Plenty has been written about President Biden’s State of the Union address. It was the worst such speech that I can remember.
Joe Biden yelled at Americans for 67 minutes. His speech had very little to do with the state of our country, instead, it was filled to the brim with angry screeds against Republicans (the Deplorables) and thirteen mentions of his ‘predecessor’ (Donald Trump). It was not a serious speech, it was a campaign rally stump speech. Democrats literally chanted, “Four more years.” Biden has a unique way of demeaning the presidency while pretending that his administration is a return to normal.
Biden began his speech by talking about Ukraine, not America, and it went downhill. As he focused on economic issues, he brought up shrinkflation. This is something that he said he only recently discovered. That shows how out of touch he is with everyday chores like going into a grocery store, or a convenience store. He has been in elected office for fifty years. He dwells in a bubble. So, it isn’t surprising that he discovered that some of his Super Bowl snacks were smaller in size than in previous years.
Remember when President George H.W. Bush went to a grocery store and learned about check-out scanners? He was mocked by his leftist critics for weeks. No one on the left is saying a peep about Biden’s ignorance. Shrinkflation has been an issue for years, not just now. However, what Biden failed to do was to admit that his economic policies have increased shrinkflation.
Biden name-checked Snickers candy bars. It seems he ad-libbed the remark. Every time Biden goes off teleprompter his staff holds their breath. This time he chose Snickers bars as an example of shrinkflation and it didn’t ring true for some people. I have not recently purchased a Snickers, though they are in my top three favorite candy bars, but I don’t recall noticing any size difference.
In fact, the snack companies think you won’t notice if they change the size of the bag and put a hell of a lot fewer — — same — same size bag — put fewer chips in it. No, I’m not joking. It’s called “shrink-flation.”
Pass Bobby Casey’s bill and stop this. I really mean it.
You probably all saw that commercial on Snickers bars. And you get — you get charged the same amount, and you got about, I don’t know, 10 percent fewer Snickers in it.
Biden was referring to his Super Bowl snack video. He bemoaned fewer chips in snack bags and he talked about Snickers, too. Instead of doing a traditional pre-Super Bowl interview with the network that carried the championship game, he opted to put out a video on snacks.
So, when Biden chose to bring shrinkflation into the SOTU address by talking about Cookie Monster’s reference to shrinkflation and the size of cookies, he again mentioned Snickers.
Biden complains about ‘Bidenomics’ at the State of the Union
“Snickers bars! You get charged the same amount and you got about, I don’t know, about 10% fewer Snickers in it!” pic.twitter.com/VJxedAsRTw
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 8, 2024
Fewer Snickers? Snickers isn’t a specific ingredient, it’s the name of the candy bar. He said it like he would say fewer peanuts.
A CNN conservative contributor didn’t believe Biden’s claim so he reached out to the Mars candy company for comment. Sure enough, Biden, they say, is not telling the truth. The company released a statement.
As I suspected. The president is literally slandering a candy bar. Official statement given to me by the Mars/Snickers people. Will literally slander anything and anyone. Total hack. pic.twitter.com/6DiJ1Ld6EH
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) March 9, 2024
The size of a candy bar is not a particularly pressing issue in the grand scheme of things. But what this incident shows is that Joe Biden is out of touch with everyday life. It shows he lies about absolutely everything, even when he doesn’t have to do that to make a point. And it shows he was unfamiliar with an economic issue until only recently.
Shrinkflation happens because ingredients are more expensive for the makers of products. The makers have a choice – either reduce the product size or raise prices. Inflation is slowly going down after Biden’s policies caused a historic high level of inflation. However, prices are not going down. Once prices rise, they rarely go back down. The Mars company chose to not raise the price of Snickers. It says the candy bar has not shrunk.
Worse yet, Biden wants to go after companies for gouging prices. Companies raising prices on products are not gouging prices. Gouging prices are when a storm comes through and knocks out electricity and convenience stores raise the price of candles. I know of which I speak here. That convenience store selling a candy bar has no control over the price of it. That is set by the company that made the candy bar. These are some basic facts that the president should know. It’s not rocket science.
“Too many corporations raise their prices to pad their profits charging you more and more for less and less. That’s why we’re cracking down on corporations that engage in price gouging or deceptive pricing from food to health care to housing. In fact, snack companies think you won’t notice when they charge you just as much for the same size bag but with fewer chips in it,” Biden said.
The president doesn’t set prices. He has bigger issues to tend to, doesn’t he? The world is on fire and Biden destroyed the economy so much that 60% of Americans now live paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately, Joe Biden is not up to the job of being president. He yelled at Americans for 67 minutes because someone told him to show he had energy. Old men think yelling shows energy. Whatever his handlers pumped him up with before he delivered the speech only helped Biden show he was incapable of seizing the moment. He could have reached out and tried to unify the country – which is the norm – yet he turned it into a campaign rally. This is Biden’s America. An unserious administration doing unserious things.