Card #6: Economy Facts

Biden-Harris Impact on America’s Economy

• Economic Growth: For the third year in a row, the US economy expanded by 2.5%, higher than expected, and is outpacing the economic growth of all other countries worldwide. Under Biden, annual growth is averaging 3.4%. 
• Job Growth: The economy added 15.2 million jobs. The number is now nearly 6 million higher than before the pandemic. Unemployment reached its lowest level since 1969 under Biden and has stayed there for 27 months, including in the Black and Latino populations. The current rate is 4%.
• Wage Growth: Inflation has slowed to an average of 3.4% in the past year.  Real wage growth has outpaced inflation, with wages growing at about 3.9%.
• The National Debt: President Biden has so far approved $6.2 trillion of gross new borrowing and $1.9 trillion of deficit reduction.
• The Biden-Harris Economic Plan for Our Future: Biden proposes expanding tax credits for lower-income people, raising taxes, and closing tax loopholes for corporations and individuals with income over $400,000, reducing US debt by approximately $3 trillion over 10 years. Biden would extend some of the Trump tax cuts, but not for wealthy individuals and corporations, and establish more targeted tariffs on Chinese imports.

Donald Trump’s Impact on America’s Economy

• Economic Growth: With the 2020 pandemic excluded, growth after inflation averaged 2.67% under Trump, according to figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Include the pandemic-induced recession and that average drops to 1.45%.
• Job Growth: In February 2019, well before the pandemic, 100 straight months of job growth came to an end, with 50,000 jobs lost in that month alone. By the end of Trump’s term, the economy lost 2.9 million jobs. The unemployment rate increased by 1.6 percentage points to 6.3%.
• Wage Growth: Paychecks grew faster than inflation. Average weekly earnings for all workers were up 8.7% after inflation.
• The National Debt: President Trump approved $8.8 trillion of gross new borrowing and $443 billion of deficit reduction during his full presidential term.
• The Trump Economic Plan for our Future: In 2018, Trump imposed tariffs on $380 billion worth of goods resulting in $80 billion in new taxes paid by American consumers. Trump now proposes 10% tariffs on all imports, 60% on Chinese goods, and 200% on cars made outside the US.  Analysts expect these tariffs to cost US consumers between $5,000 and $8,500 per household. Trump has said he would seek to extend and expand his 2017 tax cuts which only benefited wealthy individuals and corporations and increased our national debt.