During his Monday Labor Day remarks, President Joe Biden touted that the United States has the lowest inflation rate amongst significant world economies, despite his Secretary of Commerce admitting only a day earlier that inflation “remains a challenge” and “still exists” for Americans.
When taking a stage in Philadelphia decorated with banners reading “UNION STRONG,” the president once again claimed that Bidenomics “is working” saying that when the middle class does well, “everyone does well.”
“And guess what? You can still be a millionaire or a billionaire. Except one thing: pay your taxes. Pay your taxes. Bidenomics is a blue-collar blueprint for America. It’s for you,” said Biden.
“As I said a thousand times, there is no quit in America. None. All I hear from my friends on the other side, what they say is wrong with America. They keep telling us America is failing. They’re wrong. I’ve got news for them. America has the strongest economy in the world right now today. Lowest inflation rate among any major economy, 13.5 million new jobs,” said Biden. “America isn’t failing. America is winning, and the rest of the world knows it. That’s why our friends and allies are looking to us.”
The president’s remarks come after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo reacted to the latest report released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday showing that the unemployment rate rose from 3.5% to 3.8% in August, the highest level since February 2022. The report noted that 736,000 people started looking for work last month, the most since January, and not all secured employment quickly.
Inflation has soared under Biden’s leadership
GOP Senate leadership released a report in July showing inflation has soared 16.6% since President Biden took office. Grocery prices have increased by 20%, said the report, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data, while energy prices have increased 38%. As of July, prices increased by 3.2% on average over the past 12 months. The Consumer Price Index for August is expected to be released on September 13.
“The reality is that inflation still exists, and it is something that people see daily when they go to the grocery store, or pay their rent, or pay their mortgage, and we have to know that,” said Raimondo on CBS “Face the Nation” in a Sunday interview. “That’s still a challenge for folks. That said, if you look at where we are today, compared to when the president took office, it’s an unbelievable story of progress.”
President Biden also used his Monday speech to take several jabs at former President Donald Trump.
“We also passed the bipartisan infrastructure law. You can’t have the strongest economy in the world with a second-rate infrastructure. Can you believe we used to have the best infrastructure in the world? And then we fell to the number 13 in the world,” Biden said. “And guess what? The great real estate builder — the last guy here — he didn’t build a damn thing.”
The president claimed that since he took office, private companies have invested $510 billion in America, and referred to South Korea’s SK Group’s, the second-largest conglomerate, recent $22 billion commitment to new investments in the U.S. for green energy, bioscience projects, and semiconductors.
“By the way, we invented the semiconductor. We used to have 40% of the market,” said Biden before mentioning SK Group, “When I asked the CEO why, why American? This what he said, number one, ‘There’s no safer place in the world to have my investment than the United States of America.” And number two — this is the God’s truth — ‘You have the best workers in the world.'”
“We’re making things here in America again with American workers, with American products and American factories,” added Biden.
