Biden's 13th-Quarter Approval Average Lowest Historically

Whichever party loses this race deserves all the criticism in the world. Trump is an idiot who is spending more time in courthouses than on the campaign trail and yet he leads the incumbent Biden in the polls. On the other hand, Biden’s approval ratings suck and he can’t remember what day it is but he could still very well beat Trump come November.

This election could have been a cakewalk if the Democrats had nominated almost any moderate to run against Trump. Conversely, the Republicans could have done the same had they selected almost any candidate not among the extreme right to go against Biden. But instead, the election will basically come down to millions of voters having to choose between the lesser of two evils.

 

Is inflation up worldwide?
How much are salaries up?
How does US economy compare to other industrial countries?

 

As Democratic strategist James Carville once famously quipped, "It’s the economy, stupid!"

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the current employment level is about 3 million jobs higher than it was in January 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic began. By contrast, the economy added 6.33 million jobs in Trump’s first three years in office, more than double Biden’s figure.

Biden’s job gains have also been much more dependent on government spending. Of the nearly 3 million jobs added since Biden has become president, about 16% have been government jobs. In Trump’s first three years, 7.4% of the increase in total employment was due to government, less than half of the figure recorded under Biden.

The Consumer Price Index, the most commonly used measure for inflation, shows that prices have skyrocketed by 19% since January 2021. From January 2017 to March 2020, Americans experienced a 6.29% inflation rate, one-third of the Biden-era inflation figure.

 

You have to admit that it's strange how you want to;

1) credit Trump with all this amazing job growth over a 3 year period....but ignore the fact that much of it was fueled by deficit-funded fiscal stimulus. Tax cuts for corporations and top brackets.

2) Apparently ignore any and all effects of Trump's handling of covid on the resulting job loss. Hint : lying that it's going to go away in (pick one); a few weeks, by Easter, by the 4th of July.....may not have been the most effective strategy.

3) Ignore the Trump-signed CARES Act on future inflation. In fact, the whole "inflation started in January 2021!" argument is rather specious. Or, wait! Biden started inflation, well, instantaneously upon being inaugurated?

4) Ignore the deficit-funded Trump tax cuts on future inflation.

5) Completely omit an ENTIRE YEAR of job loss under Trump. And job creation under Biden. Biden's policies had absolutely nothing to do with job recovery?


tldr; only someone who either knows nothing about the economy, and also wasn't paying attention, would take at face value your not-entirely-accurate portrayal of recent US economic history.

 

Hmmm, why are you using January 2020 as the baseline for the performance of a President that came into office in January 2021 and using it as an end date for a President that didn't leave office until January 2021? Is it because you don't think using the real date would make your case?

 

Because Covid overreaction killed the labor market from March 2020 until at least January 2021. So a correct comparison would be comparing the statistics from January of 2020 with January of 2024. That gives the economy 4 years to sort of reset. I'm too lazy to look them up, but I'll bet they are similar numbers. Biden might even be ahead.

 

Ahh, but see, you can't really do that. He is comparing growth from 2017-2020 to 2020-2024. But, the problem is, he is just taking that year and applying it to Biden's term. So, now Biden's term, in his analysis (which, again, it should be noted, is not Biden's term), contains 2020's job losses. Basically, he could either compare all of Trump's term to all of Biden's term thus far or the first 39 months or so of each. Those would be more accurate, just not helpful to his case.

 

I wasn't discussing what he was doing. I was discussing what you mentioned - 2020 as a baseline. When things were normal then vs when they are normal now.

 

You're also assuming that Trump's policy on covid - of repeatedly lying that it would go away, so as to not jeopardize his election chances - had no effect on the economy wrt job loss.


For just the smallest example of potential impactful improvement in covid handling; imagine if Trump had encouraged social distancing and mask wearing.....instead of his fake he-man bull$hit like "Look at me, I'm back from Walter Reed and (barely) alive! Watch me rip off my (implicitly unnecessary) mask!!!!"*

* After he had ridden home in the car with Homeland Security agents for photo op purposes, despite the fact that he was still in the transmissible period. Freaking scumbag.

 

All Employees, Government (USGOVT) | FRED | St. Louis Fed (stlouisfed.org)

a lot of gubmnt employees retired during covid so that definitely skews those numbers. if you look at the historical growth, we are just getting back to the trend line

 

Trump's policy on Covid was pure trash. Which is why I said go back to January of 2020 - before the world lost their damn minds.

 

I was discussing what he was doing (which was utilizing January 2020 as his baseline for Biden despite him not being President for 12 months).

 

Ah then I misread your quote.

 

It was. But I'm asserting that Trump himself had a meaningful impact on the job losses from 2020 and 2021.

For you to use Jan '20 as a baseline ignores this fact.

 

All Employees, Government (USGOVT) | FRED | St. Louis Fed (stlouisfed.org)

jan 20 22,867,000
jan 24 23,136,000
269,000
growth at 0.3% if I got the math right

jan 2016 22,114,000
jan 2020 22,867,000
753,0000

doh...us gubmnt increased at over 2x the rate while djt was in office.

damn facts

 

I said compare Jan 20 (Trump) with with Jan 24 (Biden). This gets the Covid nonsense out of the way

 

Trump is no conservative. I agree.

 

We're talking past each other, I think.


He's on record (with NYT) saying he knew it's devastating potential. And he chose to lie about the threat to the American people. It's pretty impossible to say that that didn't increase the harmful impact it had, both on public health and on the economy.