After announcing his 2024 presidential bid last week, President Joe Biden released a second TV campaign ad of the election cycle, which will run across eight battleground states on national cable channels as part of a two-week, seven-figure buy.
The one-minute advertisement, titled "Backbone," is focused on Biden's economic agenda that's purportedly "investing in all of America" and "rewarding hard-working Americans," a press release issued Wednesday by the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign asserts, though middle-class Americans struggling to put food on the table in Biden's America know the harsh truth first-hand.
Jobs Creation
A narrator voicing over the video claims that "over 12 million jobs have been created" under Biden.
As Townhall debunked when he boasted about supposed U.S. jobs creation by the millions in his flub-filled State of the Union address, Biden's misleading and oft-regurgitated claim takes credit for the recuperation of jobs previously lost to the pandemic.
Biden's definition of jobs creation conflates the generation of new jobs with the natural return of the workforce following the government shutdown of businesses that ravaged U.S. industry and drove working-class Americans home. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, the nation lost more than 20 million jobs at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic between March and April 2020. Though we're now adding jobs back years later, Biden's jobs-creation claim doesn't calculate net gain.
As Biden touts that he's created 12 million new jobs...
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 8, 2023
Reminder that yesterday's Washington Post poll found that 60% of Americans believe Biden has NOT made progress in creating good jobs in their community. pic.twitter.com/8yTzW78FT9
At the time of Biden's inauguration, the nation was beginning to recover from the sudden job losses caused by the government-mandated coronavirus lockdowns. The jobs-recovery process began under former President Donald Trump, but because his tenure ended only eight months into the economic-revival cycle, much of the job gains were accrued during Biden's presidency.
All the while Biden is benefiting—and touting it, too—from the waning of the pandemic's astronomical effects on America's strained economy and the rehiring of workers. As economic experts say, "This is literally evidence that Biden was handed something on a golden platter," and the recovery from a deep recession "would have happened no matter who was president."
U.S. Manufacturing
The narrator also claims that Biden passed "historic laws" that "invest in our factories" and "bring back American manufacturing."
As Townhall covered, the president has claimed before, while touring factories on an "Investing in America" tour, that manufacturing in the U.S. is "booming" under the Biden administration. However, a report released last month says otherwise.
That ISM data is screaming recession. Few understand this.https://t.co/GZWpMbIVXL pic.twitter.com/UEez5oIQxG
— JaguarAnalytics (@JaguarAnalytics) April 3, 2023
Manufacturing has plummeted to a new low since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, according to a survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), which shows that its manufacturing index—the PMI—reached its lowest level (46.3 percent) since May 2020. Without factoring in the pandemic recession, the composite-index reading hit its lowest point since the year 2009.
Analysts say that the ISM's findings should be viewed as a window into the health of the U.S. economy, and that a PMI below the 50-percent threshold is indicative of decline. The dramatic drop, which is considered a barometer of U.S. factories, was worse than experts had expected, well below the median estimate of 47.5 percent, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Continued weakness in manufacturing. Note that prices paid, new orders and employment are all below 50 indicating contraction. Weakest new orders number since 2020. pic.twitter.com/ccpxEuIHL6
— Kathy Jones (@KathyJones) April 3, 2023
In addition to the three-year plunge, economic activity in the manufacturing sector shrunk in March for the fifth month in a row under Biden's leadership, America's supply executives say in an ISM manufacturing report. New order rates remain "sluggish" as concerns mount over when manufacturing growth will resume. Plus, price instability persists, but future demand is "uncertain" while companies continue to "work down overdue deliveries and backlogs." Transportation-equipment producers say that "sales are slowing at an increasing rate." Meanwhile, electrical equipment, appliances, and components manufacturers observe that "new orders are starting to soften." Makers of chemical products report that "sales [were] a bit down, and budgets being cut with a greater emphasis on savings." So, for at least the first half of 2023, "the road will be a bumpy one," ISM's magazine predicts.
No American Left Behind
"Joe Biden's building an economy that leaves no city, no town, no American behind," the narrator says. The economy is being built "from the bottom up and the middle out," Biden declares later in the campaign clip, "where no one's going to be left behind."
Although gas prices have gone down since they'd hit record highs last summer, surpassing $5 per gallon nationwide, April saw a steady rise across states, reaching the highest level in months. Economic pundits are blaming Biden's "clean"-energy push and stressing the need for energy independence, ramping up U.S. oil production, and rejecting Green New Deal-aligned agendas.
⚠️ "Gas prices are rising. Joe Biden is doing nothing except push a crazy green agenda that will make prices even higher.
— FreedomWorks (@FreedomWorks) April 8, 2023
👀 If America went back to Trump's energy policies, we'd be producing 2 million barrels more a day." @StephenMoore #ampFW https://t.co/AlLq9ZXgHY
As Spencer reported, the surging costs of consumer goods, which are not showing signs of easing, are keeping inflation high.
Per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers released in mid-April, transportation services were up 13.9 percent, gas-service costs increased by 5.5 percent, food was 8.5 percent more expensive, and electricity costs went up more than 10 percent.
Overall, with no relief in sight, Americans have dealt with 23 months of inflation above 5 percent during Biden's brief time in office.
Another month of HIGH inflation under Biden.
— Jacki Kotkiewicz (@jackikotkiewicz) April 12, 2023
CPI: +5% y/y
Electricity: +10.2%
Natural Gas: +5.5%
Groceries: +8.4%
Poultry +7.5%
Dairy: +10.7%
Eggs: +36%
Bread: +15.2%
Baby Food: +7.6%
Shelter: +8.2%
Airline Fares: +17.7%
Real Average Hourly Wages: -0.7%
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