President Biden is spending the holidays with his family this year in a beautiful mansion in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Afterwards, he will visit Italy and meet with Pope Francis among other dignitaries.
In addition to his jet-setting, Biden has been particularly busy during the final few weeks of his presidency. Fortunately, a judge thwarted Biden from selling pieces of the border wall for a fraction of its value, but he will be successful in providing $1.25 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, his favorite foreign project.
Last Monday, he signed 50 pieces of legislation and welcomed the confirmation of his 235th federal judge, surpassing the total number of judicial confirmations during President Donald Trump’s administration.
As Biden and his family vacation in luxury, Americans are struggling due to his damaging economic policies. This holiday season, 36% of Americans incurred an average debt of $1,181 for their Christmas gifts, more than 13% higher than last year.
With these bills, it is understandable that 28% of Americans have not paid off the balances from purchases made during last year’s holiday season. Overall, for stressed Americans, total credit card debt exceeded $1.17 trillion in the third quarter of the year, which is an increase of 8.1% from 2023.
According to Matt Schultz, LendingTree’s Chief Credit Analyst, the culprit is inflation, which is “having a huge impact on people’s finances, including their holiday spending.” Schultz notes that “so many Americans took on debt this holiday season” because “prices are still…high and that means that lots of Americans simply didn’t have any choice.”