As you know, the President and his cohorts are always bringing up the economy whenever they get the chance. Why is that? It’s because the No. 1 issue for voters is usually the economy.

The problem I have with the Republicans extolling the greatness of the economy, is that they say the same thing over and over. And what they say is, at the least, an exaggeration, and, at most, a downright lie. When you look at the major leading economic indicators over the previous 10 years, it will show the comparison between the Obama/Biden years and the Trump/Pence years. The doo-doo hits the fan when you compare.

What follows are the facts provided by Federal Reserve Economic Data. I am comparing the last four years of the Obama/Biden administration with the previous 3 years of the Trump/Pence administration, just to be fair. So, all the data is post-Great Recession and pre-COVID-19.

JOB CREATION: (all presidents start at 0, unless a second term)
Obama/Biden: went from 1% to 9% (an 8% increase)
Trump/Pence: went from 0% to 5% (a 5% increase)

HOUSEHOLD INCOME:
Obama/Biden: went from about $56,000 to about $62,000 (an increase of $6,000)
Trump/Pence: went from about $62,000 to about $65,000 (an increase of $3,000)

UNEMPLOYMENT:
Obama/Biden : went from 8.4% to 4.8% (a decrease of 3.6 percentage points)
Trump/Pence: went from 4.8% to 3.5% (a decrease of 1.3 percentage points)

FEDERAL DEBT:
Obama/Biden: about $16 trillion to $20 trillion (an increase of $4 trillion)
Trump/Pence: about $20 trillion to $24 trillion (an increase of $4 trillion)

AVERAGE WAGE GROWTH:
Obama/Biden: 1.3%
Trump/Pence: 1.4%

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) GROWTH:
Obama/Biden – 2.24%
Trump/Pence – 2.58%

STOCK MARKET (DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE):
Obama/Biden – went from about 12,000 to 20,000 (an increase of 8,000 points)
Trump/Pence – went from about 20,000 to 29,000 (an increase of 9,000 points)

The bottom line is that the Trump/Pence administration inherited a solid economy — maybe not robust, but definitely strong and steady. If you look further at the economic data for eight years of the Obama/Biden administration compared to three and a half years of the Trump/Pence administration, you realize that Trump’s claim that his is “the greatest economy ever” and that his predecessor’s economy “was a disaster” is a bunch of hogwash. Fake news. A lie.

— Douglas Byrd

Salisbury