FACT CHECK: President Biden’s Historic Economy

Governor Reynolds chose to leave the facts out of her response to President Biden’s economy tonight. The reality is that when President Biden took office, he inherited a flatlining economy with a historic number of Americans filing for unemployment each week. But thanks to his leadership in  passing the American Rescue Plan, our economy saw record growth, a record over 6 million new jobs were created in his first year, and unemployment is near historic lows.

In President Biden’s first year in office, the U.S. economy added 6.6 million jobs, making 2021 the best year for job growth in U.S. history. 

CNN: “Biden sets first-year record with 6.6 million jobs added”

CNBC: “Those changes brought the 2021 total to 6.665 million, easily the biggest single-year gain in U.S. history as employers hired back workers they dismissed during the worst of the pandemic.”

MSNBC: “As we discussed this morning, over the course of the first three years of Trump’s term, the economy created 6.5 million jobs. This includes all of 2017, 2018, and 2019. In just 2021, the economy generated 6.4 million, nearly matching the combined total of the Republican’s first three years.”

Last year was also the strongest year for GDP growth since 1984, as President Biden’s economy grew 5.7%, including at a 7% rate in the final three months of the year.

Washington Post: “U.S. economy grew 5.7 percent in 2021, fastest full-year clip since 1984, despite ongoing pandemic”

Washington Post’s Heather Long: “The US went from the worst GDP in 2020 since WWII to the best GDP in 2021 since 1984.”

CNBC: “A separate report showed that gross domestic product, a sum of all the goods and services produced in the U.S. economy, increased at a 7% annualized rate during the fourth quarter, according to the Commerce Department.”

Thanks to President Biden and Democrats’ American Rescue Plan, Americans are getting back to work and unemployment is at historic lows.  

The Hill: “Jobless claims fall to lowest level since 1970”

CNBC: “The unemployment rate has fallen from a crisis peak of 14.7% to 4%.”

Moody’s Analytics: “The ARP is responsible for adding well over 4 million more jobs in 2021, and the economy is currently on track to recovering all the jobs lost in the pandemic by the second quarter of this year. If there had been no ARP, it would have taken another year for the economy to recover all of these jobs.”

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