It's the Biden vs. Trump Economy--and Hell No, It's Not Even Close [View all]
Its the Biden vs. Trump Economyand Hell No, Its Not Even Close - The New Republic
Im going to tell you something that Im pretty sure you dont knowand that you probably wont even believe. Ready? Real wages are now growing in the United States at a pace faster than the spike in the cost of living since the pandemic. More than that: For the first time in decades, wage growth is consistently stronger in the middle and at the bottom than at the top.
Importantly, the real wages of the middle quintile are not only higher today than they were before the pandemic, but slightly higher than we would expect based on 2015-19 trends. In other words, the typical American workers purchasing power has grown at least as much as it likely would have in the absence of the global challenges posed by the pandemic and geopolitical conflicts.
If youre waiting to see this reported in the mainstream media, except by me and my colleague Tim Noah and a small handful of other people, I advise you to stop. Its not going to happen. In the mainstream media, theres still largely one Joe Bidenera economic story: inflation, gas prices, people feeling worse off than they did four years ago, and ooh, did he just forget someones name again?
Trumps jobs numbers in his first two years lagged behind Barack Obamas in his last two, 4.5 million to 5.2 million. And both are way behind Bidens first two-year total of nearly 11 million. And wages, as I noted above, are up. And theyre especially up for the middle class and the poor. This is what middle-out economics means.
Trump inherited a good economy and didnt screw it upuntil a crisis hit that he was completely unprepared for and lied about constantly and refused to take responsibility for.
Biden inherited a horrible economy, got us out of that crisis, suffered through a price crisis that also affected the rest of the developed world, but is now presiding over the greatest monthly job growth in history (yes, at 289,000 a month) and is keeping his core campaign promise of shifting wealth from the top to the middle and the bottom.
Why is it so hard to tell that story, Democrats?