The Biden Economic Plan Is Working
President Joe Biden inherited a mess from Donald Trump. When Biden took office, the corona virus was out of control and there was no plan to distribute the vaccines. At the same time, the country was mired in a deep recession. Even though the official unemployment rate was 6.7%, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the actual unemployment rate was 10%. Biden inherited the worst situation of any new president since Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.
Shortly after he took office, President Biden acted. The American Rescue plan passed on March 10, 2021 over united Republican opposition. President Biden’s plan contained money for ramped up vaccinations, $1,400 relief checks, money for school re-openings, state and local aide, extended unemployment insurance and the biggest middle class tax cut in history. Every Republican in Congress voted no. Every last one of them.
Already, we’re seeing impressive results from this landmark legislation. President Biden and the Democrats are proving once again that government can help the American people. This drives the D.C. Republicans and their billionaire donor class crazy.
The following are a series of tweets from the Biden Administration on the tremendous progress that we’re making.
“In the first four months of the Biden administration, more than 2 million jobs were created. 540,000 jobs created on average monthly since the president was sworn in. In contrast, the economy created an anemic 60,000 jobs per month in the last 3 months of the Trump Administration.
Since President Biden took office, average jobless claims are down for the ninth week in a row and have been cut in half. Americans are getting back to work and our economy is on the right track.
DOWN: Six weeks in a row, jobless claims DOWN. Gas prices DOWN. Month-over-month CPI increase DOWN from March. Pandemic unemployment claims DOWN 25% in four weeks. UP: Jobs created UP: from 60k a month at the end of Trump’s term, to 500K a month now. Growth UP: a 40-year high!
New data out today showing we made significant progress this spring reopening our schools for safe in-person learning! In fact, 59% of K-8 schools were open full time in-person in April — a large increase from January.” Approximately 40% of K-8 schools were open full time in person on January 20.
The country has seen similar amazing progress on the pandemic. Thanks to President Biden, the U.S. now has the best response to the pandemic in the first world. There were 195,000 corona virus cases on on January 20, 2021 . Now we’re down to 8,300 cases per day.
The bottom line from the White House: “Vaccinations are up, COVID cases are down. Job growth is up, and unemployment is down. The president’s economic plan is working.”
The D.C. Republicans and their echo chamber in the right wing media are trying to disparage this progress by complaining about inflation. What they don’t tell you is that inflation is up around 4% over the last 12 months and this modest increase should be temporary. Incidentally, inflation was 4% in 1984 — the year of Reagan’s “morning in America.” Did the Republicans freak out about inflation in 1984?
“In May 2020, unemployment was over 13%, almost 50,000 Americans died from COVID, millions of businesses were closed, tens of millions of Americans were at home — so yes, prices for airline tickets and cars were lower. Does anyone really want to go back to that?” Ron Klain tweet.
We can thank the American Rescue Plan for this incredible turn around. We need to remind voters that Deb Fischer, Ben Sasse, Jeff Fortenberry, Don Bacon and Adrian Smith voted against enhanced vaccinations, $1,400 stimulus checks, a middle class tax cut and money for school re-openings. If the D.C. Republicans had gotten their way, the U.S. would be like India right now. The pandemic would be out of control and the country would be in a deep recession.
The D.C. Republicans have opposed this progress because they want Biden to fail. They see the failure of the country as their path back to power. The D.C. Republicans did the same thing during the Clinton and Obama presidencies. As Mitch McConnell candidly said: “100% of my focus is standing up to this administration. What we have is total unity, from Collins to Cruz, in opposition to what the new administration is trying to do to this country.”
Already, the D.C. Republicans are scheming to shutdown the government again and default on the national debt in an attempt to bully President Biden into cutting Social Security and Medicare. We need to make that kind of GOP extremism the centerpiece of the 2022 campaign.
The Democrats are the party of the people, prosperity, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA. We must never let the voters forget that.
The Republicans are the party of the rich, sabotage, mass unemployment, mass illness, mass death and violence.
The Republicans will always be the party of Donald Trump. We must never let the voters forget that. History matters. Now let’s get it done! We can do it!