In a recent column, we charged President Joe Biden's leftist energy policies and pathetically weak leadership with undermining America's economy and financing Russia's genocide in Ukraine. But the damage wrought by this president is not limited to Ukraine, pain at the pump or flaccid foreign affairs. All the policies of this hapless tool of the left are destroying the America we love and serve.
Since day one of his presidency, Biden and his socialist puppet masters have tried to deflect blame from themselves to others for major problems they created for the American people. Their latest scapegoat is Vladimir Putin. The Russian war criminal can be blamed for much, but not the domestic crises afflicting We the People of the United States. Biden's weasel-worded attempts to hide his ineptitude deceive no one. Americans paying historically high prices for food, fuel and other essentials while enduring empty retail store shelves aren't fooled by political spin in Biden's teleprompter.
To demonstrate how bad things have become under this career politician masquerading as president, we offer factual comparisons in two key areas: national sovereignty and our economy. These comparisons show where things stood when Biden became president and where they stand now.
By definition, a sovereign nation has authority over its territory and borders. Biden surrendered America's national sovereignty on his first day in office when he dismantled policies and programs his predecessor put in place to regain control of our southern border lost during the Obama-Biden administration.
Biden shut down constructing a border barrier, stopped U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement professionals from doing their duty and eliminated an agreement with Mexico's president to keep cross-border immigrants in Mexico until they completed U.S. asylum applications. Now, Biden wants Title 42, a law protecting Americans from COVID-19 infection from immigrants, to lapse.
In December 2020, Donald Trump's last month in office, there were 62,041 illegal immigrant encounters on our southern border. In Biden's first month in office, this arose to 75,316. In his first full year in office, illegal immigrant encounters at our southern border exceeded 2 million. The numbers continue to rise. Thanks to Biden's open border policies, our once sovereign nation is now overrun by drug cartels, sex traffickers, violent criminals and illegal immigrants from almost every country on earth.
Despite COVID-19, Biden inherited American economic growth and employment unprecedented in our lifetimes. He could have left well enough alone and allowed our economy to continue growing, but his socialist handlers had other plots and plans. These included eliminating fossil fuels, canceling student loan debt, funding his enormously expensive infrastructure program with nothing to do with infrastructure, paying citizens to refuse the dignity of work through his deceptive American Rescue Plan and "Build Back Better" program promising to rebuild what didn't need to be rebuilt.
Biden's socialist economic policies are crushing hardworking, middle-income Americans, our nation's majority demographic. In 2020, the last year of the previous administration, inflation was just 1.23% and falling. Since Biden took office, inflation has risen to over 8% and climbing, the worst inflation rate since 1982. Americans paid $2.37 per gallon for gasoline on Biden's first day in office. We now pay more than $4.00 per gallon in most states and as much as $7.00 in some places.
Biden's socialist policies are making home ownership impossible for millions of Americans. In 2020, before Biden took office, the average price of a home in the U.S. was $391,900. Now, the same house costs $453,700. Prices continue to rise.
Worse still, the explosion in violent crime means we are all less safe here at home than at any point in our lifetimes. More on this travesty in a future column.
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