MSNBC's Maddow highlights “begrudging” press coverage of Biden-Harris administration's “dream economy”
Rachel Maddow: “You're now seeing the political press, again, sort of begrudgingly, admit .... it turns out the Biden administration is leaving in its wake a fantastic economy.”
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From the October 14, 2024, edition of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show
RACHEL MADDOW (HOST): Biden and Harris, this administration, has produced the best job growth numbers of any presidential administration in American history by a mile. Unemployment numbers are profoundly low and in a sustained way. It’s the best unemployment figures that we have seen in decades.
A few days ago, The New York Times summed it all up sort of begrudgingly with this, quote, "The economy is robust … by many measures, the U.S. job market is as healthy as it has ever been." As healthy as it has ever been. In the history of the United States of America, we right now have the best job market we have ever had as a country as long as we have existed as a country.
At The Washington Post, economist Heather Long recently put it this way under the headline, quote, "This is a great economy." It says, quote, "Growth is strong. Unemployment is low. Inflation is back down. Many Americans are getting sizable pay raises, [and] middle class wealth has surged to record levels. The United States has nearly 7 million more jobs than it did before the pandemic. And we have the largest share of adults aged 25 to 54 working in more than two decades, the largest share working in 24 years. Americans in the bottom 40% of income have experienced the fastest of all the wage growth. The largest surge in wealth since the end of 2019 has gone to the bottom 50% in income." Bottom line, quote, "2024 is shaping up to be one of the best economic years of many Americans' lifetimes."
And, regardless of what your priorities are for the election, the economy is generally seen as the most important issue for the most voters. And because of that, because of that preference among voters, that interest among voters and what you're seeing in the economic news, you're now seeing the political press, again, sort of begrudgingly, admit that, you know, yeah, well, it turns out the Biden administration is leaving in its wake a fantastic economy.
But, when I say begrudging, I mean that the sort of subtext for all of it – and sometimes the overt text of all of it in the political press – is yeah, yeah, yeah it's a great economy, a really great economy, a historically great economy, but surely that can't benefit Kamala Harris, can it? I mean, I know you've seen headlines like this. Here's a typical one from just a couple of days ago at Politico.com, quote, "Harris is riding a dream economy into the election. It may be too late for voters to notice."
It is a dream economy.
I mean, as it says in the piece, "the unemployment rate stands at 4.1%, the S&P 500 stock index is up more than 20% this year, [and] GDP has been growing at a robust 3% pace. Middle-class Americans are more optimistic about their financial future. Gas prices have been falling. The economy added over a quarter-million jobs in September alone – far higher than expectations."
It is a "dream economy" that is being left by the Biden-Harris administration. But Harris can't possibly benefit from that politically, can she?