Hey Joe, Let’s Go Grocery Shopping

Mr. President, I invite you to New Hampshire this weekend to visit a couple of grocery stores. I want you to see firsthand what Americans are experiencing with runaway, historic inflation. The inflation rate is still at a forty-year high of 8.3%, but food prices are much higher. I was hoping you could talk to young mothers and fathers with carts full to feed their families for a week and spend three to four hundred dollars. I would like you to talk to some senior citizens with hand-held baskets instead of a cart. These folks are in the difficult place of balancing the cost of groceries, home heating fuel, and putting gas in their tank.

You probably have plans to go to Delaware for a long weekend. You are setting records with the amount of time you have taken off. Most Americans cannot afford to go to the beach for a weekend. They are living check to check and are concerned about things getting worse as the recession takes hold. Living on a fixed income has not been this problematic in many decades. So how about you give up a weekend and talk to some people?

These people do not want to hear you tell them how great the economy is because of your policies. They do not want to hear that we are doing better than other countries. That does nothing to make the situation better for these people uncertain of their economic future.

Let’s stop by a diner for lunch and chat with people about their 401k accounts and retirement plans. Let them tell you how comforting it was to see these funds grow in the four years before you took the oath. Listen to the stories about these funds dropping 25% in value and how these people will need to postpone their planned retirements. In less than two years, Joe, you have changed these people’s lives and disrupted their futures. These are not things that words alone will remedy. These folks want to see positive action.

We cannot figure you out, Joe. We are not sure if you are ignorant of the plight of middle-income Americans or if you are gaslighting Americans. We watched you brag about gas prices continuing to fall this week, but they were high because of you. Don’t take credit for the drop until you are ready to accept the blame for the meteoric rise. You blame Trump for leaving you an unstable economy, but Americans know better. Inflation was under 2%, there was steady growth coming out of the Pandemic, and the job growth you take credit for is the ten million returning to work after COVID. No, Joe, we are not buying your tales. We know the truth. And you have harmed our lives, and it will take years to recover.

Step up, Joe. It is time to admit you were not ready for the task. The people you staffed your administration with are ineffective and over their heads. You need help, but most of all, you need to reverse course. You arbitrarily killed Trump policies on day one, and you need to bring some back. You will be a one-term President. You have time to repair your legacy, but not if you hold on to your failing policies. It is up to you, and I hope the good people of New Hampshire can get your attention. These are real people who are hurting, and only Joe Biden changing course can help them.