The Democrats’ Oprah Strategy
By Guy Ciarrocchi
We know the Democrats’ goal for 2024: Just win, baby! The ends justify the means.
We know the messaging: Abortion. January 6. Trump is a “convicted felon.”
But the polls tell us that it’s not working. And more importantly, the angry rhetoric from Biden, Harris, and Schumer and the despondent editorials from major city newspapers confirm the Left’s panic. So do the rants on MSNBC and outbursts on late night shows.
The Left wants to grab America by our jacket lapels and shake us, asking: “What are you doing: How can you even suggest that you’d vote for him!?!”
The elite are especially frustrated with black and Hispanic voters and younger voters — those earnest lovers of equity, social justice and Hamas. Their support for Biden keeps dropping. (Maybe it’s because they’re back home living with mom and dad, or sending another Venmo request to mom so they can buy groceries — even after Biden “cancels” their student loans.)
So, Team Biden is doubling down on the good old Democrat Party tactic: giveaways. It’s like watching Oprah, only Biden and his allies are using our money — and actually making the core problems worse.
“You get your loan canceled, and so do you, and you…” Biden keeps telling different younger voters that he’s “canceling” their student loan debt — even after the Supreme Court ruled that Biden’s plan was illegal. Instead, Biden keeps bragging that he’s defying the Court’s order. He’s so “compassionate” and ”generous” (with our money) as he rewards each new victim group.
And the sad reality is that each time he “cancels” another hundred million dollars of debt, what he’s really doing is transferring the debt to all of us — growing the national debt and therefore taking more money out of our pockets in taxes and inflation. We pay the price twice, so that Biden can buy votes.
Why stop there? The prices of homes have gone up and interest rates are too high. So if you have a lot of debt or can’t keep up with your bills — or just don’t even bother to pay bills — and you can’t borrow money from a bank, Biden is here — just like Oprah. He’s going to change your life: one taxpayer funded giveaway at a time.
“You get your medical debt excused, and so is yours, and yours…” Last week — again by executive order — Biden proclaimed that failing to pay medical bills shouldn’t harm credit scores. He told banks to ignore those bad credit scores — and just give away mortgages or car loans. (Don’t worry at all if those borrowers can’t pay it back, or won’t feel obligated to pay it back.)
Why focus on inflation or fixing soaring medical costs? Just give away cash!
Which sounds wonderful, unless you remember what actually happens when banks don’t get paid back. Some go out of business. Then the tellers, mortgage processors, and branch managers lose their jobs. Retired teachers, police officers or electricians who had their pensions invested in the bank could lose their money, or get less interest.
Of course, if the banks go “kablooey” and people lose their jobs, and retirees lose their pensions, it’s no big deal. Why?
Because, “You’ll get a check, and so will you, and you…”
Taxpayers will pay unemployment to the unfortunate bank tellers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. And taxpayers will bail out the banks that loaned out loans to people who couldn’t afford to pay them back — or, sadly, are the type of people who just don’t pay back loans. And if those who could save for their future start getting less interest on their savings, Biden can just boost their Social Security to make up the difference.
After all, it’s just money — our money.
But, again, if you’re Biden and his allies, your singular goal is to win in November. You’ve created inflation and an ever-growing, massive federal budget, so what’s a few billion more here and there? And, if it all crashes with a recession — or worse — in 2025 or 2026, who cares? The goal is to win in November 2024.
Of course it ignores the reality that inflation and all it means — higher prices for gas, groceries and utilities — was created by their policies during and after Covid. They’re making it even worse: adding nearly a trillion dollars in “canceled” student loan debt.
So, rather than address the actual problems, acknowledge that their policies made matters worse and change policies, they just keep handing out cash to everyone they’ve harmed. And, yes, this will eventually make things even worse. More inflation and bigger debt and, eventually, higher taxes.
But this isn’t the Oprah show. We’re being bribed with our money — money that our kids and grandkids will have to pay back.
(And yes, let’s be clear: the GOP isn’t perfect and has of course contributed to the national debt. But, we are now at a much more dangerous place. All the more reason that gimmicks and games are even more shameful.)
The 2024 Democrats are angry at us for being upset at how their failures are harming our nation, our schools, our cities, and our families’ wallets.
Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre and their loyal mouthpieces in much of the legacy media can keep trying to tell us to ignore “our lying eyes.” But, the numbers don’t lie. Inflation. Grocery bills. Gas prices. Higher interest rates. Soaring national debt.
The major news this week — aside from trials and wars — is that national debt is growing by over $1 trillion a year. Left unchecked, it will grow $2 trillion a year.
Biden and company keep telling us that now is the greatest economy in history. Yet, May 2024’s deficit was over $100B larger than May 2023. That debt in one month is bigger than two years of spending for the entire state of Pennsylvania.
Is the economy really, truly roaring along? Either it’s not “roaring” or Biden is spending even faster than the economy is growing — or both.
The wild spending that’s driving bigger and bigger deficits and a larger and larger debt is part of why we have out of control inflation. We see it in our bills and purchases. Every. Single. Day.
We want the problems fixed. We don’t want to be bribed with our own money — or money that our children and grandchildren will be paying for.
And, we don’t want our money, our kids’ and their kids’ money used to buy the votes of people who will vote for Biden and company promising to do the very things that will make things worse.
We’re catching on, though. Biden isn’t Oprah. Sadly, this isn’t a TV show.
Guy Ciarrocchi writes for Broad + Liberty and RealClear Pennsylvania. He is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation. This column does not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations. Follow Guy at @PaSuburbsGuy.
