President Joe Biden claims that his administration “created” more jobs in two years than did any previous administration in in four years.[1]  Except that no “administration” is solely responsible for creating jobs.  In terms of passing legislation, both houses of Congress also participate.  In a larger sense, the actual economic actors—private enterprise in the American system—have much to contribute.  Then, there are two ways of measuring.  In straight numerical terms, the American economy added 12.1 million jobs between January 2021 and January 2023.  In terms of percentage of the labor force, the Biden Administration ranks lower than four other administrations.[2]  

President Biden claims that his administration cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion in two years.[3]  Except that most of the fall in spending came from the expiration of time-limited Covid-related spending legislation passed during the Trump administration.  During the Trump administration, widely bi-partisan votes in Congress for Covid response spending added $3.4 trillion to the deficit.  The Trump administration’s tax cuts further expanded the deficit by an estimated $1 trillion in 2018 through 2021.  In terms of legislation proposed by the Biden administration and passed by Congress, two things may be noted.  The Inflation Reduction Act cut the deficit by $240 billion over ten years.  Other legislation proposed by the administration and passed by Congress, is projected to increase the deficit by $4 trillion over the same ten years.[4]  Thus, the combination of Democratic spending increases and Republican tax-cutting is set to increase the deficit by at least $5 trillion dollars.  That comes on top of the $3.4 trillion in bipartisan-supported Covid-related deficits. 

President Biden sometimes blurs reality in his comparisons of himself to President Donald Trump.[5]  First, he celebrates his own signing of legislation that dispatched $1,400 checks to every American adult and child in March 2021.  However, in March 2020, Trump signed legislation sending $1,200 to each adult and $500 for each child.  In December 2020, Trump signed legislation sending $600 to each adult and $600 for each child.  Second, he compares job-losses under Trump to job-losses under President Herbert Hoover.  Again, this ignores the larger pattern.  When Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, 145.6 million people were working.  In January 2020, when Covid first reared its ugly head, there were 152 million people working.  That’s “a rise of 6.4 million jobs or 4.4 percent.”  Then Covid hit, lock-downs and massive lay-offs followed, and almost 22 million people lost their jobs.  That took employment down to about 130 million people.  By January 2021, employment had recovered to 142.9 million jobs.  Almost 13 million of the people who had lost jobs had recovered them before Trump left office. 

All these are just talking points in a campaign.  But many voters seem to remember the boom in job creation under the Trump administration.  Perhaps they recognize that Biden is boasting about the recovering economy he inherited. 

[1] Linda Qui, “Since 2024 Kickoff, Missing Context on Deficit,” NYT, 26 April 2023. 

[2] Jimmy Carter takes pride of place with 12.8 percent. 

[3] Linda Qui, “Since 2024 Kickoff, Missing Context on Deficit,” NYT, 26 April 2023. 

[4] For purposes of comparison, was at $3.1 trillion in 2020, at $1.4 trillion in 2022.  The Biden administration spending will push it into the area of $5.7 trillion by 2032. 

[5] Angelo Fichera, “Evaluating Biden’s Recent Talking Points on Taxes, Industry and Jobs,” NYT, 22 February 2024.