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While some poorly educateds refuse to admit it, the 4-year crime spree known as the Trump Presidency was a disaster for the US economy. Not only did The Former Guy fail to complete a wall (or even replace a fence) along the Mexico border, he also added nearly $8 trillion to the national debt (the same debt he came into office promising to eradicate).
His Covid-19 response revealed his truly psychopathic nature, most notably his willingness to let the “brilliant germ” ravage Democratic-led cities and Blue States because he thought it would help him re-election.
While MAGA voters may shrug at Trump’s financial crimes as well as his crimes against humanity, the one thing they remain in complete denial about is that Dear Leader failed BIGLY on jobs—and plunged millions of his own supporters into poverty in the process.
As FORTUNE reported in January 2021, Trump left office with the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover:
Because so many lazy journalists went along with the hype about the “Trump Economy,” many Americans still haven’t fully grasped that TFG’s disastrous policies led America into recession even before the pandemic.
Biden: All of the Results. None of the Hype.
One year into his non-Twitter Presidency, it’s already clear that, in terms of jobs and the economy, President Biden has achieved far more than most people realize—and more than most media outlets give him credit for.
As the President said on Friday: “Today, America is the only leading economy in the world where the economy as a whole is stronger than before the pandemic.”
6.4 million jobs were created in Biden’s first year, the most jobs created in a single year in US history
The unemployment rate went down from 6.7% to 3.9%—the sharpest one-year drop in US history
In addition, more than 4.6 million people gained healthcare in the past year
And, even in terms of the stock market, TFG’s ultimate barometer of the economy, Biden outperformed his predecessor:
The official @WhiteHouse Twitter account tweeted yesterday that: “Without the American Rescue Plan, experts predicted we would not reach a 3.9% unemployment rate until 2026. Today, we hit that number 4 years earlier than expected.”
Yet as usual, and even in the face of incredibly positive economic data, the media is playing along with the GOP’s talking points.
The news that unemployment has dropped below 4% was buried below a flurry of headlines and tweets about the December report (199,000 new jobs) being a “disappointment” and missing expectations.
For comparison, when unemployment dropped below 4% in July 2018, CNN reported it slightly differently, claiming the economy was “still pumping out jobs,” even though the number of jobs created that month was just 157,000.
Yes, inflation is higher than it should be. And yes, Fox News and GOP Governors have made sure that the pandemic is still raging.
But, amid all that, Biden has delivered on jobs. And wages are growing where they matter most. As Biden said yesterday:
Women and men who work in the frontline jobs in restaurants, hotels, travel, tourism, desk clerks, line cooks, wait-staff, bellmen—they all saw their wages at a historic high—the highest in history.
Their pay went up almost 16 percent this year, far ahead of inflation, which is still a concern.
We expect Fox News to present this as “disappointing” news, because they don’t want their viewers to hear the real facts. But the rest of the media should cover the reality of the Biden economy with at least as much enthusiasm as they parroted Trump’s delusions.
Because as Jesse Lee, Senior Advisor for Communications to the National Economic Council, tweeted: “This was the greatest jobs growth year in modern American history, and it’s not even close.”
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