OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden’s White House staff are taking heat over what critics are calling a poor choice of optics to accompany what was supposed to be a positive speech about the current state of the economy and American workers.
Biden traveled to Virginia on Thursday to speak about tumbling inflation and higher-than-expected growth in gross domestic product last month while also criticizing GOP plans to impose a simplified national sales tax to replace the current convoluted and complex progressive tax code. Biden appeared at a steamfitters union hall in Springfield in what was his first major economic speech of the year, CNBC reported.
“I’m not sure the news could have been any better – economic growth is up stronger than experts expected, 2.9 percent,” Biden said, in reference to a report released earlier in the day by the Commerce Department. “I don’t think it’s unfair to say that this is all evidence that [the] Biden economic plan is actually working.”
CNBC said the current unemployment rate — 3.5 percent — is “the lowest in 50 years,” but that’s false; the rate fell to 3.5 percent in January 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, during then-President Donald Trump’s term, before months of pandemic-related shutdowns and business closures ravaged the country. That said, there are fewer unemployed people overall now than in January 2020, 5.7 million compared to 5.8 million.
What’s more, consumer prices are still much higher now than at the end of Trump’s term, even though they have fallen somewhat over the past few months. Interest rates are far higher now than when Trump left office as well.
But it was the imagery used during Biden’s speech — chosen by his administration — that caught the eye of social media users, per The Western Journal:
As the president spoke Thursday at a steamfitters union hall in Springfield, Virginia, a sign behind the president’s podium read, “President Biden’s Blueprint For America.” Underneath that message, the sign read, “good jobs, lower costs, better pay.”
The problem, as noted by Christian Martinez, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s deputy press secretary, the images next to those phrases told a much different and sadder story.
“Did anyone in the Biden administration check the logos? Because that’s definitely an American worker working for less money,” Martinez tweeted along with several images of Biden and the logos to make his point.
Did anyone in the Biden administration check the logos? Because that’s definitely an American worker working for less money. pic.twitter.com/YnRdEFO8q6
— Christian Martinez (@C_RMartinez) January 26, 2023
“I believe one of Kamala’s former speechwriters is handling graphics for the big guy now,” one user responded.
“They always tell you the truth…you just have to read between the lines,” said another.
“Trust us, American workers, we know,” another user added.
Biden also riffed on “MAGA Republicans” during his speech.
“MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives are threatening to destroy this economy, this progress. Look, this ain’t your father’s Republican Party. It’s a different breed of cat,” he claimed, though his Democratic Party has changed substantially as well since he first came to the U.S. Senate in the early 1970s.
Also, Biden’s positive economic message is somewhat misleading as well. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, real wages for workers actually declined from December 2021 to December 2022 after rising during Trump’s term.
“From December 2021 to December 2022, real average hourly earnings decreased 1.1 percent, seasonally adjusted. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 2.0-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period,” the BLS website noted.
Also, inflation remains at a 40-year high, putting a huge strain on average American families, as oil and gasoline prices begin to creep up as well.
“[T]he coming year is peppered with potential landmines that could reshape the 2024 election, with most CEOs and Wall Street economists expecting a recession to hit later this year, triggered by the highest borrowing costs in decades,” Politico reported Thursday.
“[W]hile the numbers look stronger than expected from many forecasts of a year ago, the year ahead is still going to be rocky as the full impact of the Fed’s rate hikes are felt and with Fed Chair Jerome Powell vowing to do whatever it takes to curb inflation,” the report added.
