White House Claims U.S. Has Experienced ‘Historic And Lifechanging Economic Gains’ Since Biden Took Office

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre discussed the ongoing inflation crisis and claimed that the United States has experienced “historic and lifechanging economic gains” since President Biden took office.

“Our goal is to bring down inflation without sacrificing the historic and lifechanging economic gains that this country has made over the last 18 months,” Jean-Pierre said.

She then pointed to the labor market and claimed that the U.S. economy shows “strong underlying momentum.”

Jean-Pierre touts "the historic and life changing economic gains" from the last 18 months pic.twitter.com/ciWas4WXVd

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) August 29, 2022

However, the labor market has been cooling in recent weeks. As reported by Politico, “employers are posting fewer jobs, rescinding job offers and hiring workers at a slower pace — as well as giving their existing workforce fewer hours. The average workweek was 34.6 hours in July, down from 34.8 a year ago.”

Additionally, the economic recovery of the United States since the pandemic has been driven by red states, or those that lean Republican. While the economies of red states are performing better than before the pandemic, the economies of blue states are still performing worse.

According to an analysis of federal data and numerous studies from The Wall Street Journal published last month, Republican-led states are “winning” the economic recovery by multiple measures.

“Since February 2020, the month before the pandemic began, the share of all U.S. jobs located in red states has grown by more than half a percentage point, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the Brookings Institution think tank. Red states have added 341,000 jobs over that time, while blue states were still short 1.3 million jobs as of May,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Jean-Pierre’s comments were made as she discussed how the Biden administration aimed to fight inflation, which is at 8.5% – nearly the highest level in 41 years. Due to that inflation rate, the real wages of Americans have decreased significantly over the last year. According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Real average hourly earnings decreased 3.0 percent, seasonally adjusted, from July 2021 to July 2022. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.6 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 3.6-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.”