Good news going into the weekend.

February 4, 2023

There is good news to discuss in the Comments section over the weekend! The quarterly report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Friday reflected unexpectedly strong job growth in January—517,000 new jobs.

You can stop reading here if you want to glide into the weekend on a happy note. Details follow, but the key takeaway is that President Biden’s aggressive economic strategy and legislative successes are helping the economy recover from the pandemic recession. As a result, all Americans are reaping the benefits of his stewardship of the economy.

Presidents typically receive too much blame and credit for the performance of the economy. But Biden has a strong argument that his policies and legislative successes are responsible for the continued health of the economy— inflation notwithstanding. Under Biden’s leadership, Democrats in Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, the bi-partisan infrastructure act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Unemployment reached 14% during the height of the shutdown and is now at a 50-year low of 3.4%.

It is true that inflation increased as Biden’s legislation reduced unemployment, but there is scant evidence that new spending fueled inflation. Rather, supply chain disruptions and labor force dislocation caused by the pandemic drove a cycle of scarcity and wage growth that fueled inflation. And we cannot ignore the fact that American corporations used the pandemic as an excuse to raise prices at a rate that far outpaced their increased costs.

Entertainers posing as journalists on Fox had been preparing their viewers for signs of economic collapse in the jobs report and were speechless in the face of the unexpectedly strong showing of the economy. Indeed, combined with historically low unemployment, falling inflation, and reasonable GDP growth (2.9%), many of Biden’s critics are trimming their bold predictions that the US is heading into a recession—a prediction that served as a cornerstone of the GOP’s failed midterm strategy.

President Biden rightly touted his track record of job creation, noting that more jobs had been created during the first two years of his tenure than during any other two-year period in our nation’s history.

President Biden and all Democrats should be rightly proud of what they accomplished during the 117th Congress. Let’s take a moment to savor and celebrate those accomplishments. Share your thoughts with your fellow readers in the Comments section. As always, please be respectful and “like” comments that deserve attention from other readers.

Talk to you Monday!