(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) In between his bicoastal waterfront vacations at Rehoboth Beach and Lake Tahoe, President Joe Biden slotted in some time to push his propagandist message touting economy-wrecking policies such as the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
Gaslighting leftist leadership has desperately tried to redefine “Bidenomics” in the same way it previously has attempted to spin the dictionary definitions of terms like “recession” and “woman.”
Ironically, while returning from a recent jaunt to Milwaukee for one such speech, Biden may also have had the opportunity to see the true impact of his economic policies—or lack thereof—if he’d happened to be looking out the window.
According to Fox News, the flight path for Air Force One crossed over Palestine, Ohio, the site of the devastating train derailment and resulting toxic spill in February.
It took a visit to Palestine from former President Donald Trump to muster the interest of Transporation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who actively sought to distance himself for several weeks from the flyover-country catastrophe.
Biden, however, has yet to trouble himself with an actual trip.
“On March 2, Biden promised he would visit the small town ‘at some point’ after growing pressure to do so from both sides of the aisle” Fox News reported, “but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the next day that the administration didn’t ‘have a plan’ for him to visit despite making the promise.”
As noted by the Gateway Pundit, Biden’s upcoming trip to the one part of California not ravaged by drugs, homelessness and violent crime—the billionaire enclave of Lake Tahoe—coincides with yet another domestic disaster, the deadly fires in Hawaii.
Despite Biden’s having had “no comment” over the weekend, some have attributed the conflagration, at least partially, to the shortcomings of the president’s infastructure spending while funneling billions overseas to Ukraine.
“Biden is now being criticizd [sic] for his non-response to the fires in Maui, but claims that he is going to visit there,” wrote the Pundit. “… The people of East Palestine have heard that one before.”
President Biden announces he and the first lady will travel to Hawaii as soon as it's logistically feasible, so as to not get in the way of the response and recovery efforts.
"I want to go, make sure we got everything they need," Biden just said in Wisconsin.
— Monica Alba (@albamonica) August 15, 2023
Of course, the tropical paradise of Hawaii, which also happens to be a blue state, may offer something that Palestine, Ohio, does not for the 80-year-old president, who has spent an estimated 40% of his presidency on vacation per the Daily Mail.
As the everyday citizens of Maui flee for their lives, celebrities like Paris Hilton somehow still remain entirely insulated from the problems of the hoi poloi and scoff derisively at the blue-collar outrage boiling over in anthems like Anthony Oliver’s “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
Meanwhile, not all of those metaphorically aflame in Biden’s America are being physically forced to evacuate.
Amid inflationary pressures and other economic factors, some iconic businesses are now going belly-up, even after having weathered the precarious pandemic shutdowns.
Yellow Corp, which operated one of the largest trucking companies in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy late last month, after having received a major pandemic bailout, as Teamsters negotiations with the 100-year-old business proceeded to break down.
Its closure is likely to create even more ripple effects in the economy—still reeling from the last supply-chain crisis, which disrupted Buttigieg’s “paternity leave” for his two adoptive children with husband Chasten, and was among the factors that sent inflation skyrocketing close to double digits for everybody else.
Bidenomics is also wreaking havoc, however, at the local level.
Among the institutions devastated by his policies was Butt Drugs—an iconic, 71-year-old pharmacy in Corydon, Indiana, which closed its doors on April 29, according to WHAS 11.
“We truly were honored to be a part of your healthcare needs and care for many generations of families in the community,” wrote owner Katie Butt Beckort in a letter to customers.
The business had developed something of a cult following due to its unusual name, which some have misread as a double entendre.
Be honest. Who owns these socks? pic.twitter.com/Ler1e47y8p
— Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) August 15, 2023
It also featured an old-fashioned soda fountain with popular ice-cream options on the menu, hearkening back to a simpler time.
“I love their buttshakes; they are really good,” customer Lucas Cazad told WHAS.
But its lucrative merchandising and side hustles could not keep the business afloat.
Butt Drugs reportedly folded after a change in how insurance companies reimburse small businesses, WHAS noted.
Customer Stephanie Zimmerman lamented its closure due to “the fact that I know the effort these families put into these businesses and how much it takes to keep them up and running.”
With recent reports disclosing the incentives programs that insurance companies offered local doctors to entice them to push the COVID-19 vaccines, it is easy to imagine that the Biden administration’s collusion with Big Pharma may have had a hand in the pharmacy’s untimely pull-out.
Sadly, there is likely a Butt Drugs hiding in the crevices of many a Main Street in small-town America, with an equally disheartening story to tell about the devastation caused by Democrats’ callous economic brinksmanship.
“It’s sad, you know, it has been a piece of the family for longer than I have been alive,” said Colin Receveur, Beckort’s first cousin, whose fond memories of going to the store with his grandparents are now all that remains.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
