President Joe Biden recently bragged about “fundamentally changing the economy,” claiming that his policies are “taking it from an economy that takes care of those at the top and changing an economy that gives people who built this country a fair shot.”
While his remarks were clearly intended to reflect positively on the supposed successes of the past three years, millions of struggling Americans have seen their personal financial situations deteriorate since Biden’s inauguration.
One obvious example can be found in the nation’s housing crisis — particularly as it relates to rental properties.
The results of a recent study by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies focusing on 2022 statistics found that half of all renters spent at least 30% of their income on housing, which was a record high, and nearly half of that group spent 50% or more of their income on rent each month.
In the more than a year since those statistics were current, evidence shows that rental housing has only become more unaffordable for many Americans.
“We actually saw increases across every single income category that we look at, which sort of surprised us,” noted Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, the lead author of the report.
While the Harvard University researchers behind the study sought to blame a post-pandemic surge in housing costs, plenty of Biden critics have identified other causes for the trend.
Guess what happens if you let 10 million fake refugees into your country?
Rent prices goes up for everyone at the bottom and wages go down because there is plenty of unskilled labor.
Bidenomics 😢 pic.twitter.com/0JqryUusIm
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) January 26, 2024
“Of all the worrisome trends in the American economy, the easiest one to turn around with the greatest downstream positives is to stop artificially juicing demand for housing through loose border policies,” opined NumbersUSA analyst Andrew Good.
In addition to the strain on the housing system caused by the influx of millions of undocumented migrants over the course of the past three years, the Biden administration’s big-spending policies have fueled inflation. As a result, rent is just one of several essential expenses that have forced families to make tough decisions.
As Grover M. Hermann Center research fellow E.J. Antoni explained last month: “Thanks to Biden’s far-left agenda, the federal deficit is on track to almost double from last year, breaching $3 trillion. Until that is reined in, inflation will continue, with the family budget shrinking as the federal budget grows, and Biden will remain on the naughty list.”
