A Senior’s Lament: Our New Administration Doesn’t Care About Us

WASHINGTON, DC, Aug 20 — The U.S. economy is in crisis, but the Biden-Harris administration has taken a decidedly devil-may-care attitude.

It threatens the ability of hard-hit American workers and their families, not the least of whom are senior citizens, to make ends meet. It’s about time they “get real” and address the pressing needs of the people.

Selfish government spending, the cost of dealing with an unprecedented surge of undocumented illegals, and an insidious pandemic have set the stage for a disastrous economic future. They’ve already triggered a hard-hitting spike in inflation.

Yet the progressive socialists appear to have become the rulers of the roost on Capitol Hill, and they are leading Congress and the White House on a special interest spending spree, ignoring the needs of the average Joes out there.

Maria Bartiromo, one of America’s highly respected economic journalists, describes the pending $3.5 trillion budget and the $1 trillion infrastructure plan as “the vehicle for Democrats to pass liberal priorities such as universal pre-kindergarten, expanded Medicare access, two free years of community college, subsidized childcare, legalizing undocumented immigrants, and green climate initiatives.”

The most vulnerable segment of the population is in dire straits, and the senior advocacy Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] says they feel abandoned. They need support, jobs, and attention. AMAC says one of its 60-year-young members wrote in recently with a heart-felt plea– not for a handout. He just wants a job. “If I don’t get a paying job, I lose my house. Inflation and joblessness is real for seniors. But you hear nothing about this.” And he’s right. Instead, our government seems to ignore such appeals, focusing instead on its selfish liberal priorities, as Ms. Bartiromo put it.

There’s a difference between what it says in those spending bills and the level of spending that they will encourage, and that does not bode well for household budgets. Inflation is already hurting household budgets. Over the past 12 months, the Consumer Price Index is up 5.4%, according to the Labor Department. That’s the highest it’s been in 13 years. Some economists claim that inflation has crested, but Bartiromo told Fox News that the budget blueprint is “actually going to be much more expensive than $3.5 trillion,” and that will, in turn, cause U.S. debt and inflation to ‘soar.'”

Car prices are up, especially the cost of used cars, which are up by 29%, and a government report shows that gasoline prices are up year to year by as much as 41.8%. Home furnishing prices have risen by 30%. Appliances costs are higher by 12% to 26% over a year ago. Food prices are up moderately but are expected by many to be on the verge of costlier increases.

As for the 60-year-old who is having a hard time finding a job, a colleague of mine, Jeff Szymanski, penned an article recently explaining that perhaps it is the so-called “Biden bonus” that may be the cause to some degree. Jeff explained that “Many economists and Republican governors have been fuming for months now about the so-called ‘Biden bonus’ of paying people an extra $300 per week not to work through early September. Opponents of this scheme, passed in the last stimulus bill of March 2021 with Democrat votes only, note the bonuses are holding down job gains and even causing shortages and inflation.”

The future, near term, holds no hope of any fixes.

The left is in charge and seems hell-bent on dealing with the plight of those Americans who need money to pay for community college tuition for the needy. Meanwhile, our southern borders are opening wider and wider with each passing month. Some 220,000 undocumented migrants crossed our southern border in July, up 13% from the 188,000 who showed up on the Biden-Harris welcome mat in June, reports Homeland Security. Apparently, socialist lawmakers are not interested in the troubles faced by elderly Americans.