It looks like someone’s finally saying the quiet part out loud. On CNBC, no less. Wednesday morning’s Squawk Box didn’t pull any punches when host Joe Kernen and former SEC Chair Jay Clayton decided to go full reality check on President Biden’s disastrous economic legacy. And by “legacy,” we mean the smoldering crater that was left behind for President Trump and his economic team to clean up.
Let’s be honest here. You don’t need a Wall Street pedigree to feel what’s been going on the past few years — just take a stroll down the grocery aisle, try to fill up your gas tank without taking out a second mortgage, or check the sticker price on a basic new car and try not to wince. What Kernen made crystal clear — and what millions of Americans have been living through — is that the so-called “affordability crisis” isn’t just some abstract economic concept. It’s real, it’s painful, and it has Bidenomics written all over it in bold, red ink.
Kernen laid it out plainly: we’re dealing with a 22% spike in prices and inflation under Biden. Full stop. That’s not spin, that’s math. And while the corporate media spent four years calling President Trump a danger to the economy, they went awfully quiet when Biden started printing money like it was Monopoly night and tossing it out like candy at a Labor Day parade.
Enter Jay Clayton, who didn’t hesitate to pile on. He said what many of us already knew: when Trump and his economic team, now led by Scott Bessent, walked back into the White House in January, they inherited the worst economy for the average American in a generation. Think about that for a second — worse than post-9/11, worse than the Great Recession, worse than COVID. Because this wasn’t just a downturn — it was a man-made mess, built brick by brick from bad policy, worse regulation, and an all-out war on American energy.
Joe Kernen: “The affordability issue is from the 22% increase in prices under Biden—full stop.”
Former SEC Chair Jay Clayton: “[Trump was] thrown, what I would say, the worst economy for the average American in my adult lifetime.” pic.twitter.com/5vljwi1KPm
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 10, 2025
And let’s not forget how we got here. Remember the Biden obsession with “green” energy? The electric vehicle mandates that priced working families out of the market? The push to strangle the fossil fuel industry while pretending solar panels would keep your heat on in the winter? All of that — all of it — drove costs higher while delivering absolutely nothing for the average American except maybe a smug NPR segment and a higher electric bill.
But now, under Trump 2.0, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Energy prices are coming down. Gas is more affordable. The infamous Obama-era CAFE standards that drove up car prices? Rolled back. Kevin Hassett, one of the administration’s top economic voices, says that move alone could drop car prices by $1,000 to $2,000. That’s real savings — not the fuzzy math Biden’s team tried to peddle every time they claimed inflation was “transitory.”
NEC Director Kevin Hassett on @POTUS‘ moves to lower costs: “Lower energy, lower regulation… [eliminated] CAFE standards… That’s going to reduce the price of cars by, we estimate, between $1,000-$2,000 for the typical car.” pic.twitter.com/xFspIRrWNg
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 9, 2025
And yet, the usual suspects in the media are still trying to soft-pedal this, as if it’s some complicated mystery why Americans are stretched so thin. Spoiler alert: it’s not. You don’t have to be a political analyst to connect the dots between reckless spending, ideological policymaking, and the price tag that now comes with living in Biden’s America.
Only it’s not Biden’s America anymore, is it?
President Trump is back in charge, and the adults are finally back in the room. But make no mistake — the cleanup job isn’t over. Americans are still paying the price, literally, for the damage done. And while Democrats like to pretend it’s all just part of some natural economic cycle, folks like Kernen and Clayton are doing something rare these days: they’re telling the truth.
The affordability crisis wasn’t some unfortunate accident. It was an inevitable result of Biden’s policies. And no amount of finger-pointing or economic gaslighting can erase that.
But now the question is: how long will it take to undo the damage — and are Americans going to remember who lit the match in the first place?
The post CNBC Panel Blames Former President For The Affordability Crisis Facing Americans appeared first on Red Right Patriot.
