My previous post referenced the Biden campaign’s just-released literature, titled “Your handy guide for responding to crazy MAGA nonsense this Thanksgiving”. It promises to give you answers to the “crazy MAGA nonsense” that might be spewed at the table by someone who prefers Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
How accurate is this alleged reference material?
Well, here, from Victor Nava’s article for the New York Post, is one example:
“The economy was better during Trump!” reads the first item on the list, alluding to a possible statement a supporter of the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner might bring up at the dinner table.
To counter that claim, the Biden campaign suggests supporters respond by saying, “Wrong. Inflation is the lowest it’s been in two years, the economy is growing, and unemployment has been under 4% for the longest stretch on record. Just look at your Thanksgiving costs compared to last year – gas prices: cheaper. Turkey: cheaper. Eggs: cheaper. Joe Biden has created nearly 14 million jobs and the economy is on the rise.”
That so? Are those valid responses to a claim that the economy was better under Trump? Let’s look at each claim individually:
–“Inflation is the lowest it’s been in two years”:
Uh…who was President two years ago? I seem to recall it was Biden. So that two year period is entirely under Biden and has nothing to do with Trump.
What this little snippet doesn’t tell you is where it was under Trump. The day Biden took office/Trump left, inflation was at 1.4%. The highest it ever was in four years of the Trump administration was, briefly, 2.9%
Under Biden inflation jumped through the roof, and soared, in June of last year, to 9.1%. So, yes, it’s down, but it is down from where it rose under Biden, not Trump.
–“The economy is growing.”
Yep, but it also grew under Trump. So what?
–“Unemployment has been under 4% for the longest stretch on record”.
I don’t know if it is a record, but I do know that under Trump, unemployment dropped below 4% – and to the lowest rates in history for Black and Latino people.
Until the pandemic hit, Trump had unemployment below 4% for 13 consecutive months, and was at 3.5% when the pandemic blew things apart. There is no way to know for sure how long that under-4% stretch would have continued, so we can only guess.
Regarding Biden, it is true that Biden has unemployment under 4% for 23 consecutive months. But it is on the rise now, and has gone from a low of 3.4% in April to the current 3.9%. So that streak may be about to end.
In any event, the point is that unemployment has been low under Biden…just as it was under Trump. Where’s the big difference?
–“Thanksgiving costs compared to last year – gas prices: cheaper. Turkey: cheaper. Eggs: cheaper”.
The fact that Thanksgiving dinner cost is lower this year under Biden than last year – also under Biden – is laughable. Last year, under Biden, was the most costly Thanksgiving in history. This year is the second most costly in history…only because Biden had it even higher last year. This is something to brag about???
As for gas prices, they now are “down” to $3.28 a gallon – 89 cents higher per gallon than when Trump left office. They are only “down” because they rose through the roof – to about $5 a gallon last year – under Biden. So Biden is trying to take credit for lowering gas prices not from Trump’s higher prices but from his own. Pathetic.
-“Joe Biden has created nearly 14 million jobs”
This is an out-and-out lie.
The pandemic shut our country down, causing non-farm jobs to drop from 153 million to 130 million in one month. They came back 13 million in the ten months afterwards, while Trump was still President – not because Trump created new jobs were created but because the old jobs were coming back. In this claim, Biden is trying to take credit for the other 10 million that came back…which comprise the vast majority (over 70%) of his bogus “new jobs” claim. Absolute BS of the first order.
There you go. That is the, er, quality of the Biden campaign’s malevolent campaign handout.
Impressed?
