07 Feb 2023 State of the Union, or Fantasyland?
Biden Still “Out of Touch With Reality,” Say Black Conservatives
Washington, D.C. – In response to President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address, the second of his troubled presidency, ambassadors with the Project 21 black leadership network noted that the president’s assessment and the true state of the union are polar extremes.
“Honestly, there isn’t really anything President Biden can say that impacts the American people positively. Why? Because the American people have been deeply impacted by a number of hard realities resulting from weak leadership in the White House,” said Project 21 ambassador Joe Mobley. “This includes nationwide economic instability and the rising cost of goods and gas prices, just to name a few. The administration can hardly utter the words ‘recession’ or ‘economic downturn,’ despite the obvious reality in which we live. We also aren’t taken seriously on the international stage, as recently highlighted during the Chinese spy-balloon debacle. Our nation is not headed in the right direction, and the American people are tired of it.”
President Biden portrays weakness when strength is needed. His policies continue to undermine America’s economic engine when we should support it. With each day and seemingly each decision, President Biden loses more support from a base that was historically unflappable. His 72-minute long State of the Union did little to shore up that shrinking base.
“That sounded more like the State of Fantasyland than the State of the Union,” said Project 21 ambassador Craig DeLuz. “President Biden has once again demonstrated just how out of touch he is with reality. Americans are hurting, and their pain is a direct result of his policies. Inflation, crime, illegal immigration and socialist indoctrination in our public schools are all rampant throughout the U.S., and this administration refuses to own its role in these issues.”
“President Biden’s State of the Union address was the cure for insomnia. It was that boring. But don’t be fooled by the facade. His speech warned of energy shortages, IRS persecution and Second Amendment prosecutions, and used false story after false story to push for greater government control,” said Project 21 ambassador Michael Austin. “In one speech, Biden signaled a willingness to violate labor contracts, disrupt insulin supplies, eliminate traditional energy in ten years, tax every penny Americans make and so much more. American families, it’s time to open our eyes to President Biden’s desire for a government takeover.”
“Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 as a centrist and uniter who since then has unfortunately governed like an AOC progressive,” said Project 21 ambassador Christopher Arps. “Despite being filled with tired leftist platitudes, this State of the Union address – and soft 2024 presidential campaign launch – was an attempt to once again fool the American people that he is a moderate. President Biden’s two-year record says otherwise.”
With President Biden facing increasingly stringent scrutiny on topics ranging from the economy to international affairs to his handling of top-secret documents to his questionable involvement with son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, the pressure is mounting from those who once supported him. In a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, President Biden’s approval ratings hovered at 40% — just above his all-time low of 36%. Despite a pliant media, the public finds it difficult to imagine how President Biden can steer the nation back to an even keel.
“We face a plethora of calamities as a nation under President Biden’s watch: sky-high inflation, crime, a border crisis-turned-invasion, an emboldened China, the U.S. losing credibility on the world stage, drug overdoses, record-high human trafficking and other policies that have left Americans wondering if anyone is minding the shop. If this continues, we will not have a country for long,” said Project 21 ambassador Auriol Sonia Morris. “America seems to be in freefall economically, morally, constitutionally, domestically and internationally – you name it. We are in the perfect storm. The very essence of who we are as a nation is in the balance. What is the plan, Mr. President?”
“In tonight’s State of the Union address, President Biden claimed that the current unemployment rate of 3.4% is the lowest since 1996. But this rate only measures those who are jobless and seeking unemployment. He did not mention the U6 rate of 7.4%, the number of employable adults who are currently without a job,” said Project 21 ambassador Marie Fischer. “He also neglected to mention that the job participation rate is only 62.4%. The last time we saw a rate that low, outside of the COVID era, was October 1977. Also, 64% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, equivalent to March 2020, the first two weeks of the national COVID quarantine. The January overall inflation rate is 6.45%; food prices are up 10.4%, with egg prices alone up 60% from this time last year. The average gas price peaked at $5.02 last June.
“As he does daily on his Twitter feed, President Biden again claimed tonight that we have a robust U.S. economy. The reality, however, is that the average American family is hurting, more so or equal to the period of the COVID shutdown,” continued Fischer. “The Biden administration is so out of touch from the average American, I cannot see how he can deliver his State of the Union address and think the majority of the American people truly believe him – especially when even 62% of Democrats don’t want him to run again.”
Project 21 recently released a second edition of its “Blueprint for a Better Deal for Black America” that contains 56 policy recommendations encompassing areas including criminal justice, education, health care and election integrity. Project 21 members suggest that President Biden, in an effort to repair the damage that government policies have done to the black community, would do well to take a closer look at the Blueprint as a means of helping make the American Dream attainable for all.
Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over 25 years, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Its members have been quoted, interviewed or published over 50,000 times since the program was created in 1992. Contributions to the National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated and may be earmarked exclusively for the use of Project 21.
Founded in 1982, the National Center for Public Policy Research is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from some 60,000 individuals, less than four percent from foundations and less than two percent from corporations. Sign up for email updates here. Follow Project 21 on Twitter at @Project21News for general announcements. To be alerted to upcoming media appearances by Project 21 members, follow our media appearances Twitter account at @NCPPRMedia.
Below is an additional quote from a Project 21 ambassador.
Project 21 ambassador Martin Baker:
In the president’s opening remarks, he noted the decline in unemployment rate in 2022, yet failed to account for the fact that black unemployment is more than double what it is for white job seekers (7.1% for black workers, 3.2% for white workers). Black females feel it even worse at 6.2%, an increase from 4.9% in 2021.
He took credit for a decrease in inflation, yet again was silent in the revelation that our current federal debt is now over 31 trillion dollars. What is even more frightening is that over seven trillion of that debt is held by foreign countries. We have a debt-to-GDP ratio of 120% due to reckless spending and the borrowing habits of the current and previous administrations that did not hold government spending in check. In 2000, the M2 money supply (total amount of money in circulation) was just under five trillion dollars; today that supply is over $21 trillion due to reckless habits such as stimulus spending, qualitative easing, and infusing more currency into circulation without commensurate goods and services to account for it. This is why inflation is so out of control and has no end in sight.
This does not even address governmental overreach; our legislative branch is sitting idly by and allowing the executive branch to run rampant with this. This does not help our Republic. This does not follow our Constitution, which specifically prescribed checks and balances for all branches. Hearing the president openly declare how he will step in, defying constitutional constraints, should give citizens a moment of pause.
We must have a Congress that is willing to stand in the breach for those it represents. Congress must actively utilize the powers that was endowed to it by the Constitution, even if that means opposing proposals of the executive branch.
Finally, the president using the families of victims of police-involved actions as fodder for his anti-law enforcement agenda was absolutely disrespectful to Black America. Having the family of Tyre Nichols in the well of the Capitol tainted the potential jury pool for the cases pending against the officers involved, potentially delaying or even denying justice for all involved in tragedies such as this.
Respectfully I disagree with the president when he declares that the State of the Union is bright.