Everything got wasted.
A post on the White House Twitter Account celebrated Biden’s administration’s economic achievement in its first year, tweeting, “When @POTUS and @VP were sworn in, our economy was on the brink of collapse.” The tweet accompanied an image of employment stats that are purposefully misleading.
On Biden’s inauguration, inflation was at 1.4 percent, gas cost $2.39 a gallon, GDP growth was 6.3 percent, and the U.S. consumer sentiment index was 79. Now, all of that progress has evaporated. Inflation is 7 percent, gas is $3.32 a gallon, the GDP growth forecast is 2.5%, and the consumer sentiment index is 68.8.
All of this took place while Trump was not in Office. The economy’s poor performance is the result of the Bidens administration’s poor oversight. Oilfield investment is insufficient, and the lack of U.S. oil output forces the country to rely on OPEC and its higher gasoline prices. The Democrat-backed American Rescue Plan (ARP) fueled federal spending, and workers have been sidelined by personal-freedom restricting mandates.
But, Biden apologists will be quick to point out that omicron has stifled much of the growth.
Not entirely true.
Inflation increased to 7 percent before the omicron variant became dominant. Not to mention the playing field has changed. Biden is NOT facing the same challenges as Trump.
When Biden entered the Oval Office, delta –– a deadlier variant –– was raging. On Jan 20, his inauguration day, there were 4,380 Covid-19 deaths. A year later, that number is less than 2,000. But the entire pandemic has changed. Most of the population is fully vaccinated, therapeutics are in the works, and omicron is far less severe than predecessors.
To say that Biden is transforming the economy –– when today’s employment shows that the job market is still in a deficit of three million jobs compared to when the virus hit in February 2020 –– is preposterous. But celebrating the bare minimum seems to be the trend in Democratic circles, as many liberals praised Biden for his two-hour-long press conference despite last addressing the media in August 2021.
But, if claiming job creation is all Biden has to show after a year at the helm, let him have that victory, it’s all he has.
