Joe Biden’s Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, is pretty confident that the Biden administration and the Democratic Party as a whole will have enough accomplishments going into the midterms that it could save the party from suffering heavy losses. Klain is positive that the next two months will be enough of a “season of substance” to make it.
Talking to POLITICO while Joe Biden was on vacation, Klain was very upbeat. Here’s what he said.
“We now have a presidency where the president has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since ROOSEVELT, the largest infrastructure plan since EISENHOWER, the most judges confirmed since KENNEDY, the second largest health care bill since JOHNSON and the largest climate change bill in history. … The first time we’ve done gun control since President CLINTON was here, the first time ever an African American woman has been put on the U.S. Supreme Court. … I think it’s a record to take to the American people.”
And POLITICO, eager to help Klain paint his rosy picture, came in with the assist.
At the start of the summer, this conversation would have been vastly different. Now, gas prices have dropped, and the last CPI report hints that inflation may finally be trending down after hitting a peak. Election forecasters are writing pieces at least entertaining the idea that Democrats might not suffer the long-predicted midterm wipeout. And there’s that burst of legislative victories that were squeezed out of Congress in July and August that had Biden, a lover of alliteration, calling this period “a season of substance.”
Adam Schultz/The White House via AP
It certainly has been a good couple of weeks for Biden. The Democrats passed a bill called the Inflation Reduction Act, have touted it as a climate bill, and are currently rebranding it as the key to American energy independence because it doesn’t actually impact inflation (as even Joe Manchin admitted recently).
Gas prices have gone down significantly in the last several months, so now they’re only 61 percent higher ($3.92 for the national average) than they were when Biden took office ($2.39 for the national average). Over the summer, gas prices were more than double what they were in early 2021. Progress!
There are still shortages in some aisles of the grocery story, and even if you can find everything you want, nearly 20 percent of Americans are putting stuff back on the shelves when they see what their grocery bill is.
So, yeah, this sure is a season of substance.
Ron Klain appears to live in a world detached from reality – which, to be fair, is pretty much standard for Washington – and has no clue what American families are actually going through. This is the same mentality that leads the climate change crew to encouraging poor Americans to spend what little money they have on electric vehicles because they’ll get a tax credit for it… in half a year at tax time. In the meantime, pick up an expensive car note and buy a vehicle that struggles to maintain its charge in the winter.
Klain’s “season of substance” isn’t going to last. Inflation is still high (though admittedly not as high as it was), and the economic situation is still not great. These are the kitchen table issues that really impact Americans. This is what families have to deal with on a day to day basis. What they are largely unconcerned with are the tax credits for an electric vehicle that they would struggle to afford even with the tax credit. They don’t care that the new law saves the planet. They care about feeding their families, being able to get their kids to school, and having a job. The current economic situation doesn’t guarantee that.
But, I don’t expect Klain to understand that. He spends his time retweeting positive news stories and choosing which reports Biden should ignore. If you want to know why Biden seems out of touch, his Chief of Staff has been doing a good job of making him that way.