Missed Signals, Misplaced Priorities: A Biden Administration Pattern
In times of crisis, Americans look to the president of the United States for leadership.
If we do so now, however, we would only see a president and administration who have been neglectful of solving the real problems facing our country or actively made them worse.
No president has governed over a more severe crisis at the southern border. April 2022 saw the most illegal crossings in one month on record, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection reporting 234,088 encounters. This number was 30 percent higher than in April 2021 and an astounding 1,268 percent higher than in April 2020. That’s right – an increase of more than 200,000 people in the month of April over two years ago under President Trump.
Since President Biden assumed office, illegal immigration and smuggling of illicit substances has surged, yet his Administration refuses to change its lax approach to enforcement. In fact, it is still on track to stop using Title 42, which under certain circumstances allows for expedited removal of illegal immigrants. The judiciary may yet prevent the end of Title 42, but the Biden Administration has not changed course.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is allegedly in charge of border security, found time to set up a “Disinformation Governance Board.” This ill-conceived idea echoed the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s 1984 and threatened to intrude on the First Amendment free speech rights of Americans. Further, the appointee to lead the board had herself spread numerous baseless and inaccurate claims.
After widespread criticism, even from some on the Left, DHS suspended plans to proceed with the board, and its disinformation-spreading leader resigned. It nevertheless does little credit to DHS leadership that they thought this idea had merit in the first place while the border supposedly overseen by the Department continues to descend into lawlessness. Maybe they think the border crisis is disinformation.
In my column last week, I wrote about another situation demanding an effective response from the Biden Administration: the shortage of baby formula. With out-of-stock rates around 40 percent, parents across the country have had trouble finding formula to feed their infants.
On May 13, when asked by a reporter if he could have acted to address the shortage sooner, President Biden responded, “If we’d been better mind readers, I guess we could have.” Yet the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was warned last October by a whistleblower about problems with the Abbott Nutrition formula plant in Sturgis, Michigan. The agency did not act on this report and had no plan when Abbott in February recalled some of its products and shut the plant down.
Forget about mind reading; the Administration apparently did not read the documents it had in its own possession.
Once the Abbott plant was shut down as the FDA launched an investigation, the agency acted without urgency and failed to allow for alternative ways safe baby formula could be brought to market. Once again, the Administration has on its hands a crisis that had plenty of warning signs and chances to avert or alleviate it.
While the Biden Administration struggles to cope with the border and baby formula, it presides over an economy with inflation not seen since the early 1980s and a stock market slide setting off alarm bells.
Inflation exacts the heaviest proportional toll on lower-income households. Its resurgence was not inevitable, but President Biden and congressional Democrats insisted on pouring money into the economy, driving up prices. Warning signs flashed ahead of this problem, too, but the Administration said last summer’s inflation was “transitory.” Only belatedly did the Biden Administration acknowledge inflation as a longer-term problem, and yet it still pushes for policies such as a “Build Back Better” bill that would make inflation worse.
Now the stock market slumps, a problem not only for Wall Street but for the many middle-class and working people who invest portions of their retirement accounts in the market.
Will the Biden Administration heed this warning sign and respond accordingly?
Its record is not encouraging. Since they came into office, President Biden and his team have focused on their misplaced, far-left priorities and ignored or brushed off alarms. Whether through faulty ideology, incompetence, or both, the Biden Administration has brought about a cascade of crises.
If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405, my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671, or my Washington office at 202-225-3861. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov. Also, on my website is the latest material from my office, including information on votes recently taken on the floor of the House of Representatives.