As if Joe Biden’s poll numbers aren’t enough evidence of his declining popularity, even champions on his side of the aisle are lobbing criticisms at the President over his economic failures.
AOC Defies Democrat Claims
Speaking to union workers at a rally in Missouri on Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said the U.S. economy is in a “crisis,” seemingly contradicting Biden’s steadfast proclamations that Bidenomics is working.
“Our economy is in a special kind of crisis. Our whole economy is in a special kind of crisis,” the progressive lawmaker said to the workers of Union 22250 in Wentzville.
Disassociating herself from her cohorts in D.C., AOC stated, “Now if you ask a Washington insider or a Wall Street analyst, they will tell you, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“They’ll say, ‘Look at GDP. Look at the growth rate.’ They’ll say, ‘Look at job numbers. How are we in a crisis?’”
Bidenomics Failures
Despite sustained declarations of success, Bidenomics continues to burden the middle class. We can see it with our own eyes and feel it in our pocketbooks.
One commenter on a story on the Fox News website covering this issue said, “You can gas-light people on many topics but the economy isn’t one of them.”
This is true. I may not be the brightest lightbulb, but I am most certainly living the reality of an economy crippled by inflation. The words coming out of Biden’s mouth are a lie. No one is going to convince me we are living in a healthy economy when I paid $6.79 a gallon for gas yesterday.
AOC’s comments over the weekend reflect the discrepancy between theoretical numbers and day-to-day experience. Commenting on proclamations of economic victory, she said “That’s an easy thing to say for someone who primarily experiences the economy on paper – who aren’t choosing between childcare and work, or medicine and rent.”
Attempting to stir worker sentiments, she cried that those who “do have to make those decisions feel the economy in the callous of our hands and the aches in our joints at the end of a long day.”
Misplaced Blame
However, AOC didn’t seem to be criticizing the elite in her party’s administration as the Fox article insinuated.
Rather, she claims the culprit is – surprise – greedy corporate capitalists.
“What the figures in Washington and Wall Street don’t reflect is that in a time of record profits, CEO’s of the big three are giving themselves 40% raises and gobbling billions of dollars to manipulate stock prices off of your backbreaking labor.”
She continued, “The reality is we are living in an absolute economic crisis of inequality. One where prices are skyrocketing not because workers are making an insane amount more, but because CEO excess is at insane levels that we’ve never seen before. Their yachts are paid with our low wages and our cut benefits.”
The young congresswoman at times echoed sentiments that come from voters on both sides of the aisle who are tired of being pitted against each other.
“The 1% in this country does everything within an inch of their life to break the grip and make us turn on each other. That is what they do. They finance a media to divide us by race and geography and class and culture.”
She contested, “Solidarity is the strategy. Sticking together breaks up their approach. They don’t know what to do when people are unified.”
However, AOC seems to contradict herself. Just weeks earlier, the representative who often declares herself as a defender of the working class, disputed the crippling inflation Americans are struggling with, suggesting it’s just propaganda in an Instagram video.
No matter who you blame, the economy is likely the issue that will bury Biden in 2024.
About the Author
Jennifer Galardi is the politics and culture editor and opinion writer for 19FortyFive.com. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and produces and hosts the podcast Connection with conversations that address health, culture, politics, and policy. In a previous life, she wrote for publications in the health, fitness, and nutrition space. In addition, her pieces have been published in the Epoch Times and Pepperdine Policy Review. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
