President Joe Biden tried to crow about “record setting job creation” as America’s unemployment rate held steady at 3.6% in April, a low topline figure which hides the fact that more workers dropped out of the workforce than entered last month.
Biden also ignored that Americans are still suffering from steep inflation wiping out any pay raises. (RELATED: NORQUIST: Biden Broke His Promise To Americans. Will They Throw Him Out?)
Vice President Kamala Harris, who would rather rebuild the economies of Central America than America’s own, claimed, “This continued progress is a testament to the strength of our economic policies for the American people.” Americans aren’t going to buy this gaslighting, when they see the real economic troubles we face all around them.
A deeper dive into the numbers shows the truth too: the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported April’s labor force participation rate actually fell to 62.2% from 62.4%, which means many fewer people working today than before COVID’s 63.4%.
Fewer people working is a natural response when you destroy jobs through excessive COVID-related business shutdowns and issue trillions of dollars in government payouts discouraging people from working. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the U.S. had about 1.2 million fewer jobs in April compared with February 2020.
Wages grew by just 5.5% in April, and while we don’t have final April inflation numbers, that’s far less than the 8.5% March inflation increase.
Biden, his Federal Reserve and congressional Democrats have been in denial for months about the ravages of inflation, intent on harming businesses — especially energy companies — rather than helping lower prices.
Inflation is why many fewer Americans now than a year ago rate their financial situation positively and more say their finances are getting worse than say they are improving, according to a Gallup poll released last week.
Gallup reports that a record-high percentage of Americans say inflation is the biggest financial problem facing their family.
Gallup also found less than half of Americans rate their financial situation as “good” or “excellent,” the lowest share since 2015. It reported that 48% say their financial situation is worsening, similar to levels seen in April 2020 and the financial crisis of 2008.
This does not bode well for a Biden White House that would rather pick fights with free speech advocates and throw open our borders for millions of illegal immigrants who will drive down wages for U.S. citizens, especially hurting black men.
The Biden White House can try to spin these job numbers — with help from the liberal media — but Americans aren’t stupid. We know that it’s the battering from failed Biden policies that caused the U.S. economy to shrink by 1.4% in the first quarter of 2022.
We know it’s liberal policies underpinning flailing results that led Deutsche Bank to warn that a “deep recession will be needed” to control spiraling inflation.
Policymakers have a way out: prevent this by spending and tax cuts, smart regulation reform, and growing U.S. energy supplies.
Too bad, that’s a reality that this administration also wants to ignore.
Carrie Sheffield is a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Voice. She previously managed municipal credit risk at Goldman Sachs and rated healthcare bonds at Moody’s Investors Service.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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