Joe Biden Claims Economy Strong in First Speech After Announcing Reelection Bid

Joe Biden Reelection
Andrew Harnik/AP
Wendell Husebø

President Joe Biden said the economy is strong in his first speech after announcing a 2024 reelection bid Tuesday.

Speaking at North America’s Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference at the Washington Hilton, Biden claimed his “economic plan is working.”

Biden championed the far-left legislation enacted during the past two years, such as the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. “This is real progress. Like we have never seen before,” he said.

Among many initiatives, the Inflation Reduction Act created hundreds of billions of dollars in green energy slush funds for the federal government to dole out and boosted funding for the IRS by $80 billion.

Meanwhile, inflation soared. Biden’s 40-year-high inflation, on average, cost American households an extra $5,200 last year, or $433 per month, according to Bloomberg. In 2023, inflation has remained a systemic problem.

“I know folks are also struggling with inflation,” Biden noted.

Interrupted by chants in the crowd of “four more years,” Biden unequally compared his short economic record to previous, four-year completed term administrations.

“We’ve created more than 12 million new jobs. More jobs in two years than any president has made in a four-year term,” he said. “This is real progress. Like we have never seen before.”

“Not a joke,” he said, comparing his policies against those of Republicans. “Trickle-down economics doesn’t work.”

“Don’t take my word for it. [Let] me read from leftwing democratic papers,” he slurred, quoting headlines from the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

“You and I together, we are turning things around, and we are doing it in a big way,” he said.

Polling does not support Biden’s economic claims. A recent Monmouth University poll found that American middle-class families, who are most likely to serve in the military and pay an overwhelming percentage of their income in federal taxes, believe they are not benefiting from the policies of the Biden administration.

Ninety-seven percent of Americans say Biden’s sagging economy, a concern that has remained dominant for months, is a top issue of importance, a CBS News/YouGov poll found.

According to a Tuesday Morning Consult State of Consumer Banking and Payments report, all U.S. consumers are financially worse off now than last year, with growing personal debt following Biden’s inflation.

Watch: Finish WHAT Job? Biden’s 2024 Announcement Lists No Accomplishments, Attacks “MAGA Extremists”

Joe Biden / YouTube

The Expectations Index is also not in Biden’s favor. It has now remained below 80—the level associated with a recession within the next year—every month since February 2022, with the exception of a brief uptick in December 2022.

“While consumers’ relatively favorable assessment of the current business environment improved somewhat in April, their expectations fell and remain below the level which often signals a recession looming in the short-term,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, Senior Director, Economics at The Conference Board.

“Consumers became more pessimistic about the outlook for both business conditions and labor markets. Compared to last month, fewer households expect business conditions to improve and more expect worsening of conditions in the next six months,” he continued. “They also expect fewer jobs to be available over the short term. April’s decline in consumer confidence reflects particular deterioration in expectations for consumers under 55 years of age and for households earning $50,000 and over.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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