David Pepper writes in his blog about the success of Biden’s economic measures, which produced strong economic growth and a remarkable increase in employment. Trump will inherit this strong economy and will claim that he did it. As Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure legislation churns out huge capital improvements, Trump and his fellow Republicans will attend the ribbon cutting ceremonies, not acknowledging that most Republicans voted against this massive investment in the future. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 passed the House by a vote of 228-206. Only 13 Republicans in the House voted for it. All Democrats except six members of “The Squad” supported it. In the Senate, the vote was 69-30, including 19 Republicans and every Democrat.

Remember: Biden did it. Not Trump.

Pepper writes:

Day 6–December 6, 2024

The American economy in November exceeded expectations, gaining 227,000 jobs, including 26,000 manufacturing jobs. Wages also grew by .4% in November, stronger than expected—lifting the annual increase to 4%.

With only two months to go in the Biden administration, November’s numbers take the total number of jobs under Biden (since January 2021) to more than 16 million, and extending an impressive streak: a net positive of jobs created every month of his tenure. In that time, the nation has also seen the lowest average unemployment of any administration in 50 years.

I share these numbers for several reasons. 

First, remember them. They will be a valuable point of comparison to what happens once Trump takes over and imposes another round of billionaire-inspired trickle-down policies—which never work for anyone but those at the top. Last time, of course, he had already squandered the strong economy he inherited by 2019. Ohio and other states lost jobs between January 2019 and January 2020 (including manufacturing jobs), the first time that happened since the Great Recession and reversing the long period of Obama job growth. (Things only got worse amid Trump’s disastrous mismanagement of COVID.) 

Second, let these job growth numbers challenge you—and all of us—because they also underscore one other reality:

The failure to translate consistent and robust job growth into political traction is a crisis Democrats desperately need to confront, study and correct. After all, it’s Democratic administrations where almost all the jobs are created. (As Clinton reminded us at the convention, it’s 50 million to 1 million).

But amid this dramatic contrast in jobs growth, Americans: 1) still generally give more credit to Republicans and Democrats on how they handle the economy; 2) told pollsters in the middle of 2024 that they believed the country was in a recession (here’s one poll from May, where that number stood at 56%); and 3) voted for the guy and policies that lost jobs as opposed to the people that sparked four years of job growth.

If that’s not a crisis, I don’t know what is.

Needless to say, there are several things going on here.

First, economics. 

Clearly, how people rate the economy goes beyond job growth and GDP. 

Wages, inflation, stability, broader income inequality, health care, debt, unaffordable housing, and other elements all factor in as well. If Americans don’t feel secure economically amid years of steady job growth, that itself is a problem crying out to be addressed. And the challenge presented to Democrats—and all policy makers—is to find and implement policies and create circumstances such that Americans feel more economically secure amid even low unemployment.

Second, politics.

Still, there’s a major political problem as well.

Just look at this graph summing up the facts in a different way:

And to be clear: beyond not creating jobs in all these decades, Republican policies have also not added to economic security in the other ways I list above. In most aspects, their policies (whether attacking unions, or wages, or health care, spending cuts, etc.) have taken things in the wrong direction. That may be a major reason that when Trump left the White House, he did so with an approval/disapproval rating of 34/61, “the lowest on record dating back since scientific polling began.”

But despite all that reality, Biden/Harris lose. And they lose amid exit polls finding that “[t]wo thirds of voters described the economy as bad, and those voters who did went big for Trump.”

And that, my friends, is a political problem. A five-alarm fire of a political problem.

It poses the basic question: How do you have four straight years of monthly job growth, record low unemployment, versus an administration that lost jobs, and ended as the most disapproved administration on record…and lose….on the very issue where you performed so markedly better.

Until we answer that question, we will struggle.

Pepper goes on to discuss how Democrats can win the PR battle next time. Open the link and keep reading.