Smith: No matter how you look at it, the Biden-Harris administration has been an absolute disaster

No matter how you look at it, the Biden-Harris administration has been an absolute disaster. We have a southern border that’s in pure chaos because of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s radical immigration policies. The cost of living has skyrocketed by more than 20% since Biden and Harris took office and began their out-of-control spending spree. There is no question America isn’t heading in the right direction. And when you look back at the policies of this administration, it’s clear as day why our nation is at a breaking point.

Let’s start with the chaos on the border – an issue that’s top of mind for farmers, workers, and families across southeast and south-central Missouri. Before Biden and Harris came into office, our border was the most secure it’s ever been thanks to the tough, effective policies of former President Donald Trump. But everything changed when the Biden-Harris administration brought back catch-and-release, halted construction on the border wall, got rid of Remain in Mexico, ended Title 42 removals, and more. Since Biden and Harris took office, there have been more than 10 million illegal border entries. In addition, more people were caught illegally crossing the border in the first year of the Biden-Harris administration than the entire four years of Trump’s presidency.

One of Biden’s so-called solutions to addressing the border crisis the administration created was appointing Kamala Harris as Border Czar. So what has she done to help address the crisis she’s been tasked with ending? Nothing. Since she became Border Czar, monthly encounters of illegal immigrants have surpassed even the highest month under Trump. Harris – who has only visited the border ONCE – has been an absolute disaster as Border Czar.

The painful state of the economy is an issue that I hear about from folks across Missouri. The Biden-Harris administration inherited an economy that was well on its way to recovery. But because of several terrible policy decisions, our economy was sent into a tailspin.

The $2 trillion American Rescue Plan is the most consequential – and devastating – piece of the Biden-Harris administration’s economic policies. Their wasteful spending bill, which was packed full of welfare for the wealthy, is the reason working-class families are struggling with the worst cost-of-living crisis in 40 years. But don’t just take it from me: even a number of prominent liberal economists who served in the Obama administration agree that this package was the spark that ignited the cost-of-living crisis. The legislation is also to blame for the worker shortage that’s devastating Main Street businesses. It included $400 billion to pay people not to work, making a government check more lucrative than a job. And it was Vice President Kamala Harris who cast the tie-breaking vote to guarantee its Senate passage.

But the American Rescue Plan was just the start of the Biden-Harris administration’s wasteful spending spree. In the two years that Washington Democrats had control of Congress and the White House, they added a whopping $10 trillion in new spending. Thanks to their economy-killing policies, Americans are paying over $13,000 more annually to buy basic goods compared to three years ago.

From rubber stamping the trillions of dollars in Washington Democrat spending that led to the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades to enacting a radical, open border agenda that created the worst border crisis in American history, the Biden-Harris administration has no one else to blame for the serious challenges facing our nation. In Washington, I’m fighting tooth and nail against the Left’s radical agenda and working around the clock to advance the policies we need to make our economy strong and our border secure again like it was under Trump. Serving the working-class folks of southeast and south-central Missouri is an incredible honor, and something I will never take for granted.

Jason Smith (R-MP) represents the eighth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.