President Joe Biden spent the weekend tweeting about the American Rescue Plan — his $1.9 trillion spending plan that many economists blame for triggering the inflation that has led, in part, to the current banking crisis.
Biden posted no fewer than ten tweets about the American Rescue Plan, which passed two years ago, in March 2021. It was opposed by every singe Republican in Congress because it spent vastly in excess of what had already been allocated to COVID relief, and because it seemed likely to cause inflation — which it did.
Many economists and experts — including former Obama administration adviser Stuart Rattner — have noted that inflation only took off following the passage of the American Rescue Plan. Congress had just passed another round of coronavirus relief weeks before Biden took office, and some of the money allocated to previous relief spending packages had not even been spent yet when the American Rescue Plan became law.
The inflation that ensued has caused the Federal Reserve Bank to raise interest rates, which in turn caused the value of various assets, including bonds, to suffer. It also created more uncertainty for businesses, especially in the tech sector, which had grown significantly during the pandemic but now faces an uncertain future.
The Biden plan appeared to be the repetition of a familiar pattern of Democrats passing massive spending packages shortly after winning presidential elections, partly to reward supporters and special interest groups.
Neither Biden nor the White House tweeted at all this weekend about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which sent fear throughout the economy. The federal government announced Sunday evening that it would protect depositors at the bank, hoping to avert a cascade of similar bank collapses throughout the country, which could in turn trigger another financial crisis. On Friday, the White House had attempted to downplay concerns.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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