Florida Rep. Michael Waltz (R) has just released a scathing review of President Joe Biden’s (D) first year in office. In an op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel, the Florida Republican argued that “Biden’s first year was full of failed policies.” The review comes at a time when the President’s approval rating has taken a significant hit, and political pundits warn that it could be responsible for a “red wave” across the political field.
In his assessment, Waltz questions, “are we better off than we were a year ago under Joe Biden?”
In a recent message directed to supporters, the President’s team argues that the country is better.
“In the past year, we’ve gotten our country back on track: we got more shots in arms – fully vaccinating almost 75% of all adults and millions of children and teenagers, and providing millions of booster shots,” says the message, adding that “we got people back to work – in 2021, we saw the largest calendar year decrease in unemployment on record.” As well, “we passed a historic law to create jobs and rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.”
However, Waltz disagrees.
“Under Joe Biden, U.S. inflation is at the highest point since 1982,” Waltz argues, commenting that “as the U.S. continues to print money and Democrats in Congress continue to pass massive spending bills, the economy has been overwhelmed by unspent money.”
Waltz also asserted that President Biden has not effectively responded to the COVID pandemic.
“The Biden Administration knew last fall the omicron variant was extremely contagious but failed to secure adequate testing needed to ensure our service industry and supply chains remain functioning.”
Waltz also drew a distinction between President Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), saying that “under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has cemented itself as a bulwark against federally influenced directives that have been adopted by a number of left-leaning states to impose vaccine mandates on employers.”
Although DeSantis has not confirmed it, political pundits do speculate that the Governor will launch a presidential run in 2024.
