Is there a more well-known saying than “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging?” Yet, apparently, that nugget of wisdom has not reached the hallowed halls of the White House. Today, even as the supply chain crisis grows, Jen Psaki decided it’d be a great idea to mock suffering Americans. You know, because this entire thing is about not being able to get a treadmill or something.
Remember President Ron Klain’s recent endorsement of the idea that inflation and supply chain issues are a “high-class” problem? This is the double down by an administration that just can’t get out of its own way.
When NYT reporter Michael Shear asks about the ongoing supply chain crisis, Psaki jokes about “the tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed”
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) October 19, 2021
I know the hardships of normal life are completely foreign to an overpaid Washington apparatchik like Jen Psaki, but a quick look at the data shows that the current situation goes far beyond exercise devices. People need things like washing machines, beef products, and household cleaners, all of which are facing delays right now. Taking the reporter’s question and using it as an opportunity to mock those with concerns is an incredibly tone-deaf response, but it’s also one that absconds from the true scale of the problem.
Supply-chain issues also affect the labor market. If producers can’t get materials to produce their products, people lose their jobs as a result. If restaurants can’t get the food items they need, business suffers and pay suffers. Meanwhile, you might as well be searching for gold if you are currently trying to buy an affordable used car, something most people require to get to work and back.
I think this goes further than that, though. On some level, Psaki is right in that we will survive what the country (and world) is currently going through. Most supply chain issues come down to convenience, even if it means you’ve got to eat crackers and potted meat for dinner. But Joe Biden didn’t run on low expectations and food rationing. He ran on shutting down COVID-19 and restoring the economy. And while the White House might like to do so, they don’t get to move the goalposts and claim that anything short of a total economic collapse is a success. Americans are not going to buy that narrative.
That reality is illustrated by Quinnipiac’s latest poll, which has Biden at an all-time low of 37% approval.
(Quinnipiac) Do you approve/disapprove of Biden?
Overall: 37/52
GOP: 3/95
Dem: 80/11
Indie: 28/56
Men: 30/58
Women: 43/45
White w/ degree: 50/46
White w/o degree: 25/65
White: 33/59
Black: 65/22
Hispanic: 33/51— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) October 19, 2021
That is a picture of a presidency in total collapse. Biden has no floor and is hemorrhaging support from key constituencies. Of course, white women with college degrees are still on board because there’s literally nothing Biden can do to tick off that group, but when he’s down to 30% with men and 28% with independents, that’s red wave territory going into 2022.
What gets me about it, though, is that Biden could recover some if he’d just do some common sense things. Yet, he and his handlers are so ideologically attached to the failures they continue to perpetrate that no end appears to be in sight. Psaki would do better to admit we have a problem and not try to gaslight Americans into believing it’s because Biden has actually done such a great job. Honesty would go a long way, and there’s none of that coming from this White House.