Good News About the Economy

Today, the U.S. stock market is at an all-time high, job growth is solid, unemployment remains at consistently low levels, inflation has been battled back down to a normal level, and wages are increasing at a rate higher than inflation. The U.S. economy is leading the world, and stabilizing the global economy. In short: the economy under Bidenomics is healthy and growing.

In 2020, Trump said that a Biden victory would crash the economy and “finish” America. He lied. Trump continues to predict doom and disaster and to predict a great depression if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected president. He’s still lying. 

Some people still struggle, as our country and economy are still marred by massive inequality. Corporate profits have exploded, with after-tax corporate profits reaching an all-time high of $2.8 trillion and profit margins over 15 percent. Wealth inequality remains higher in the United States than in any other developed country—and continues to grow. So does income inequality, with huge increases in income at the top and far smaller increases at the bottom. Trumpian tax cuts for billionaires and free rein for monopolistic big businesses only make inequality worse. 

We need to continue to attack inequality. One example of how to do that: the top one percent of wealthy Americans owed more than one-fifth of all unpaid taxes when Biden took office. In the past year, the IRS collected $1.3 billion in back taxes from those wealthy tax evaders. That came because of the Biden administration’s funding of IRS collection efforts aimed at millionaire tax cheats who owe more than $250,000—IRS funding that Trump promises to end. 

We also need higher taxes on the wealthiest. If they paid Social Security and Medicare taxes on more of their income (maybe on ALL of their income), that would go a long way to stabilizing funding for those crucial programs. Trump slashed tax rates on corporations and the top tax bracket for individuals, and says he will cut even further. We need to roll back those tax cuts. Corporate taxes and the tax bracket for the wealthiest individuals were far higher during previous decades, and under previous Republican administrations. Yes—we need tax increases on corporations and on upper-income individuals. 

Inflation has fallen. Prices remain higher than they were five years or ten years ago, but the rate of increase is now less than the rate of increase of wages. But lies about inflation persist.

Just last week, Trump denounced eight-dollar-a-dozen eggs and five-dollar-a-gallon gas. I doubt that he could find a carton of eggs in a supermarket and I’m 100% sure that he doesn’t pump his own gas. I buy my own groceries and pump my own gas—and I can guarantee that even organic, free-range eggs don’t cost eight dollars, and gas is closer to three dollars a gallon than five. 

Trump says that gas prices are higher because of environmental restrictions and insists that the answer to everything is “Drill, baby, drill!” Right now, the United States produces more oil than any other country in the world. Producing oil does not bring down gas prices, which respond to a complicated set of actors and conditions, including monopolistic manipulation.

Bidenomics has brought us back to a strong job market and a growing economy. There’s still a lot of work to do—basically, in making sure that the economy works for everybody, regardless of how old they are, how much money their parents had, what their race or ethnicity is, and where in the country they live. That work takes a smart and caring Congress, as well as a president who wants to work for all the people.