WHATLEY: Joe Biden Is offering to paint the house he burned

NCGOP Chairman Michael Whatley

As President Joe Biden comes to the Tar Heel State this week, we’re reminded of how bad his policies have been for families throughout North Carolina. While Biden will use this opportunity to deflect and skirt responsibility for the multiple crises he has inflicted, North Carolinians won’t buy it.  

We know that Biden has repeatedly failed us on inflation, gas prices, agriculture, and the opioid epidemic.   

For instance, the 40-year record high inflation has been detrimental to those across the Old North State. In Raleigh, elderly folks are stretching pennies even further now that “everything is expensive.” In Charlotte, charities are seeing an uptick in those looking for assistance to feed their families. In Asheville, small businesses like local restaurants are struggling to afford the ingredients necessary to produce their goods. In Greenville, new parents are feeling overwhelmed by the rising cost of diapers and baby formula. In Greensboro, where Biden is scheduled to talk out of both sides of his mouth, car dealerships are having to “revert back to focus on their used inventory” due to the high cost and low production of microchips for newer cars.  

On top of 40-year record high inflation, North Carolinians are being hit with the highest gas prices ever recorded in state history. That being said, gas price increases pale in comparison to the diesel prices that hit a record $5.12 last month, further plaguing the agricultural sector upon which North Carolina relies heavily as the largest contributor to our economy.

Not only is the price of diesel detrimental to North Carolina farmers, but Joe Biden’s proposal to expand President Obama’s “Waters of The United States” regulations would interfere with farmers’ freedom to grow crops as they please and make it more difficult to have a successful harvest. Additionally, Biden has proposed tax code changes that would increase taxes on appreciated assets like farmland, forcing many in future generations of farmers to sell the family farm just to foot the tax bill. 

As if these issues weren’t bad enough, the Biden administration created the perfect avenue for drugs to flow freely through our border with open border policies, understaffed border patrol agents, and a lack of leadership. The administration’s inaction and ignorance have resulted in deadly consequences. In 2021, North Carolina experienced nearly 4,000 overdose deaths, and we continue to see an uptick in overdoses across the country, along with a staggering number of opioid deaths. Deputies in Asheboro, North Carolina recently seized enough fentanyl to kill 390,000 people. With Biden’s ongoing border crisis, we can expect it to get worse.  

Biden’s own Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently admitted the situation at the border is “worse now than it, frankly, has been in at least 20 years, if not ever.”   

Whether it’s the highest inflation in forty years, record-breaking gas prices, struggling farmers, or an open southern border exacerbating a crippling opioid epidemic, North Carolinians are feeling the pinch of Biden’s failures everywhere. They know Joe Biden is responsible for these problems, and, regardless of what he platitudes he spins in Greensboro, they know buying into one more Biden boondoggle is not the solution.  

Instead, voters are looking to Republicans as a way out of these crises. Come November, voters will fully rebuke the Democrats and their disastrous policies by electing Republicans with an agenda to restore a sound economy in which they can prosper.

Michael Whatley is the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party