Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader in the House, cautiously mirrored the White House’s upbeat assessment of Biden’s economy on Thursday in remarks intended for the media.
“Here’s the Biden track record on the economy: Economic growth is up, inflation is down, wages are up, gas prices are down,” the Democrat said during a news conference.
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“Job creation is up,” he continued. “More than 10 million good-paying jobs created during President Biden’s first two years, a record in modern American history.”
Jeffries concluded his remarks by slamming Republicans who, despite the costs, are adamant about pursuing their “MAGA” agenda and put the national debt before social advancement.
“They want to lecture us about fiscal responsibility. Twenty-five percent of the nation’s debt was incurred during the four years of the Trump presidency,” he said.
“What is the Biden administration’s record on fiscal responsibility? Cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion in the last two years, another record in American history,” Jeffries claimed.
It appears Jeffries’ words have been exposed as not quite ‘true to life’ – a phrase made famous by Ronald Reagan.
Take each of his assertions one at a time. All of Jeffries’ claims about the state of the economy under Biden must, of course, be compared against those of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
“Economic growth is up.”
During Trump’s tenure, the U.S.’s economic performance seemed to intensify: it started with a 4.3% growth in 2020 and then rose sharply to 6.4%, right before he left office, completely disregarding any of Biden’s policies that had yet come into effect; this marked an increase halted only by 2021 when GDP saw its most drastic improvement reaching up to a peak at 6.7%.
However, two quarters of negative economic growth in 2022 caused the economy to enter a recession. The GDP increased by 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, which is much less than the rate at when Trump left office.
Therefore, Jeffries, the economy is not growing faster under Biden.
“Inflation is down.”
The inflation rate was rising when President Trump left office in January 2021, rising from 1.7 percent to 6.5 percent last month, a dramatic contrast to when he took office four years earlier. However, as a result of Democratic deficit spending and Biden’s decision to cut domestic oil output, this number has already fallen dramatically, falling by over 9% since June!
“Wages are up.”
In a technical sense, sure, but Americans’ purchasing power is actually declining due to inflation.
“Over the past two years — the entirety of Biden’s presidency — wages have cumulatively risen by 10 percent while inflation has risen cumulatively by 14 percent. So wages have trailed inflation for this period as well,” Politifact’s Louis Jacobson reported.
“Gas prices are down.”
The average price of gasoline increased from $2.40 under Trump’s administration to today’s higher rate of $3.40 as a result of Biden’s decision to stop oil drilling on federal lands on day one. The four energy-rich states of Alaska, New Mexico, California, and Colorado, whose domestic reserves represent more than a quarter of America’s potential production, will be disproportionately impacted by this.
Under Biden’s administration, the US has seen a dramatic drop in oil production that leaves us 600K barrels per day below our pre-pandemic peak under Trump. This unprecedented decrease is an indication of changing times and new energy priorities as America looks towards renewable resources for its future needs.
“More than 10 million jobs created under Biden.”
America lost millions of jobs as a result of the pandemic, and it took over a year to get them back. Before returning to pre-pandemic levels once more, Robert Frick from Navy Federal Credit Union argues that there is still a lot of work to be done.
“Yeah, we’re back to the pre-pandemic level,” he said. “But if you look to the pre-pandemic trend, we’re 4 or 5 million jobs below that.”
Biden and the Democrats fiscally responsible?
Jeffries’ claim that Democrats are the party of fiscal restraint may seem contradictory in light of the record-breaking deficit that 2020 saw as a result of significant bipartisan spending on COVID relief. But it’s apparent that this enormous debt was unavoidable in an effort to deal with one of the biggest crises our country has ever experienced.
On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden was sworn in as president, and the country was beginning to recover from the pandemic’s devastation. As of May 2021, the unemployment rate has decreased by almost half from the worrisome 14.7 percent that it had reached just seven months before.
Even though it was contentious, the Democratic-led American Rescue Plan was funded with $1.9 trillion from what former Obama official Steven Rattner called a “original sin,” which many feel is what caused the recent spike in inflation that is currently being seen across all markets.
Hundreds of billions were injected into the economy, but at the same time, individuals were urged to stay at home and not work, leading to catastrophic labor shortages.
The US economy reported a record-breaking $2.8 trillion deficit in FY 2021, second only to our own historical benchmarks, despite a worldwide health crisis.
Due to its progressive infrastructure enhancements, the American Rescue Initiative, an ambitious plan to aid millions of people most severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, regrettably gained no Republican backing. Democrats nevertheless continued with Biden’s Build Back Better program, which called for almost $4.9 trillion in new spending over ten years starting in the fall of 2021, but that too is currently in limbo.
Democrats cut spending to control a $1.4 trillion deficit as the 2022 midterm elections drew near and inflation rampaged, which prompted White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to brag about President Biden’s remarkable record-breaking reduction of over $1.7 trillion in budget deficits!
Congressman Jeffries can argue all he wants, but the facts still stand: during the previous 50 years, Democratic government has resulted in greater inflation rates and lower purchasing power for Americans. Furthermore, they have left a path of enormous budget deficits in their wake.
Jeffries = IDIOT