Biden Touts His Admin’s Record On The Economy, Inflation. The Numbers Aren’t Positive.

President Joe Biden claimed during a speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night that the Biden-Harris administration has overseen a booming economy and low inflation, but the data show that the U.S. economy and inflation are worse now than they were during the Trump administration. 

“We’ve had one of the most extraordinary four years of progress ever, period. When I say ‘we’ I mean Kamala and me. Just think about it, COVID no longer controls our lives. We got from economic crisis to the strongest economy in the entire world,” Biden told the crowd of Democrats in Chicago. “A record 16 million new jobs, record small business growth, record-high stock market, record-high 401ks, wages up, and inflation down and continuing to go down.” 

The 16 million new jobs number cited by Biden is skewed by the COVID pandemic since many of those jobs were the natural result of the economy returning after lockdown measures were lifted nationwide. Under President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the unemployment rate has gone down as the U.S. economy recovered from the COVID lockdowns, but the latest unemployment numbers show that more Americans are struggling to find work now than before COVID led to many companies shutting down. 

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The civilian unemployment rate has slowly increased over the past few months, hitting 4.3% in July. In February 2020, the last full month before the COVID pandemic hit the U.S., the unemployment rate was at 3.5%. 

The president’s boasting about wages going up under his term is accurate. Average hourly earnings have risen by 17% under Biden compared to 15% under Trump, but what Biden left out is that hourly earnings increases went further under Trump’s economy since they outpaced inflation much more strongly, Forbes reported. Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that Americans saved around 8.7% of their monthly paycheck under Trump compared to just 5.9% under Biden.

Biden also pointed to a lowering inflation rate, claiming it shows his administration has been good for the U.S. economy. While the inflation rate has cooled to 2.9% from a staggering 9.1% in June of 2022, it remains higher than where it was during most of the Trump administration. 

While Americans face higher inflation and a rising unemployment rate, grocery and gas prices have also skyrocketed under Biden and Harris’ watch, a fact even the vice president acknowledged during a rally last week. 

“We all know that prices went up during the pandemic when the supply chains shut down and failed, but our supply chains have now improved, and prices are still too high. A loaf of bread costs 50% more today than before the pandemic. Ground beef is up almost 50%,” Harris said. 

Along with bread and ground beef, dairy products such as milk, cheese, and butter have also jumped more than 30% in price since 2020, according to Yahoo Finance. Eggs are up 54%, and cereal has gone up 28% on average across the country. From 2019 to 2023, food prices overall rose by 25%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

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Gas prices have also increased during the Biden-Harris administration, hitting a national average of $4.09 per gallon in 2022, nearly $2.00 higher than the average in 2020. The current national average for a gallon of gas is at $3.50, still higher than at any point during the Trump administration. 

On top of groceries and gas, Americans are dealing with high interest rates and an unfriendly housing market as the prices of homes across the country have continued to rise under Biden’s watch. Interest rates for a 30-year mortgage were at 2.78% when Biden took over in January 2021 and shot up to 7.79% by October 2023. They are now at 6.49%, according to the latest data from Freddie Mac.