ANALYSIS: TRUE. Andy Kessler: Politicians Have Earned Your Distrust.
Each day government bombards Americans with reasons not to trust it. It has been only 616 days since the Trump administration’s “15 Days to Slow the Spread.” From the Fauci dance—no mask, one mask, double masks—to the airport mess known as the Transportation Security Administration. If it’s OK for travelers under 12 and over 75 to keep their shoes on through airport security, then surely it’s OK for everyone. Americans aren’t stupid. Each time we’re spun or deceived or outright lied to, trust in government melts away.
Case in point: President Biden’s speech at the Port of Baltimore about the recently enacted bipartisan infrastructure plan, in which he said “this bill is going to reduce the cost of goods to consumers.” Spend more, prices go down? Not likely. A few breaths later: “I’m going to create good-paying union jobs—union . . . not $12 an hour, not $15 an hour—$45 an hour and up with good benefits.” And that will somehow reduce the cost of goods to consumers? C’mon, man. Is Sen. Joe Manchin the only one who understands the wage-price spiral? Inflation is “transitory,” we’re told. Uh-huh. Meanwhile, some Californians are pumping $5 gas.
Mr. Biden also claims the $1.75 trillion social-climate-porkfest reconciliation bill—really more than $4 trillion without accounting gimmicks—“costs zero dollars.” The administration must be using that new “equity” math I keep hearing about. A third-grader could see the deception. Any wonder why Mr. Biden has a 41% approval rating?
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declared the chaotic Afghan withdrawal the “largest airlift in U.S. history . . . so no, I would not say that is anything but a success.” That’s like saying the Titanic was a success as the largest lifeboat deployment in history. . . .
Others are more subtle. Did you ever wonder why former media darling and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent Covid patients back to nursing homes instead of to the Javits Center or the USNS Comfort hospital ship, which President Trump had sent? The Cuomo re-election campaign received more than $1 million from the Greater New York Hospital Association in 2018. Mr. Cuomo then increased Medicaid fees paid to nursing homes and hospitals. When the pandemic hit, the same hospital association requested that nursing homes be compelled to accept patients who had tested positive for Covid-19. Then, as deaths mounted, the Cuomo administration underreported the number.
Voting reform has caused needless boycotts, and Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred was booed in Atlanta during the World Series for moving the All-Star Game out of the city to protest Georgia’s voting reforms. Somehow Voter ID is bad, yet mail-in ballots are good for election integrity? That doesn’t even begin to make sense.
Nope.