Redistributing Wealth the Obama/Biden Way

Several years ago – During the reign of President Barack Obama (D) I wrote a column entitled Obama’s Benefactors Grow Richer While You Are Stuck in the Recession. It’s short so I’ll give you the whole enchilada and suggest that the same is coming true under President Barack Biden. (No that’s not a mischaracterization since the blue print by Mr. Biden is precisely the same as Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden’s administration is populated with the same socialists as was Mr. Obama’s.)

“I have decided to become a Barack Obama Democrat. For years Mr. Obama and his branch of liberalism have scolded me and other conservatives as supporting the rich at the expense of the poor. Despite my protestations and the fact that I give more money to charity in a month than does Vice President Joe Biden in a year I cannot shake the antipathy of the left. Despite my unshakeable belief that the road out of poverty is through job creation rather than welfare, I cannot shake the labels of greed and profiteering cast by the likes of Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA). And despite my routine criticism of the public employee unions for greed and avarice at the expense of the taxpayers, I cannot escape the label of being ‘against working people.’

“I could live with all of that, but a recent squib in the Wall Street Journal finally showed me the error of my ways. Michael Derby reports:

‘Americans have recovered only 45% of the wealth they lost during the recession, adjusted for inflation, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimated. . .

‘. . . The bank said data that shows a near complete recovery in total aggregate wealth is misleading. The analysts argue aggregate household net-worth data aren’t adjusted for inflation, population growth or the nature of wealth. They note a lot of the recovery in net worth has been tied to the stock market, thus is concentrated in holdings of wealthy families.’

“Bingo!! There it is. While the recession may have begun under President George W. Bush, the “recovery” is all Mr. Obama’s. All of the major stock market indices have recovered and/or surpassed their pre-recession highs. Wall Street moneychangers and investors like me have increased our net-worths beyond pre-recession levels even when adjusted for inflation. Thank you very much Mr. Obama – the overwhelming campaign contributions given to you have paid off handsomely. (Well, the money changers’ campaign contributions, not mine – there are some things not even a pig will do.)

“Interest rates are being held at artificial low levels so that the moneychangers can borrow at rates next to nothing and arbitrage the hell out of it in an increasing stock market. Oh, please, don’t bother me with this ridiculous notion that low interest rates will stimulate industrial investment – we’re busy hoarding our cash and using it like our friends on Wall Street. And the idea such investment is going to stimulate job creation; well the numbers show that didn’t happen – total non-farm employment peaked at the end of 2007 at 138,042,000 while the most recent data for April of 2013 pegs the numbers at 135,474, 000. Still down 2.5 Million jobs and that is not adjusted for the growing workforce that has increased by 1.38 Million during the same period. [All figures are from the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.] Silly boy, job growth occurs in the small business sector of our economy and the moneychangers are not lending money to them for expansion purposes – way too risky, don’t you know. And besides most of those in the small business sector are either Republicans or so busy trying to keep the doors open that they cannot be bothered with Democrat politics.

“But don’t worry, unemployment rates are down and that is all we care about. Don’t bother me with the fact that the unemployment figures simply represent those receiving unemployment benefits and doesn’t include those who have given up or run out of benefits. I’m telling you that the falling unemployment numbers are proof positive of the benefits to working people from Mr. Obama’s policies and it doesn’t matter that there are still 2.5 million fewer jobs today than there were before the recession began and that another 1.38 million people have entered the workforce with no prospects of a job. Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?

“So there it is. I’m done being a conservative and by default a Republican. I’m going to be an Obama Democrat and enjoy my increasing wealth while the rest of you go whistle. I’ve been practicing getting dewy eyed and developing a quiver in my voice when I talk about the children – and I always talk about the children. I’ve been practicing my empathetic frown when I hear the plight of the poor, or the down trodden, or whatever group we are feigning concern about this week. And I’ll be at the rallies marching with my brothers and sisters (just as long as you hold the march after trading has closed on Wall Street – first things first, eh.)

“And mind you, I don’t want to be just any kind of Democrat – only an Obama Democrat or a public employees union Democrat so I can retire to the beaches of Mexico with large women in purple T-shirts, drink margaritas and laugh at the rest of the world.”

The same things is true again today. While Mr. Biden brags about the number of jobs he has created, the fact of the matter is that those numbers simply represent the number of jobs lost during the COVID pandemic and are now being recovered. The only numbers that are important in determining whether working men and women are benefiting under Mr. Biden is the Labor Force Participation Rate. That number represents the total number of men and women working and/or seeking work* – thus it includes those receiving unemployment benefits – compared to the total number of able bodied men and women available for work. At the low point of the COVID pandemic, the Labor Force Participation Rate had dropped to 61.3 percent – only 61.3 percent of the available workforce was employed. Thus far Mr. Biden’s administration has only been able to bring that number up to 62.8 percent in November of 2023 of and that number dropped to 62.5 the following month. (Lest you may want to dismiss these numbers as minor deviation – they are not. Each 0.1 percent represents about 165,000 jobs. Thus, since the pre-COVID average of about 63.1, we continue to be down about 1,000,000 jobs. The robust job growth hustled by Mr. Biden is in reality a tepid recovery of jobs lost and still shy by about 1,000,000 jobs. The same phenomena occurred under Mr. Obama when he presided over the longest post-recession recovery in history.

Meanwhile, the poor got poorer, working men and women experienced a decline and the wealthiest got extraordinarily richer. The following chart was excerpted from information compiled by The Economic Policy Institute.**

Average annual wages (selected years, 2021 dollars) and percent change in annual wages over time, by wage group, 1979–2021

So while the COVID pandemic raged and Mr. Biden was busy shutting down the schools and mainstreet businesses, the Wall Street investors and money changers were increasing their earnings by nearly 30 percent to $3.3 Million.

There are good reasons why the ultra rich become even richer during periods of economic stress:

• They have larger accumulations of capital with which they take advantage of opportunities.

• Much of their wealth is invested in opportunities not usually available to the majority of Americans, including private equity placements.

• They, like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D) have access to insider information. (Remember Ms. Clinton went from dead broke at the end of her husband’s presidency to a net worth of well over $200 million virtually overnight. Ms. Pelosi also increased her net worth to over $180 million during her time as Speaker. In both instances Ms. Clinton and Ms. Pelosi accomplished this without producing a single thing, without creating jobs, in fact without really working at all. Ms. Clinton and Ms. Pelosi are not the only politicians to capitalize on their positions – they are just the most prominent.)

Thus the wealthiest of the Wall Street investors and money changers regularly support the politicians most likely to provide them the greatest opportunity to profit. While the Democrats, with the assistance of the mainstream media have been wildly successful in promoting the idea that Republicans are the tools of the rich and powerful, the facts show that it is the Democrats that prosper – even some of the dumbest people you could possibly meet in the halls of Congress, or the political appointees in the executive branch.

Many of the working men and women in America think of the “rich” as the local bank manager, the small manufacturer or the area rancher. They are well off and they have worked hard to build their business or the craft or trade but they remain in the 90^th to 99^th percentile. They earn in the range of $250,000 to $400,000 annually and they are comfortable but they are not in the 99^th percentile (the one percenters) earning on average over $800,000. And certainly 99.9 percentile (the 0.1 percent) earning in excess of $3 Million per year. It is this latter group that pull the levers of financial power and it this latter group that contribute significantly to the Democrats – mostly for access to power and information and immunity from scrutiny.

The disparity between the rich and the poor has reached an unsustainable level. A politician friend of mine once explained why he and I could think alike on most issues and yet be in opposite parties – he a Democrat then, but no more, and me a Republican then, but no more. He prophesied that there are vastly more poor people than rich and that if we don’t do something to improve the lives of the poor, they will rise up and take it all away from the rich.

The Democrats have fooled the poor into believing that they welfare state they have created is the answer but there is no escape from poverty by living on welfare. The poor have become the modern day slaves and the government politicians and bureaucrats have become their masters. Relieve from poverty will only come with a job – a sustainable job.

So thus far we have failed.

So while I say with tongue in cheek that I want to be an Obama/Biden Democrat, I would actually hang my head in shame.

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*The number does not include men and women in military service nor men and women caring for the home.

**The Economic Policy Institute is a non-profit, non- partisan think tank focusing on economic data and policy in America. It is generally considered to be left-leaning.