking empathy. Her cackles are simply uncharacteristic of a leader of the nation. She failed miserably to address the immigration crisis.
President Biden's transportation secretary has also been ineffective in addressing shipping bottlenecks and supply chain problems.
Every time he testifies in Congress, Dr. Fauci insults the intelligence of Americans. He is argumentative and can't provide a simple definition of gain-of-function research. By repeatedly obfuscating, even curious high school sophomores are perplexed about this term of art and why he makes such a big deal about it. According to a recent TIPP Poll, 45 percent of Americans do not trust Dr. Fauci's advice on pandemic-related matters.
At this rate, President Biden is on track to trounce President Jimmy Carter as the worst modern President. If President Biden wants to change the situation, he must first restructure his team. The country urgently requires strong leadership.
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From Hoover Weekend Review;:
The Voting Rights Showdown
By Richard Epstein via Defining Ideas
Richard Epstein argues that the Democrats’ current series of voting legislation would, if passed, pose risks to America’s election integrity. He explains that the Freedom to Vote Act would invite extensive fraud by making it easier to cast illegal ballots. Meanwhile, Epstein maintains that the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 would implement the flimsiest of tests to justify federal preclearance and oversight of state voting laws and thus usher in a wave of abuse by lawyers, judges, and national political actors who would be unconstrained in making claims of discrimination.
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