Kamala Harris has spent 20 months proving she has no business being anywhere near the most powerful office in the United States.
But her Twitter post Tuesday, just after the release of the latest evidence that the administration she serves is failing the American people, was so tone deaf it raised the question of whether she lives anywhere near reality.
And with less than two months before the midterm elections that will decide the future of the Joe Biden presidency — and Harris’ future, too — the backlash was brutal.
According to the Associated Press, the Labor Department on Tuesday released inflation figures that showed inflation in August rose a shocking 8.3 percent over the same month last year.
As normal Americans understand, that means that every dollar in a worker’s salary, a Social Security payment or a retirement fund is buying a good deal less than it was before Biden and Harris took office.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics report reads in part like it was written to cushion the blow, but the numbers are still unforgiving.
“The all items index increased 8.3 percent for the 12 months ending August, a smaller figure than the 8.5-percent increase for the period ending July,” the report stated.
“The all items less food and energy index rose 6.3 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index increased 23.8 percent for the 12 months ending August, a smaller increase than the 32.9-percent increase for the period ending July. The food index increased 11.4 percent over the last year, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending May 1979.”
It’s a dismal picture by any sane accounting.
But in the world of the Biden administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill, the “Inflation Reduction Act” must be boosted at all costs, even if it sounds like an insult to the American intelligence.
Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act that President @JoeBiden signed into law, we’re going to reduce the health insurance premiums for 13 million Americans by an average of $800 and lower prescription drug prices for people on Medicare.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 13, 2022
“Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act that President @JoeBiden signed into law, we’re going to reduce the health insurance premiums for 13 million Americans by an average of $800 and lower prescription drug prices for people on Medicare,” Harris wrote.
To be fair, it’s entirely possible that Harris’ tweet was meant to pump up a hideously ill-timed White House celebration scheduled for today to mark the passage of the woefully misnamed law.
But the fact that it was published only hours after the dismal news that inflation is running as destructively as ever does not reflect well on Harris’ political instincts. The fact that the news was so bad crushes her narrative.
After watching her crash and burn in the 2020 Democratic primary season (when she dropped out of contention in December 2019 before a single vote was cast or caucus determined) and her predictably poor performance in an office she acquired solely by virtue of being black and a woman, honest Americans have come to expect little in the way of brain power from a woman who’s just one frail Biden heartbeat away from a seat in the Oval Office.
But Tuesday’s tweet was more reason to believe, if any were needed, that Harris has no fitness for her position.
While her post drew far too much rah-rah support — presumably from the kind of witless sophisticates who get their views from “The View” or Stephen Colbert — there were many, many users who pointed out the problem Harris’ tweet didn’t address.
Not mentioned: did not reduce inflation
— Dan ?? (@danieltobin) September 13, 2022
When is it going to start reducing inflation?
— Kanye (@Kanye_1973) September 13, 2022
Reduction used to mean subtraction
— Neil (@bostonharbor27) September 13, 2022
And then there was this:
And you are so great! Look at the stock market today do you know how to read it? But of course most that voted for you don’t have any retirement accounts. Build back better at its finest. Wake up people.
— Tony Setlak (@TonySetlak) September 13, 2022
“And you are so great! Look at the stock market today do you know how to read it? But of course most that voted for you don’t have any retirement accounts. Build back better at its finest. Wake up people,” the tweet said.
But Tuesday afternoon, the Dow Jones closed after plunging more than 1,000 points on the inflation news, according to CNN.
After four rate hikes already in 2022, investors were already expecting another Federal Reserve interest rate hike, according to the New York Post. Tuesday’s inflation news is only making that more certain.
Last week, according to CNBC, Fed Vice Chairman Lael Brainard said the central bank was “in this for as long as it takes to get inflation down.”
Do you think inflation will be the most important factor in the midterms?
That means the cost of financing major purchases — homes, cars and the like — are going up for the kind of Americans who don’t travel in the luxurious circles occupied by the Biden administration, Democratic Party leaders and their wealthy supporters.
And that’s on top of the weekly or daily pain of shopping for groceries. The cost of food, shelter and medical care were, according to the BLS, “the largest of many contributors” to the inflation increase.
The report noted that those increases were “largely offset” by a decline in gas prices, but neglected to mention that there are alternatives to buying gas. There’s really no alternative to eating.
But Harris is spinning her tale about reducing health insurance premiums for 13 million Americans — in a nation of 330 million — and drug prices for those on Medicare.
Completely tone deaf. My 401K doesn’t want to hear about your Inflation Reduction Act.
— Eran Quinlan (@EranQuinlan) September 13, 2022
Americans were probably never under any illusion they would be getting a bargain with Harris — not when Biden chose his running mate specifically, and unapologetically, based on the criteria of race and gender.
After almost two years as vice president — and a series of embarrassments and failures — Harris has never been short of critics. And with zero accomplishments on either her own account or the administration she’s served, she’s already lived up to their lowest, contemptuous expectations.
But with that Twitter post on Tuesday — and its proof of her contempt for the intelligence of her own electorate — she’s deserved to make many, many more.
