What will we see in 2023?

What will we see in 2023? “Past performance is not indicative of future results,” is a caveat for buying and selling stocks, but not for predicting what President Biden and his administration will do this year. In fact, President Biden and his bureaucratic entourage will likely stay the course he laid during his first two years in office.

According to Rasmussen Reports, the good news for Biden is 37% of likely U.S. voters say the country is heading in the right direction while 57% believe the nation is going down the wrong track. That's good news for Biden because a year ago 27% said we were going in the right direction and 64% said we were on the wrong track.

Remember the good old days when we could afford food, gasoline, and still have money to buy Christmas presents way back in December 2020? According to S&P Global, “The U.S. annual headline inflation rate came in at 1.4% in December 2020, up from 1.2% in the previous month, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed.” The report also said, “Food prices increased 3.9% year over year, while energy prices declined 7.0%. Fuel oil and gasoline prices dropped 20.0% and 15.2%, respectively.” That was 2020.

Compare those numbers with 2022 numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported December 13, “The consumer price index … increased 7.1% from November 2021 to November 2022.” S&P Global wrote, “Annual consumer price index growth has now dropped or remained flat since June, when it reached 9%, the largest increase since 1981.”

The bottom line is inflation jumped from historically low 1.4% under Trump to 7.1% under Biden after hitting a 40-year high of 9% in June. Inflation is likely to remain high under President Biden.

How about that southern border crisis? The U.S. Customs and

Border Protection (CBP) reported FY 2020 statistics: “The amount of CBP encounters with those illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border shrunk by 53% in FY 2020. According to the report, CBP encountered 458,088 people illegally crossing the border this past fiscal year, a stark contrast to the 977,509 reported in FY 2019.” During President Trump's last year in office, fewer than 500,000 people crossed the border illegally.

During FY 2022 under President Biden's watch, “CBP stopped migrants more than 2,766,582 times, compared to 1.72 million times for fiscal 2021, the previous yearly high.” After just two years in office, Biden has allowed five-times as many illegals to cross our southern border than Trump.

In 2020 the Trump administration contacted Twitter and other social media asking them to control information about potential food shortages that might set off runs on grocery stores. There were no runs on grocery stores.

In the months before the 2020 election, the FBI also asked Twitter and other media to squash any stories about Hunter Biden's laptop. Though the FBI had already verified the laptop was Hunter Biden's and contained information that could hurt Joe Biden's run for the White House, they asked companies to censor the news as “Russian disinformation.”

What will we see in 2023? We're more than likely going to see business as usual from the Biden administration. Will Republicans controlling the House make any meaningful difference? Maybe. Buckle up, 2023 is going to be more divisive than usual.

Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com.