After Three Years of Failure, Biden’s Cabinet Officials Claim “Success”

“Well, who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?” That was one of the great movie lines spoken by Chico Marx (dressed as Groucho Marx) to Margaret Dumont in the classic Marx Brothers’ film Duck Soup. It has been used as shorthand ever since to describe a situation in which the obvious is swept aside in favor of a narrative that suits the storyteller.

The Marx Brothers did the line as comedy, but the technical name for the phenomena is cognitive dissonance – a hoped-for perception at odds with reality.

Fifteen members of the Biden cabinet were hard at it this week trying to get Americans to believe a story that bears no relationship to what they experience every day. What was delivered was campaign nonsense in connection with the Biden-Trump debate last week.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described U.S. economic growth as “strong and resilient, with robust economic growth.” I guess she missed the fact that the U.S. economy fell 1.6% in Q122, fell another 0.6% in Q222 (technically a recession, but not declared as such by the liberal National Bureau of Economic Research) and grew an anemic 1.2% in the first quarter of 2024.

Yellen also said, “The labor market is incredibly healthy.” I take it she was unaware that the unemployment rate rose in May (most recent data available) and that the household survey showed over 400,000 jobs were lost.

Biden’s Director of the Economic Council Lael Brainard said, “The president has called out big corporations to pass along savings to consumers.” What savings? Energy costs are going up, interest rates have gone up, transportation costs have gone up and more.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, consumer confidence declined in the latest survey, inflation is higher today that it was this time last year and shows no signs of abating, and housing is unaffordable for the middle-class because of high mortgage rates and skyrocketing home prices.

Unlike Margaret Dumont, Americans do believe their own eyes when it comes to inflation, real wages, housing costs and weak growth. They definitely are not taken in by the Biden spin.

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