LARRY KUDLOW: Trump is Biden's worst enemy
Kudlow reacts to the affordability crisis
As bond yields soar and stock prices plunge, Joe Biden talks about something called the "last gasp" of MAGA Republicans. Wow. He might want to take a look in the mirror at the latest batch of polling data from the highly respected IBD/TIPP poll, just out yesterday.
Overall, President Biden's approval dropped 5 points from September's 41% to October's 36%. That's 36% approval, not much. Meanwhile, on the economy, 56% disapprove of Biden economic policies, a.k.a. Bidenomics, and only 24% approve. The IBD/TIPP financial stress index went up 2.4 to 70.5, and meanwhile, only 16% say wages are keeping up with inflation. Sixty-one percent say they're living paycheck-to-paycheck and a new study shows that while both home prices and mortgage rates continue to rise, the typical monthly cost of maintaining a home reached $2,053 in the third quarter, the first time ever that figure has gone above $2,000.
The typical monthly payment now consumes 35% of the average national wage $71,214. Common lending standards call for a 28% debt-to-income ratio. So 35% puts home buying out-of-reach of middle-class working folks. There's an affordability crisis out there as prices rise faster than wages, financial anxieties grow, the American Dream of owning your own home seems out-of-reach, real wages after prices rise are falling, and Joe Biden's radical Green New Deal would end gas-powered cars and probably up to a million folks would lose their jobs in the auto sector alone.
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So, I would suggest to Mr. Biden that this is the "last gasp" of Bidenomics, and that brings me to my pal Mark Levin and his great new book, "The Democrat Party Hates America." Democrats are the party of the state, Mr. Levin argues, and I would heartily agree. At every turn, they want to undermine the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
They are opposed to free enterprise capitalism, are anti-business and absolutely detest the workings of free markets. Mark Levin talks about how Democrats want to transform America, which is another way of saying they don't like America.
They are in favor of the all-powerful central government, a command-and-control economy. They see the "unbound possibilities" of action, and unhesitatingly employ the Justice Department, the FBI, or the IRS to destroy their opponents.
The permanent bureaucracy in Washington is a left-wing bureaucracy, an administrative state, and Mr. Levin writes of a devil's bargain between Joe Biden and socialist Bernie Sanders on climate change, criminal justice, education, the economy, health care and immigration.
As a follow-up to his magnificent book "American Marxism," "The Democrat Party Hates America" is a truth-telling book of the first order. Right now, in courtrooms across America, Joe Biden is employing every statist weapon possible to destroy Donald Trump and his presidential prospects. Trump is the archenemy to Democratic Party socialism, be it economic or cultural.
At this moment, a left-wing judge and state attorney general are trying to strip Trump of all his business assets and his home, relying on fraudulent methodologies. Trump is Biden's worst enemy. So, Biden wants to throw him in jail for 750 years. Well, we'll see about that.
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Meanwhile, as a free enterpriser who believes in individual rights, I am reminded of the late William F. Buckley, Jr., who had a much better idea regarding Joe Biden and his Bidenomical socialist friends.
As he said in the National Review mission statement: Let us "stand athwart history, yelling ‘Stop,’ at a time when no one is inclined to do so." That's my riff.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the October 3, 2023, edition of "Kudlow."