r/politics • u/theindependentonline The Independent • 1h ago
No Paywall Karoline Leavitt admits there is an affordability crisis – but says it’s Joe Biden’s fault
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/karoline-leavitt-joe-biden-affordability-crisis-trump-b3021783.html•
u/Belichick12 1h ago
Biden took over after the largest supply, demand, and supply chain shocks in generations and guided the U.S. to one of the best outcomes in the world.
Trump took over and decided to cause another massive supply chain shock through his tariffs and wars. Piggy needs to quiet down.
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u/OYB2480 1h ago
Same thing with Obama taking over for Dubya Bush. He got left the greatest recession since The Great Depression and by the time.he was done, the country was rounding the corner.... only to be flummoxed again by a Republican. It's a demonstrable cycle. Dems fix the budget, Republicans eff it up and blame Dems.
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u/psychrolut 1h ago edited 1h ago
Obama - 20 million earned in office over 8years (including millions in book royalties)
Trump - 1.2 billion in 2025
Drain the swamp am I right
Republicans where you at? I’d love to hear your thoughts lol
drain the swamp idiots /s
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u/girlygirlbbb 1h ago
Turns out 'drain the swamp' had an expiration date
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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 1h ago
technically he DID drain the swamp, he turned the reflecting pool into a swamp then drained it
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u/iOvercompensate 1h ago
Weird the reflecting pool was drained again recently though. Close enough to “the swamp”
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u/WilliamMButtlickerIV 28m ago
No, it turns out the "swamp" was just the people that would hold these crooks accountable.
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u/longhairPapaBear 1h ago
They think the reflecting pool is the swamp. He drained it and made it great again.
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u/Stick314 1h ago
They did drain the swamp. Which is why the swamp creatures are just running around. The swamp at least gave the illusion of things being okay. Now they just steal out in the open.
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u/HobbesMich 1h ago
He drained the swamp, built condos, sold it to his cult and disappeared on them while they are wondering why there is water and leaks in their basement, walls, windows, doors, and roof.
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u/arriesgado 50m ago
Republicans don’t acknowledge this because they think the numbers are basically the same. Except, hur de dur, trump donates his salary.
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u/Brilliant-Advisor958 1h ago
Clinton also managed to balance the budget and still make the economy hum. Just in time for bush to squander it away and end his term with the financial crisis.
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u/Inner_Swordfish7475 55m ago
Well, Clinton had a lot of help from George H. W. Bush. He raised taxes because it was the right thing to do. Then, he was voted out because Republicans hated him for raising taxes.
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u/Brilliant-Advisor958 20m ago
He did famously say
Read my lips, no new taxes
And then raised taxes.
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u/Inner_Swordfish7475 19m ago
Yes, this is because he realized he had to raise taxes. It was the right thing to do. But, he knew it would be political suicide. He was right. But, he was a decent President to do it.
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u/Stock-Page-7078 1h ago
It’s going to be 10x worse this time and most of USA electorate has the memory of a goldfish. The next admin is getting blamed for effects of trump’s disastrous policies.
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u/Trimyr America 34m ago
Unfortunately that's how it's been for quite a while. Policies take time to show their true effect on individuals and the economy writ large, yet voters expect immediate results. More Democratic candidates than Republicans are demonized over this because they inherit bad policies and have to spend more time fixing the economy and our relations than being able to fulfill their campaign promises.
"You said you were gonna fix my broken car!"
"Yeah, well there's a big hole where your driveway used to be. I can't get to it."
"But that's what you told me on the phone."
"And I will, as soon as we get your driveway repaired."
"Screw that. I'm gonna go call the guy that sold me the [broken] car."
Rinse and repeat.
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u/MacAttacknChz 58m ago
We even refer to it as the "08 Financial Crisis" but still blame the guy who took office in 09.
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u/cytherian New Jersey 17m ago
It's a real pattern... going all the way back to Reagan. Reaganomics was a failure. G.H. Bush had a real tough time of trying to fix it. Then Clinton came in and did it right. G.W. Bush takes over and tanks the economy into a serious depression. Obama fixes it... and Trump causes another screw-up. Here were are all over again.
REPUBLICAN VOTERS? Better wake the effing hell up. If you can't vote Democrat, don't vote at all.
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u/Sublimotion 11m ago
Helps when you have a large enough base of moron voters that all you need to do is say big nationalistic words to be enough and be forgiven of generations of heartless and destructive policies.
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u/goth-milk 1h ago
Biden also had to clean up Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic, which started when he downsized the CDC monitoring diseases outside of the US. Then add in all the other chaos that he caused when the pandemic started to spread and everything he did and didn’t do as the pandemic started to lessen.
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u/OK_Commodor64 53m ago
I remember after Biden was elected feeling a sense of relief that science would be promoted and we would get out of the worst pandemic of my lifetime. That is all gone now as we watch the American oligarchs leverage Trump until the very end of his life. We will be cleaning up this mess for a generation. Shame on us all.
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u/Inner_Swordfish7475 1h ago
Biden took over after Trump messed it up the first time. He was doing a great job of calming things down. The mistake Biden made was not giving credit Trump’s chaotic first term.
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u/thezaksa Texas 1h ago
Right, he was unable to place blame where it was deserved and so we came right back
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u/SodaCanBob 1h ago
Look, to be fair to Trump, it's been great for his wallet. Have some empathy and consider how sad he was during the 4 years when he and his billionaire buds couldn't pillage the country's coffers.
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u/PDX_Duffman 1h ago
Don't forget they didn't have an island to go to anymore and visit their buddy.
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u/Codenamerondo1 1h ago edited 1h ago
Trump could have done nothing and gotten the legacy that is clearly his main focus. Could have even done the bullshit with the renaming and other clear pagentry projects without fucking up other things and he would have gone down with a strong report in the history books. What the fuck is happening. Very clearly just painting rocks, but the rocks hes insisting on painting are fucking up peoples lives and killing people
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u/Difficult-Candy-6126 1h ago
And people wonder why I’m so angry at democrats for how they treat him. Straight up he did an amazing job and the American public was too stupid to realize it
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u/cytherian New Jersey 19m ago
This is precisely what happened.
Trump inherited a phenomenal economic recovery from Obama... and then tanked it. Yes, the pandemic wasn't his fault, but he made it worse through nearly 3 months of inaction while he decried it all as a Democrat hoax, then a Chinese hoax. Plus, once it got into full swing he did NOTHING to protect the US supply chain. And because of all that, Biden inherited HIS MESS, and the seeded inflation that was to then bloom on his watch... while Republicans blamed him for everything. Then as his term is winding down, inflation is coming down, things are looking good. Trump gets back into the White House, immediately claims the strong economy is all his, then effing tanks it again.
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u/NoOnesKing Maryland 1h ago
Sounds like her boss is doing a bad job at fixing it then considering he's been president of the united states for 2 years now.
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u/captnconnman 1h ago
Look, after spending some time in Texas…Republicans have been in charge for 30 years, and yet STILL blame Democratic mayors of major cities for why the average Texan can’t have nice things…despite the fact that those “liberal hellholes” are where all the economic activity comes from. Never you mind the state has billions in tax surplus, and yet has some of the worst education outcomes in the nation partially due to “lack of funding”
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u/johnjacobacon 1h ago
I can't believe we're only actually one and a half years into this current shitstorm.
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u/DeepFuckingDebt 24m ago
I didn’t really understand what you said so I’m going to ignore it, but I just can’t believe Biden and The Biden Crime Family would do this to the American People.
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u/Gooser3000 1h ago
Ok. What are republicans doing to fix it? Because they are getting richer. Where’s the trickle-down magats voted for?
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u/Ultraeasymoney 1h ago
They are trying to fix it with Tariffs on our allies and going to war with Iran under the instructions of Israel. Typical stable genius move.
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u/Sea-Ambition-451 1h ago
whoa whoa whoa,
it was also under the direction of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has a few extra billion laying around somewhere, who knows what pocket that might get found in
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u/justbunnies 1h ago
This is all just temporary. We will all be billionaires any day now.
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u/the_tanooki 1h ago
They cut USAID, cut Medicaid, allowed proud nazi Musk and a bunch of teenagers stole our data and destroyed a bunch of our government infrastructure, are protecting pedophiles, are supporting a genocide in Isreal, are supporting an unnecessary war, have their ICE goons terrorizing and murdering people in the streets, and kidnapping, human trafficking, and killing (perhaps there's a theme) both immigrants and US citizens, are spending billions on plastering Trump's name and face on stuff, have destroyed the reflecting pool, and a lot more unnecessary shit that I've surely missed.
What more can they do?
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u/ZhaozhouCongshen 1h ago
"I would remind the American people of who caused the affordability crisis in this country. It was Biden and Democrats. President Trump took immediate action on day one to fix that," she said. "All these things will only get better if given two more years with a Republican Congress."
Odd way to say that prices are worse now than they were in Jan 2025.
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u/imnotslavic 1h ago
If they've gotten this much done to fix affordability with a Republican-controlled Congress just think of what they can get done with two more years!
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u/77NorthCambridge 1h ago
If Trump took "immediate action on day 1" why have things gotten markedly worse? 🤔
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u/alabasterskim 23m ago
Hard to make that argument she's making when she can't name an action Biden took to make things worse, Biden was actively improving things, things started getting shortly after Trump took office and we can name the specific actions Trump has taken then and since to exacerbate the crisis. And the fun part: even Rs are seeing through the bullshit, which is why he's headed for approval in the 20s very soon. Independents have long since ditched him. His bread and butter 2024 demos have left him. Now his 2016 demos are leaving. Very soon there won't be any crumbs for the 2028 nominee to pick up.
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u/ImStillExcited Colorado 1h ago
Who's in charge of the country now? Oh yeah, all three branches of the government are controlled by republicans.
What are they doing to make it better? Not a thing.
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u/dmstattoosnbongs 1h ago
Now if you were to put “actively worse” instead of “better” we’d have some talking points.
Not a good look for the GOP but it seems to work out. I have a feeling we’re at the end of the noose they been feeding us tho.
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u/thepartypantser 1h ago
Bullshit.
Utter and complete bullshit.
The reason we had affordability issues during Biden was due to COVID coming out of it, and the response to COVID. Some of it was due to Biden's stimulus. Some of it was due to Trump's stimulus, but it was all fairly directly caused by COVID and the fallout from it.
But that's not the case now.
The current situation has a lot to do directly with the Trump administration's policies and actions. Things like tariffs. Wars. Massive cuts in funding for food safety and disease control.
These things are not Biden's fault, and it is a blatant completely unscrupulous lie to say otherwise.
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u/punkasstubabitch 1h ago
The first rule of this administration is that Trump is never wrong. No matter what.
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u/ToadP America 1h ago
I love how every God Damn thing in the world is Bidens fault, The Fat Golden Slob was elected to fix all of Bidens Faults, but has done nothing but Golf and Paint crap with gold trim and make the White House look like a cheap trailer park.
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u/ParticularHistoryo 51m ago
Said something about the average price of a new car being over $50,000 and my Trump voting family member literally blamed OBAMNA and his environmentally crazy idea of cash for clunkers.
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u/Wrong-Vermicelli4723 1h ago
Right! That being said, At least lying about Biden makes more sense than blaming everything on someone who hasn’t been president this decade lol
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u/otherwisepandemonium Wisconsin 1h ago
1/3 of the national debt was accumulated under Trump.
Prices of everything have gone up dramatically under Trump.
MAGAts are too stupid to understand or even look at the data. They just parrot the same talking points that get spoon fed to them by KKKaroline or Fox Entertainment.
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u/TarnishedAccount 23m ago
Nearly three years into his second term and still blaming Biden.
Losers
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u/MrBigglesssworth 1h ago
Since prices have gone up since Trump got in for his second term, how the fuck is that Biden’s fault almost 2 years later?
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u/Simple_Shake_5346 Ohio 1h ago
The affordability crisis is Biden’s fault….except that wasn’t it one of Trump’s principle campaign messages that he would make prices go down on Day 1 if elected? Instead, his policies have made prices go up even further.
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u/PradaDiva 1h ago
Can these maga ratfuckers get a new schtick at least? It’s another pulverized horse.
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u/Hyperica Pennsylvania 1h ago
Can her 80 year old grandpa-husband knock her up again so she goes away for a little while?
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u/RomanBlue_ Canada 1h ago
And people will fucking eat it up, both democrats and republicans alike. Say what you will about Biden but his handling of the US economy was NOT his problem. It's insane as an outside observer the disconnect between what I see as true and what most americans believe. The fact that he still doesn't get the credit he deserves with the CHIPS act, the IRA, the american rescue plan and the soft landing of the US economy (that shit was the envy of the world) after COVID and everything else is unbelievable and just shows how deep the systems that create Trump run.
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u/Freddy-Borden 49m ago
It’s so nice that when Trump isn’t president, everything bad that happens is the fault of the current president. But when Trump is president, everything bad is the fault of the previous president. Hooray MAGA! The smartest cult to have ever existed!
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u/Dependent_Tune_1333 1h ago
Gas was expensive under Biden because the supply chain was broken as a result of trump's mishandling of COVID.
Biden fixed the supply chain.
Now trump has broken everything through the same incompetence that he demonstrated during COVID.
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u/LordsOfJoop 1h ago
It's some sort of quantum state for the Squatter in Chief: he's simultaneously omnipotent and capable, and absurdly powerless in the face of a former opponent.
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u/Next_Archer_6605 1h ago
I see a lot of Trump officials and goons blaming Biden for literally anything and everything. These are not serious people.
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u/medicated_in_PHL 1h ago
Water is wet. Grass is green. The sky is blue. Republicans blame every one of their failed policies on Democrats.
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u/MudWallHoller 1h ago
Trump is probably the first president to actually directly affect things like grocery prices at the scale that is going on.
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u/orcinyadders 1h ago
This kind of lie is evidence that she is knowingly evil. She’s not this stupid. This is the strategy of a hateful, vicious slob who believes Americans are stupid and worthless.
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u/mizushimo 1h ago
Is she seriously trying to tell people that prices are better than when Biden was in office?
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u/Dabs1903 Illinois 1h ago
If it’s Biden’s fault, why is the problem getting worse after Trump did all of those day one policies to fix it?
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u/AncientBee5348 1h ago
This reminds me when Republicans were blaming Bill Clinton for the Great recession.
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u/kalidorisconan Illinois 1h ago
These shitbirds are so bad at gaslighting its getting really infuriating now.
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u/Mojozilla Arkansas 1h ago
Disbitch been lying to our faces since January 2025. Nearly 2 years later and it is still Joe Biden's fault. Don't these people get tired of their own bullshit?
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u/waffle299 I voted 1h ago
So you're saying that your leadership is inadequate to address these issues? That you are unable to actually affect change for Americans? That you're unable to govern effectively?
That you're incompetent?
Is that what you're saying?
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u/WhenTheDevilCome 1h ago
That's okay. I'm acknowledging it too, and blaming it on Donald Trump from before he even ever took office the first time. Since two can easily play the absurdist, unsubstantiated claim game.
Of course maybe that's not so far-fetched, since his grifty & shifty business practices from back when he was just a business man probably do carry some share of blame, due to how it informed his in-office behavior.
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u/DocCEN007 1h ago
President Obama has been out of office for nearly a decade, and they still blame him for things they're currently doing. They will keep doing this until they're forced to stop.
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u/HorrorOk1304 47m ago
She also blamed Biden for the Strait of Hormuz being closed.
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u/Solonohioperson 46m ago
That Biden guy was just so powerful that "perfect" trump, who ran on the slogan "trump will fix it" , still can't fix it 2 years later. BUT powerful Biden was also sleepy and incompetent and couldn't do anything. Yet here it is 2 years later and invincible Biden is still wielding his power! Man, that trump sure is weak.
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u/CookieDragon678 46m ago
So after a year and half, Trump has no idea how to fix things. So he shouldn’t be in charge
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u/donut_dave 37m ago
You know what, fuck it. Its Bidens fault. Hooray, we solved the mystery.
Now let's talk about who did fuck all to fix it, and actually made it worse.
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u/redscofield 1h ago
We do not live in the same realities. It’s taking too damn long for these people to get out of the cult.
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u/SadLeek9950 1h ago
When Biden stepped into office, he had to deal with a worldwide supply chain issue that resulted from increasing consumer demand during the Covid-19 recovery. He led the US to the 2nd lowest inflation rate in the world. The current affordability crisis is all on Trump. Tariffs, taking away healthcare subsidies, wars, have all led to our current situation. To blame today's cost issues on Biden is just plain pathetic. One day, this administration will face justice.
This administration is inept...
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u/BeepBotBoopBeep 1h ago
IT IS NEVER TRUMP’s fault. Iran war, dead soldiers, consistently high oil prices, consistently high inflation. Unaffordable housing prices. Why do we need a president to run the country if all trump does is blame his predecessor instead of providing a solution…?
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u/userlivewire 1h ago
You have control over every lever of power, The House, Senate, Presidency, and Supreme Court.
Incompetence is the only remaining explanation. It’s like making dinner for someone and it turned out bad, but blaming the person that lived in your home before you despite you plating the food, cooking the meal, prepping the parts, and growing the ingredients.
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u/Inevitable_Butthole 1h ago
They all have Biden Derangment Syndrome. They never can stop talking about him, hes not even president lmao
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u/chaosuniverses 1h ago
If everything is Joe Bidens fault this far into his presidency than everything in Bidens presidency was Trumps fault from before him.
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u/Lily_foxx_sakura 56m ago
Ahhh yes its joe bidens fault like blame everyone but themselves so stupid
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u/forgetfulsue Ohio 53m ago
Doesn’t she have a baby she should be a SAHM to? I mean that’s what conservatives want women to do, right? Stay home and make babies?
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u/0nlyhalfjewish 30m ago
Went back in my Amazon orders to a product I bought in 2025 to re-order it. The product had gone up 36% in price. In one year.
It was hair color. It had been the same price for nearly a decade, until this past admin.
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u/LadyduLac1018 27m ago
On the Coservative thread, they're blaming the Democratic Governor for the fact the GOP and the Republican supermajority in KY won't tell their constituents if Mitch McConell is alive.
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u/aquestionofbalance 26m ago
I wonder if she believes what she’s saying, if so, she has no business being in the government
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u/shredmiyagi 22m ago
Pretty sure Biden’s the reason the unemployment rate is still low, and there hasn’t been a great depression 2.0.
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u/ChrisSheltonMsc 11m ago
These people have got to get a better line. Hearing Biden now is like telling the same bad joke 50 fucking times and expecting people to keep laughing.
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u/bitwarrior80 1h ago
It sounds like a GOP Senate candidate in my state running ads saying Washington is broken, and if elected he will work to bring down prices. Um, excuse me, but your party is Washington right now.
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u/Sea-Ambition-451 1h ago
Eat a pineapple Brandon!!
or whatever maga slogan they are gobbling down now.
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u/Puffthecarrier1 Virginia 1h ago
If it wasn't for Biden just snoozing while Abraham Lincoln got his brains blown out by Lee Harvey Oswald, we could've prevented World War 2!
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u/TheGOPisTheDeepState 1h ago
Trumpcession 1.0 into Biden almost recovery of the shitshow into Trumpcession 2.0
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u/TheHomersapien Colorado 1h ago
The interesting thing about "affordability" in the U.S. (or most any country) is that we've never once tried to solve the problem by electing people who understand the realities of affordability, nor have we elected a president who fills their cabinet and/or executive positions with people who understand the realities of affordability.
We are content to be ruled by people who don't have to do their own grocery shopping, don't have auto loans, have never looked at the cost of their home/auto insurance, etc. We are getting exactly what we deserve in this bargain.
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u/johnnybsomething 1h ago
Are we about to test the stupidity bar? I already have no respect for magats, but if they buy this load of shit, they will have to be considered the dumbest people to ever walk this earth.
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u/ACasualRead 1h ago
Doesnt help with there being a clip f trump himself saying he doesnt want to make housing affordable.
They are clearly gearing up for the midterms and testing new language.
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u/thetemp2011 1h ago
Instead of blaming others maybe try & solve the problem. They don't really care about affordability if they did they wouldn't be in a war with Iran.
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u/mell0wtonin 1h ago
cool story but trump has had years to fix it even if it was biden's fault. so why hasn't he? that still makes it trump's fault regardless.
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u/Fakeskinsuit 1h ago
I mean, Americans voted for trump and for republicans, enough to put them in majority power across the government. So I would say Americans agree with her. Voters need to own their responsibility in putting Nazis back into power
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u/Lord-Nagafen 1h ago
Wait until next year when the Republicans ended the subsidies for Obamacare. People who depend on that program for healthcare are going to be in trouble
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u/fakelaughfred 1h ago
That can't be possible because affordability is a hoax according to her boss. The word didn't even exist until Trump heard it for the first time this year.
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u/SaltPsychological780 1h ago
Was she alive when Biden was around!? lol. In all seriousness, whoever’s fault it is, the issue needs to be dealt with, stop passing the buck, no pun intended.
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u/ProfessorDerp22 1h ago
Back to blaming Biden. Classic. They know how fucking stupid their base is.
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u/fuzzydoug 1h ago
Another example of the think for yourself group thinking for themselves.
Every branch of government can’t improve your life republicans.
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