WASHINGTON— Positive economic data released this week reflected the continued reopening across the nation. Real GDP grew at a 6.4% annual rate in the first quarter of 2021, and consumer spending rose at a rate of 4.2%, thanks largely to a spending surge for travel accommodations and food services.
In his joint address to Congress on Wednesday, President Biden falsely credited the recovery to the massive growth of the federal government. He also lobbied for higher taxes on businesses and investors to rebuild the economy from “the bottom up and the middle out.” This rhetoric ignores the all-time highs in household income and historic lows in unemployment stemming from the tax cuts and regulatory cuts championed by the previous administration.
Joel Griffith, research fellow in the Roe Institute at The Heritage Foundation, said the following in response to this week’s economic news:
“This historic economic rebound began last summer and proves the public is enthusiastically participating in reopening America. The pace of the recovery varies widely across the nation due to draconian lockdown restrictions persisting in in some places. The Federal Reserve State Coincident Indexes—an approximation of state GDP—vividly illustrates this. This index estimates economic output in March 2021 was actually greater than pre-pandemic output in numerous states—such as Utah, Missouri, and Georgia-- which refused to implement crushing, long-lasting shutdowns. Meanwhile, more than a dozen states—including New York, Nevada, and California—remain mired in a deep recession.
Full economic recovery does not stem from stimulus checks or bailouts from Washington. It is largely a result of individuals and businesses safely and legally interacting with one another. Progressives are using the lingering economic misery in parts of the country to ram through a wish list of radical items which will give control of our economy to special interests and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.—saddling the nation with more debt, higher taxes, accelerating inflation, and increased energy costs.”
The Biden administration is peddling false promises with his commitment to “free” expanded welfare benefits for Americans, the promise of millions of new jobs, rising wages, economic growth, buying and hiring American, federally mandated gender equity policy, the list goes on… with the promise of making the wealthy and corporations foot the bill.
This is mathematically impossible in practical terms. Biden is proposing $6 trillion in spending, all of which will be added to the national debt. The administration claims that this will be paid for by only taxing the rich and big corporations, but the reality is those tax hikes will most substantially impact working Americans by reducing wages, costing jobs, restricting economic growth, reducing investment, and making America less competitive. The so-called “American Jobs Plan” masquerades as an infrastructure bill when it is really a modified “Green New Deal” that will cost an average family $165,000 over time — including at least a 30% rise in electricity prices and more than 5 million lost jobs.
Higher taxes, more debt, more federal spending, and more government control over our economic decisions will snuff out opportunity and dampen prosperity.
