As Election Nears, Dems Have Great Economic Story to Tell

Late last week, for example, a reporter reminded Donald Trump of the latest encouraging data, and asked, "Do you acknowledge that the economy is improving?" The former president replied, "No. It's not." Days earlier, his running mate, Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, told the public that the economy is "an unmitigated disaster."

Inflation has come full circle for the Biden administration. Consumer price growth slowed to its lowest pace since February 2021 - the first full month President Joe Biden was in office, the Labor Department said Thursday in its final inflation report before Election Day.

Inflation data isn't the only encouraging metric. Last week, Americans also received great news about job growth and unemployment. A week earlier, there was a surprisingly good report on U.S. economic growth.

We can keep going. We've recently seen record highs on Wall Street; gas prices are low, retail sales are strong; interest rates are falling; and wages are up.

But why stop there? As The Washington Post's Heather Long explained in her latest column, "[M]any Americans are getting sizable pay raises, and middle-class wealth has surged to record levels. We are living through one of the best economic years of many people's lifetimes."

The U.S. economy is so strong that some Republicans - Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, I'm looking in your direction - have decided to start telling Americans that the real-world evidence is "fake."

A Politico report on the latest inflation data characterized the status quo as "a dream economy," adding, "The latest numbers, released on Thursday, add to a solid economic picture that's coming together just weeks before the 2024 election."

No wonder so many Republicans are lying: The more the public recognizes the truth about the economy under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the more likely it is that Trump will lose in 25 days.

On top of most metrics heading in the positive direction, Barack Obama kindly reminded America of just why Trump's economy was so good to begin with.

Former President Barack Obama addressed voters who next month may be tempted to vote for his successor, former president and current GOP nominee Donald Trump, based on the state of the economy during Trump's first administration.

Obama acknowledged Thursday at a Pittsburgh rally for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris that "some people think, Well, I don't know. I remember that economy when he first came in being pretty good.'"

Then he added, "Yeah, it was pretty good because it was my economy."

"We had had 75 straight months of job growth that I handed over to him," remembered Obama, under who the economy grew solidly before Trump took over and continued to develop it until the coronavirus pandemic.

"It wasn't something he did," Obama added. "I had spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans had left me the last time. So, just in case everybody has a hazy memory, he didn't do nothing, except those big tax cuts."

It's amazing how the truth has a nice ring to it, isn't it?

Dow and S&P 500 notch record highs as earnings season kicks off

The Dow and S&P 500 notched new highs on Friday, with the broader index closing above 5,800 for the first time as big US banks got earnings season underway.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose nearly 1% as JPMorgan Chase (JPM) shares surged.

Yeah, Trump's right. The economy - as reflected by the markets - is abysmal.

When told that the economy was great, she had only disdain.

And her story is easy to understand based on how those at the lowest rungs of our economy are always the last to see tangible relief in their lives coming out of any economic upheaval.

The fact of the matter is that nothing Trump would have done if he'd been in the same circumstances would have helped the lower classes either. He's proposed nothing to help these people today. Their lives got worse once the Covid measures which provided them real assistance - the boosted child tax credit, childcare assistance - the CARES Act - were all things that helped them get through the pandemic but Republicans would not re-fund because they knew it would drive much of their base towards the Democrats.

Which states still have the same minimum wage from 2009? GOP controlled states. Which states have the most meager public safety nets? GOP controlled states. There are myriad policies Democrats back that can't pass the GOP House majority or the Senate's filibuster.

The most unfortunate thing is that all of the above cannot be distilled down into a soundbite or a 30 second ad. But you can certainly get a message that everything is fubar across in both few seconds and few words, and that's a big part of the reason why we are where we are.