Having less is just the way life goes in President Joe Biden’s America, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Buttigieg, who was on paternity leave for months as the supply chain crisis intensified, made the interview rounds this week and put a happy face on the crisis.
In comments Wednesday, he indicated Americans will need to get used to delays and potentially seeing empty shelves for the foreseeable future.
“There are going to be disruptions and shocks to the system as long as the pandemic continues,” he said, according to Reuters.
Pete Buttigieg couldn’t organize a one car funeral—he’s not going to organize our ports, railroads, highways, and airports. pic.twitter.com/Fh0NjbgGFx
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) October 14, 2021
Rating firm Moody’s said Wednesday that the supply chain issues plaguing America will likely not subside any time soon, and shortages, higher transportation costs and higher prices will ripple through the economy.
But Buttigieg found a sunny side in all that when he popped in for a chat on “The View.”
“Americans have more money in their pockets compared to a year ago,” Buttigieg said, according to ABC News.
“Where they used to maybe spend it on going to shows or travel, they’ve been more likely to spend it on things, which is why actually we have a record number of goods coming through our ports.”
“Retail sales are through the roof, that’s part of why we have this challenge.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says supply chain disruptions will "continue into next year."
"… demand is up, because income is up, because the president has successfully guided this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession." pic.twitter.com/uuFPhZoG8z
— The Recount (@therecount) October 17, 2021
Buttigieg also put in a brief plug for the infrastructure bill House Democrats have been holding hostage for weeks.
“There’s no easy fix. There’s no magic wand, but there are a lot of things we can do,” Buttigieg said. “We’re relying on infrastructure that was built decades ago, sometimes a century ago.”
His comments on “The View” echoed those made during his Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“Certainly a lot of the challenges that we’ve been experiencing this year will continue into next year. But there are both short-term and long-term steps that we can take to do something about it,” Buttigieg told host Jake Tapper.
“Look, part of what’s happening isn’t just the supply side, it’s the demand side. Demand is off the charts. This is one more example of why we need to pass the infrastructure bill,” he continued.
“There are $17 billion in the President’s infrastructure plan for ports alone and we need to deal with these long-term issues that have made us vulnerable to these kinds of bottlenecks when there are demand fluctuations, shocks and disruptions like the ones that have been caused by the pandemic.”
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” host Tucker Carlson said Tuesday that instead of leaders telling Americans they can fix the problems of the nation, the Biden administration is telling Americans to live with them.
Here’s how Carlson summed up the trend: “As your quality of life declines, you are instructed not to notice.”
Slamming an Op-Ed published by The Washington Post that scolded Americans for “[ranting] about short-staffed stores and supply chain woes,” Carlson made that into a symbol of what’s wrong with the nation.
“So if you don’t like the fact the shelves are bare in your local store, don’t throw a fit. Don’t be an entitled little tool. Lower your expectations. What did you expect in America? Come on. Bread lines, we’ve always had bread lines. It’s sort of charmingly retro, these bread lines. Don’t complain as your life becomes worse and as your country degrades,” he said.
“That’s the message, and not surprisingly, that message is coming directly from the people who are making your life worse and destroying the country. That would, of course, would be the White House.”
Story cited here.
