President Biden took over a crisis that the previous administration had left in a mess. He took over for a president who had the distinction of being the first president since HERBERT HOOVER to leave with fewer people employed at the end of his term than at the beginning. The unemployment rate when President Biden took office was 6.7%.
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When President Biden was elected, the voters also gave him a Congress controlled by the Democratic Party. The party controlling Congress looks to the president to lead when the president is a member of the same political party. The Democratic Party controlled Congress passed President Biden's legislation, The American Rescue Plan. As a consequence of managing the pandemic better and the president's legislation, the economy grew. Under President Biden's leadership, 800,000 manufacturing jobs were created and more than 13 million jobs were created. This is the longest continuous period of sub 4 percent unemployment rate in sixty years. The pandemic harmed supply chains which caused inflation, especially when Russia initiated a war of aggression against Ukraine causing petroleum prices to increase. Last July, the rate of inflation was 9%. The rate of inflation has decreased every month for twelve straight months. It is now 3%. The US has the strongest GDP growth and the lowest rate of inflation of any nation in the G7. Last month, 497,000 jobs were created. The GDP growth of the second quarter of 2023 was 2.4%. The deficit decreased from $2.6T to $1.4 T.
While pointing out the president and the Democratic Party's accomplishments, we must mention legislation. The 2020-2022 Congress was very ideologically diverse. There were independent senators who voted for Senator Chuck Schumer for majority leader and progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders and an extremely conservative senator, Senator Joe Manchin who represents West Virginia, a state President Biden lost by about forty percentage points. The Democratic Party had a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress. The Senate was tied, a tie broken by our fabulous Vice President Kamala Harris, and the margin was about ten in the House of Representatives. One would expect that it would be difficult to pass legislation with such a narrow majority. But it was worse. Two of the US senators who voted for Senator Chuck Schumer for majority leader supported the filibuster. Outside of reconciliation which can only be used a few times each year and is subject to certain rules, all other legislation had to pass with a bipartisan majority. It was declared to be a sign that Joe Biden didn't understand today's Republican Party that he claimed that he could get bipartisan support for significant legislation. Two thirds of House Republicans voted for a written objection to counting electoral college votes for swing states that gave President Biden the electoral college vote majority. Eight Senate Republicans went along with them. They were headed by a guy who declared after a Republican president had just driven the economy into a ditch that his first priority wasn't to help the economy recover, but rather to prevent him from winning reelection. Senate Republicans fully submitted to the previous guy who incited an insurrection and attempted a coup. Yet the fact is that if one settles for executive orders, then they will be undone by the very next administration of a different political party. Domestically, the president is quite limited in what they can do outside of Congress. If anything significant, substantive, and long-lasting was to be achieved, it would have to be performed through and by Congress. To dismiss passing legislation on a bipartisan basis was to dismiss any significant and enduring achievement, to settle for doing nothing for the American people and President Biden wasn't about to accept that outcome.
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President Biden got the RESPECT MARRIAGE ACT, SCIENCE ACT, CHIPS ACT, PACT ACT, the first gun safety legislation passed in thirty years, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation through Congress with significant bipartisan support. President Biden and House Democrats and all senators who voted for Senator Chuck Schumer for majority leader were willing to go it alone when necessary and possible in order to get good legislation passed such as the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
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Furthermore, we would be remiss if we did not address the most successful foreign policy in forty years. President Biden masterfully used intelligence from our US intelligence community to predict what Putin would claim or say, how he would justify the invasion, and what he would do, and he was right every step of the way. In so doing, President Biden kept NATO together in support of Ukraine and even expanded NATO.
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President Biden isn't the best speaker, he does have a stutter and makes accomodations that aren't always successful and he is three years older than the guy who incited an insurrection and attempted a coup, but he can govern extremely well. His vast experience serving in the federal government has enabled him to achieve remarkable results for the American people.
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He also confirmed a trend. The trend is a republican wins a presidential election, deregulates, cuts taxes for the wealthy which leads to reduction in the social safety net and investments in the middle class, increases inequality, increases the deficit, leads to GDP shrinking and a recession, and job losses. Then a president who is a member of the Democratic Party wins the next presidential election and they are given a Congress controlled by the Democratic Party from the voters. They pass significant economic legislation and invest in the middle class. Jobs are created, the rate of the growth of inequality slightly slows, the deficit is reduced, the GDP grows, the deficit is reduced, and jobs are created.
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The president is rightly given credit in as much as the president is the leader of their political party when Congress is controlled by their political party. It's just random chance. It's not. This same cycle has happened three times in a row and the economic reasoning makes sense. What I wrote above is very close to what happened each of the last three cycles, six administrations, with some minor adjustment.
1. President George H W Bush - recession, deregulation, high unemployment, increased deficit, increased inequality, Reagan had already drastically cut taxes for the wealthy
2. President Bill Clinton - Democratic Party controlled Congress, Omnibus 1993, middle class investment, reduced deficit, created 22 million new jobs strong GDP growth
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3. President George W Bush - deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, increased inequality, increased deficit, GDP shrinks, recession, job losses
4. President Obama - American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and Dodd Frank, investment in the middle class, GDP growth, job creation, longest continuous period of peacetime private sector job growth this country has ever seen, decreased deficit
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5. President Donald Trump - $2 Trillion tax cut for the wealthy, deregulation, intentional mismanagement of COVID, increased inequality, increased deficit, GDP growth weaker than previous administration and then a recession and job losses, left with fewer people employed at the end of his term than at the beginning, left with 6.7% unemployment rate
6. President Joe Biden - Democratic Party controlled Congress, American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation, Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, strong GDP growth 2.4%, strong job creation numbers - 13 million new jobs created, 800,000 manufacturing jobs created, decreased deficit, longest continuous period of sub 4 percent unemployment rate in 60 years, inflation cut from 9% to 3%
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"Reagan took the deficit from $70 Billion to $175 Billion. Bush 41 took it to $300 Billion. Clinton got it to zero. Bush 43 took it from zero to $1.2 trillion. Obama halved it to $600 Billion. Trump's got it back to a trillion."
Politifact
."From 1948 through 2023, the party holding the presidency has changed ten times. Every time a Republican took over from a Democrat, GDP growth fell. Every time a Democrat took over from a Republican, GDP growth rose. Ten of the last eleven recessions have occurred under Republican presidents. Democratic presidents create twice as many jobs per year as Republican presidents. Republican presidents' deficits are 54% larger than Democrats' and 65% higher as a percent of GDP. GDP GROWS 75% faster under Democratic presidents. Business investment grows twice as fast under Democratic presidents than under Republican presidents. "
Economy under Republican Party and Democratic Party compared and contrasted
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So, on the one hand, we have the great economy and great legislation that President Biden and the Democratic Party have delivered for the American people and, on the other hand, we have a MAGA REPUBLICAN EXTREMIST GROUP which supports insurrections, attempted coups, is big on forced birthers and opposes women's full bodily autonomy and opposes diversity, equality, and tolerance and which will ruin the economy if given a chance. The 2024 election presents the easiest choice voters have had in at least 100 years.
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