Throughout his entire time in office, Biden has tried to take indisputable facts about his failures and spin them into a fictitious success story. But what he doesn’t seem to realize is that the American people are not stupid, and they see right through his snake oil salesman pitch every time.

Let’s start with a topic at the forefront of the national debate: illegal immigration and our southern border. In total, there have been over 9 million known illegal border crossings since Biden took office, and in January 2024 alone, there were over 176,000 illegal border crossings – the worst January recorded in U.S. history. Now, in an attempt to save face and point the blame elsewhere, Biden is saying he needs Congress to pass an immigration bill that would give him the authority to secure our southern border. Here’s the thing: He already has that authority and could shut down the border right now if he wanted to, but he doesn’t.

Not only is he lying about his ability to secure our border and stop the massive waves of illegal immigrants, drugs, and human trafficking flowing through it, but he’s the one that caused it in the first place. During his first 100 days in office, Biden took over 90 executive actions to weaken America’s border security, including ending the Migrant Protection Protocols, or “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced immigrants requesting asylum to wait in Mexico while their claims were being processed.

Make no mistake about it: Biden’s illogical and asinine policies are what led to the worst border crisis in U.S. history, and his refusal to use his existing authority to secure our border only continues to exacerbate the problem. Biden’s backwards thinking regarding illegal immigration is destroying communities across America and has made every state a border state. This madness must end now.

Biden and his administration have also done some Oscar-nominee-worthy spinning regarding our economy, doing splits six ways to Sunday to try to put a positive light on the financial pain Americans are feeling. In recent months, Biden and his administration have attempted to tout misleading metrics on our economy and inflation, but, once again, they don’t realize that the American people are not stupid. Citizens across the United States are still feeling immense stress due to Biden’s ludicrous economic policies and they aren’t fooled by this administration’s conjecture.

Under this administration, overall prices are up over 17%, and roughly $2 trillion in real wealth held by the middle class has been eliminated since March 2022. In 2023, almost 75% of working-class Americans reported cutting back on entertainment and eating out specifically due to inflation. On top of that, 51% of working-class Americans are working more hours. In response to the inflation that this administration is wholly responsible for, the Fed has hiked interest rates 11 times within the last two years alone leading to the highest interest rates we have seen in over 20 years.

This administration has repeatedly tried to sell us the lie that “Bidenomics” is a raging success. Well, according to the facts, this is what Bidenomics is: higher prices, higher inflation, and families having to work more hours just to make ends meet. It’s bad enough that Biden is entirely to blame for Americans’ worsening economic troubles over the past 3 years, but the cherry on top is his insistence on lying to the public about the reality that they’re facing.

Further, Biden has repeatedly shown us that he will bow down to climate extremists at the drop of a dime, regardless of the negative effects on energy costs or America’s energy industry. On day one of this administration, Biden launched his war on domestic energy production by killing the Keystone XL pipeline. Since then, Biden is responsible for depleting our Strategic Petroleum Reserve by over 40%, bringing it to its lowest levels since the early 1980s. And recently, Biden stopped the approval of liquified natural gas (LNG) exports, even further decimating the United States’ energy industry.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, increasing LNG exports could add as much as $73 billion to the U.S. economy and over 450,000 jobs. Ending this pause and other restrictions on LNG would allow the U.S. to export more, encourage domestic energy production, and reduce our energy supply vulnerabilities. Since Biden took office, his administration has taken numerous actions deliberately designed to stifle domestic energy production, yet, he continues to point the finger elsewhere when energy and crude oil prices skyrocket.

Biden could not have a more abysmal record when it comes to incentivizing domestic energy producers and has severely increased our energy market volatility. This doesn’t just bring more pain at the gas pump, but plummeting energy independence is a major threat to our national security as well. I’ve said all along that the United States needs to be energy dominant again, but Biden has done everything in his power to appease the woke mob and ensure it doesn’t happen.

Joe Biden has made it abundantly clear that he couldn’t care less about what real America is going through or how bad Americans’ wallets are hurting. This administration has made life worse for U.S. citizens at every turn, and during his State of the Union speech, I have no doubt that he will ignore all of the facts and do the same song and dance he’s been doing for over three years now. But the American people see through it. No matter which way you slice it, Biden’s policies are hurting our families, our wallets, and the future of the nation we love.

Sen. Eric Schmitt represents the state of Missouri in the U.S. Senate. 

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