Economy

Biden Attempts To Argue That He Has Improved Economy

Published

2 weeks ago

May 5, 2022

President Biden Meets With Union And Business Leaders To Discuss Infrastructure

As the inflation crisis continues to worsen, Democrat President Joe Biden gave a speech on Wednesday arguing that his economic policies have benefited Americans in an apparent attempt to improve his 66% economic disapproval rating.

“I reduced the federal deficit,” Biden claimed. “All the talk about the deficit from my Republican friends, I love it. I’ve reduced $350 billion in my first year in office. And we’re on track to reduce it by the end of September by another 1 trillion 500 billion dollars — the largest drop ever.”

However, as explained by The Wall Street Journal, Biden’s claim that he dramatically reduced the federal deficit is an embellishment “for the ages” and assumes that he is unable to actually enact his proposed agenda – like passing his Build Back Better plan or additional COVID relief.

“[Biden’s] also using the fiscal 2020 budget as his benchmark. Congress passed $2 trillion in Covid relief in March 2020 to prevent a recession. Both parties piled on $900 billion more that December, and Democrats in March 2021 ladled out nearly $2 trillion more. The deficit is declining because Congress blew it out for two years,” The Wall Street Journal wrote, noting that the inflation crisis that began under Biden also contributed to increased government revenues. “Revenues have been surging thanks to strong corporate profits, capital gains, and rising nominal incomes. Inflation is always good for government coffers. Receipts are up 28% during the first four months of this fiscal year. But the Congressional Budget Office still projects deficits to exceed $1 trillion on average over the next decade.”

Biden continued his speech, going on to falsely claim that his economic policies have benefited the average American.

“I don’t want to hear Republicans talk about deficits and their Ultra-MAGA Agenda,” Biden said. “I want to hear about fairness. I want to hear about decency. I want to hear about help on ordinary people. The bottom line is that, for decades, the trickle-down economics has failed as income inequity grew to historic levels under the Republicans.”

Due to the inflation crisis that began shortly after Biden took office, the real wages of Americans have consistently fallen over the last year. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the real average hourly earning of Americans decreased 2.7 percent from March 2021 to March 2022, and real average weekly earnings decreased 3.6 percent over the same period.

President Biden: "I reduced the federal deficit. All the talk about the deficit from my Republican friends, I love it. I've reduced it $350 billion in my first year in office. […] I don't want to hear Republicans talk about deficits and their ultra-MAGA agenda." pic.twitter.com/rhbBkja5E1

— The Hill (@thehill) May 4, 2022

Related Topics:Economy Inflation inflation crisis

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Economy

Report: April 2022 Inflation Was Worse Than Expected

Published

6 days ago

May 11, 2022

Leo Terrell Staff

The inflation crisis continued to worsen in April, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday.

“The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of prices for goods and services, increased 8.3% from a year ago, higher than the Dow Jones estimate for an 8.1% gain,” CNBC reported. “That represented a slight ease from March’s peak but was still close to the highest level since the summer of 1982.”

According to the new CPI report, inflation “increased 0.3 percent in April on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 1.2 percent in March… The all items index increased 8.3 percent for the 12 months ending April, a smaller increase than the 8.5-percent figure for the period ending in March. The all items less food and energy index rose 6.2 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index rose 30.3 percent over the last year, and the food index increased 9.4 percent, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending April 1981.”

Due to the rising inflation rate, the real wages of American workers continued to fall over the last year. According to a separate report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the “Real average hourly earnings decreased 2.6 percent, seasonally adjusted, from April 2021 to April 2022. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 3.4-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.”

As noted by CNBC, “Markets had been looking for signs that March’s 8.5% CPI reading would mark the peak in pandemic-era inflation.”

However, the new April report showed that “this is another upward inflation surprise and suggests that the deceleration is going to be painstakingly slow,” said Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors, according to CNBC.

Economy

Gas Prices Hit All Time High Of $4.37 Per Gallon

Published

7 days ago

May 10, 2022

Leo Terrell Staff

Gas prices have surged to a new record high of $4.37 per gallon, surpassing a previous record set March 11, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

“With the cost of oil accounting for more than half of the pump price, more expensive oil means more expensive gasoline,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said in a statement. “These prices are creeping closer to those record high levels of early March.”

As AAA explained in a new report, new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that “total domestic gasoline stocks decreased by 2.2 million bbl to 228.6 million bbl last week. However, gasoline demand increased slightly from 8.74 million b/d to 8.86 million b/d. Increasing gas demand and rising oil prices have pushed pump prices higher. Pump prices will likely face upward pressure as oil prices remain above $105 per barrel.”

As gas prices reached record highs in March, Democrat President Joe Biden warned that they were going to continue to “go up,” but he said that he “can’t do much right now. Russia’s responsible [for the rising gas prices.]”

It should be noted that gas prices rose nearly 50% during Biden’s first year in office; rising from $2.42 per gallon in January 2021 to $3.41 per gallon in January 2022 – a month before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.