President Joe Biden tried to blow his horn Sunday with a claim that Americans’ real wages are higher than before the pandemic, but instead bringing the walls of Jericho tumbling down, the bogus boast earned a swift rebuke from Twitter’s Community Notes.
“The tweet’s claim about real wages contains a factual error,” Community Notes chided Biden. “On 3/15/20 when US COVID lockdowns began real wages adjusted for inflation (AFI) were $11.15. As of 7/16/23 real wages AFI are $11.05. Real wages AFI remain lower (not higher) than before the pandemic.”
The Twitter account for the GOP, not to be outdone, added, “Since Biden took office, real wages are down 3%.”
As shown by YCharts, by the end of April 2020, before the COVID impact had started to take full effect, real wages rose to their highest level in the last four years: $11.72. By the end of June 2020, they fell to $11.41 and remained at roughly that level until after Biden was inaugurated.
But then they started dipping steadily; by May 31, 2022, they were hovering at $11.01, and by the end of the next month they had plunged to $10.92.
In the 31 months starting in February 2021, just after Biden was inaugurated, the inflation rate has averaged a whopping 6.22%. When Biden took office the rate had been 1.4% in January 2021. But he signed into the law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and a $1.1 trillion infrastructure package.
Conversely, in the 31 months starting in February 2017, just after former President Trump was inaugurated, the inflation rate averaged only 2.17 %. When Trump took office the rate had been 2.5% in January 2017.
In Biden’s 2023 State of the Union Address, he boasted that he had created “12.7 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.”
That ignored the fact that the U.S. economy lost over 22 million jobs in March and April 2020 as a result of the economic shutdowns triggered by the COVID pandemic.
In the first two years of Biden’s tenure as president, federal spending rose to 40% higher than the pre-COVID 2019 budget. Biden’s proposed 2024 budget would add as much to the national debt as former President Trump and former president George W. Bush combined.
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