President Joe Biden has opened a new line of attack against former President Donald Trump. At a campaign fundraiser in the Dallas area on Wednesday, Biden asked and answered the classic “are you better off today than you were four years ago” question to remind voters of what it was like when Trump w
I have more money and better credit than four years ago, yet im further away from buying a house or even a new car than I was 4 years ago, so honestly nothing really changed in the personal quality of life category. My salary went up, and so did the carrot on the stick they've been dangling out of my reach for decades. I feel like this question isn't a great measure for Bidens campaign.
So you're better off and still feel like you're on a treadmill. That makes sense.
And yeah, I wouldn't pose the question like that either. Not enough has been done. The minimum wage is the same. I don't fault him for that but it would be huge for those who struggle the most.
It has to be a comparison with what the other side has to offer.
My wealth grew less than inflation so theres that too. In absolute terms im better off but factoring in everything I don't think anything changed really, credit score did but thats hardly as much Biden, or any president, as it is some contested school debt notes falling off the reportable period because its been to long.
Four years ago there were refrigerator trucks full of corpses and a mob was storming the capitol to overthrow the government on behalf of a would-be dictator.
Nothing resembling either of those things has happened yet this year, so I think in a lot of ways we're all better off regardless of our individual circumstances. Only the second one has much to do with who's president though.
Fully agree with you on the second one, but I will say that the first one very much has to do with who's president, too. Remember when Trump was insisting to everyone who wanted to obey him that they shouldn't wear masks, and should go to work / school while they're sick? And those people started affirmatively attacking people who were doing nothing but try to protect themselves and others? Remember when Anthony Fauci had to have a security detail from the US Marshals?
“Well Donald, I’m glad you asked that question man because I hope everyone in the country takes a moment to think back when it was like in March of 2020,” Biden said.
The Democratic president reminded the audience that the coronavirus had reached America, hospital emergency rooms were overcrowded, first responders were risking their lives to care for the sick and some nurses wore trash bags due to the scarcity of personal protective equipment.
Morgues were being set up outside of hospitals because so many people were dying, unemployment shot up, the stock market crashed and grocery store shelves were bare, Biden said.
“Donald Trump is no longer president, that’s the first thing,” Biden said, adding that COVID is under control, 15 million jobs returned and the stock market rebounded.
There’s also a view that the public largely has forgotten the turbulence of Trump’s presidency and that, to win reelection, Biden needs to remind them of what it was like as he presents himself as the more stable alternative.
“You gotta elect Colin as your next senator so Ted Cruz joins another loser, Donald Trump,” Biden said.
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Personally I was better off 4 years ago, but I was incredibly lucky during the pandemic. And I dont care about that, I'm not voting for trump no matter what.
things being very bad in different ways under two different presidents does not make one a better candidate over the other nor does it make either a good choice
If y'all are going to post an incessant drumbeat of why Biden sucks, I'm just gonna keep pasting a few of the reasons why he doesn't. It's not just that he's a vast, democracy-preserving improvement over Trump (although, he is); he actually did several things which are unprecedented in modern US president terms:
He took the biggest action on climate change in US history; the goal of the climate bill is to put us on track for a 40% reduction in US emissions by 2030. It’s way too late but that’s clearly not Biden’s fault since he started fighting for it basically as soon as he got into office, and managed to achieve passed legislation which is several standard deviations above the norm for “let’s ignore it until we’re underwater and on fire” US politician status quo.
He ordered the forgiveness of half a trillion dollars in student debt, about a third of the current total balance, and the Supreme Court told him no. He’s still managed to forgive (edit: $138) $144 billion worth of it even against stiff Republican “no we need that money to give to Wall Street criminals pls” resistance.
He introduced a bill to legalize marijuana federally, which the Republicans killed in the senate.
He achieved the lowest unemployment in 20 years after having been handed an economy that was still digging out from the apocalypse that was 2020.
Wages at the bottom end of the economy have actually been growing, outpacing inflation, every single year that he's been president. The top 10% of wage earners actually have lost some ground, it's true -- that probably makes "wages are growing" not feel true to most Lemmy users, because for tech workers, they're shrinking. But the majority of US wage earners have been making more and more year by year. $15/hr is the new unofficial minimum wage in a lot of sectors. That's not enough, but it's sure as shit better than when he came in and unemployment was 6% and a lot of people and businesses were still dependent on Covid-aid stimulus payments.
The shitshow that is supporting Israel during its accelerating genocide, I won't defend all that much. But the overall attempt to paint him as any type of run of the mill crappy-performing Democrat is just totally disconnected from how things have changed in the last 4 years.
All the folks that like to post one-off discouraging comments like this one haven't had much success in trying to say any of the above isn't true.
I regret that I have but one upvote to give. Keep fighting the good fight against misinformation.
Biden has been a remarkably good president under incredibly challenging legislative and judicial circumstances. He didn't do everything he promised? It's a miracle he was able to do anything at all!
him and prosecutor Harris fired staffers over cannabis and after making promises failed to do anything but pardon a very small portion of convicted cannabis users and without police reform like he also promised the divided states have gone as far as border like patrol on their borders and all the cannabis policies he could be seen as having a helping hand in have only helped corporate cannabis and the militarized police who he refuses to reign in
he never fulfilled the upping the minimum to $15 and places like Wally's Hell have lowered the start pay to below precovid levels lower than $15 an hour and that is just one business and corporations have been using free slave mean correctional institution residents for free labor
consistently shat all over workers just like threating the rail workers if they kept up the protest for better work conditions
Roe v. Wade fell on his watch and his solution? give him more funding and sign an executive order for researching women's health or some less than quarter assed pile of manure
income is a fourth what made four years ago, inflation is continuing to rise, everyone around me is complaining about struggling, none of the issues from four years ago were fixed such as health care and minimum wage and everything else even personal freedoms are way down and the police are more militarized
what the fuck and where the fuck and when the fuck is this doddering old fool?
still not allowed to vote too
shit with smell good products sprayed all over is being advertised as better than shit without smell good stuff on it
I won't say that's not true for you and your friends, because I have no idea. But for the country as a whole, particularly for people struggling, it is mostly exactly the opposite of what you're saying. I.e. not only are they not still having to go into their housekeeping jobs even though they might catch a disease that might kill them or their family, but they're mostly making more than they were, even adjusted for the (quite high although lower than pretty much every other country post-Covid) inflation.
I certainly don't blame the president for inflation, because I can see how all the corporations just decided to raise their prices because everybody else was raising their prices. It kinda seems like a rush to take all the profits they can like it's their last chance to make money, which is quite disturbing to reflect on.
Personally I've only become more prosperous throughout the terms of the last 3 presidents. Biden's presidency has been mostly positive improvement over Trump's time in office. I'd never vote for Trump, and have voted against him 3 times already. My main problem with Biden is his repeated calls to ban guns, because individual liberty is the most important issue of all and gun bans are authoritarian garbage.
Adjusted with inflation, assuming all people hired got salary bumps to offset inflation, you're looking at 3% to 4% of the population. That is not most. That is not even many. That is a few.
A few people are better off today adjusted for inflation. The majority of people are not.
If you did not get a 20% to 25% bump during the past couple years you are worse off. If you got a 20%-25% pay bump, you're pretty much where you were before except major life goals are more expensive so you're also worse off. If you got 30%+ bump, which some definitely did, then they're better off. It is NOT most.