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By any objective measure, President Biden’s job creation since he took office has been stunning. The economy added 431,000 jobs in March, the 11th straight month the nation added more than 400,000 jobs. That’s produced the fastest recovery from a nationwide economic disaster destroying the U.S. economy in history.
Yet Politico recently reported a Navigator Research survey showing 37% of Americans believed more jobs had been lost than gained under Biden’s presidency. Only 28% were aware that millions more jobs had been created and the remainder had no idea what was going on economically.
In fact, two years into the lingering pandemic (perpetuated by Republicans discouraging vaccinations and masks) most of the jobs destroyed under President Trump in 2020 have been restored producing a new pandemic low unemployment rate of 3.6%. The average monthly job creation over the last six months has been more than 600,000 new jobs.
All those spectacular economic statistics have been accurately reported by the mainstream media every month. So why do so few Americans realize just how unprecedented the speed of Biden’s robust economic recovery has been?
Media at Fault
One reason is the media rarely acknowledges it. Every time Biden’s whopping monthly job creation numbers are reported, the media adds, “yes but.” The remainder of the sentence strongly suggests the economy is terrible under Biden because of rising inflation.
Consumer prices rose 8.5% in March over a year ago, the highest rate of inflation in 40 years we keep hearing. One of the reasons inflation is so much higher than a year ago is there was virtually no inflation under Trump when the U.S. economy was shut down by his failure to control the pandemic. Inflation didn’t begin until thriving businesses began rehiring millions of employees who could afford to buy goods that now cost more because they were in short supply.
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The monthly inflation rate for core goods actually began slowing slightly in March, rising 0.3% compared with 0.5% the previous month. The surge in gas prices, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, continues to account for more than half of the monthly increase in inflation.
Biden is fighting to bring down gas prices by releasing one million barrels of oil a day from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months. But the manipulation of gas prices by oil companies and local stations have far more effect on the price of gasoline than presidents.
Rockets and Feathers
Economists describe gas pricing as the “phenomenon of rockets and feathers.” Phenomenon is an overly kind term for what most drivers would call screwing the customers. When crude oil prices hit record highs with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early March, pump prices immediately shot up like a rocket. Crude prices have now fallen more than 20%, but pump prices remain exorbitantly high floating down excruciatingly slowly like a feather in a mild breeze.
Oil company executives and shareholders make record profits when oil prices are at their highest. Local stations make their biggest profits when wholesale prices are falling, but through unspoken agreements with surrounding competitors they delay cutting their prices to reflect their actual cost for as long as possible.
All Republicans know about inflation is they’re against it. We didn’t have any of this inflation until Biden began creating so many jobs. Even worse, many of those new jobs paid more. Wages for working Americans rose 5.6% in Biden’s first year after remaining stagnant for decades.
Good Paying New Jobs
In fact, so many good-paying, new jobs were suddenly available there was a massive wave of resignations among employees from jobs that paid terrible wages and little or no benefits. There’s the source of all that rising inflation right there. Poor, beleaguered employers were forced to start paying decent wages that included actual employee benefits. Now greedy workers have even started unionizing Amazon warehouses and Starbucks coffee shops to reduce the soaring profits of successful business owners and create humane working conditions. Damn that Joe Biden!
Republican opposition to full employment of American workers has been their dirty, little secret for decades. They may promise at election time to create more American jobs, but they never want to create too many new jobs. Unless there are far more Americans looking for work than there are jobs, the wealthiest Republican political donors—billionaire and millionaire business owners—will have to keep improving wages and benefits to attract workers.
Biden on the other hand is an openly pro-union president shamelessly creating as many new American jobs as he can at a time when they’re desperately needed to restore the American economy. Fortunately, he’s also surrounded by economic experts in his treasury department and the Federal Reserve to delicately balance reducing inflation without destroying his improving economy for working Americans.
Trump had no use for smarty pants experts. He trusted his gut. Remember where that got us.
