Forget George Orwell — Dr. Seuss has the better handle on the Biden administration this Christmas.
Like the titular character in the children’s book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!,” President Joe Biden’s disastrous policies have brought empty shelves and rising inflation just in time to rob Americans of the best things about the season of giving.
While there’s no word on the cost of “roast beast” these days, American families already paid nearly a quarter more for their Thanksgiving turkeys than they did last year.
Now as Christmas shopping begins in earnest, experts are predicting that gift cards will make up 40% of giving as supply chain woes continue to limit access to electronics and other consumer goods, Bloomberg News reported.
Once thought to be painfully impersonal — second only to cash in the category of low-rent gifting — it seems holiday shoppers will have little choice when faced with low supply and soaring prices.
No longer can loved ones take pleasure in purchasing that certain something for that certain someone.
Instead, they’ll be handing over cold plastic to be used after the holidays, full of the promise that may never materialize of better days ahead and more goods available.
Perennial purchases like Christmas trees, board games, toys and appliances will be out of the question for many consumers, Kyle James, the founder of Rather-Be-Shopping.com, told WNDU-TV.
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“I think this would be a good year to shop local, help out those retailers that are feeling the pinch a little bit,” James advised as an alternative to gift cards.
Still, it seems there will be little choice for shoppers who are left twisting in the wind by people like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and others in the administration who are incapable of offering a viable solution to the bottlenecks that are keeping container ships full of potential presents stranded at sea.
“Amid Biden’s rising prices and supply chain crisis, customers face shallower discounts and many are ‘opting for gift cards’ due to the supply chain crisis,” RNC Research tweeted, summing up a clip of a local news segment that outlined a problem burgeoning everywhere — from tiny hamlets to big cities across the nation.
Amid Biden’s rising prices and supply chain crisis, customers face shallower discounts and many are “opting for gift cards” due to the supply chain crisis. pic.twitter.com/zNhHo2GJgm
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 30, 2021
“They’re opting for gift cards to provide some options for future purchasing when the supply chain issues are resolved,” said Patrick Brown, vice president of Adobe Growth Marketing and Insights.
This workaround sounds all well and good to Biden apologists, but it neglects the crushing real-world sadness created by a lack of actual presents under the Christmas tree.
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow will wake up to a Christmas tree (maybe) with nothing underneath but some sad envelopes scattered by a harried and hamstrung Santa who just couldn’t deliver this year.
While it beats a stocking full of coal, it does nothing to fill them with the joy and childhood glee that comes from tearing into a pile of packages with their names on them.
Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ is sufficient to be sure, but part of the wonder of the season, which clues children into the love of God, includes the generosity showered on them bolstered by the anticipation of opening presents lovingly chosen just for them.
For a generation of children — some of whom may have no recollection of playing tag with schoolmates or seeing their teachers’ smiles because of draconian COVID-19 mitigation measures — this is yet another experience they will be robbed of this year.
Sure, the Grinch eventually learned that “Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more,” and Christians would do well with that reminder.
In fact, it would be admirable if stripping the material aspect of the season was something being willingly chosen for a higher purpose.
Instead, it is being stolen from our children by a miserable old politician who is doing all he can to ensure Americans have a blue Christmas — and that makes him more odious than the Grinch.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.