Biden Says Trump Squandered Economic Expansion Begun With Obama
Joe Biden slammed President Donald Trump’s stewardship of the U.S. economy.
(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden slammed President Donald Trump’s stewardship of the economy Monday, citing the official declaration that the U.S. entered a recession just as the coronavirus was starting to take hold in February.
“Trump inherited the longest economic expansion in history from the Obama-Biden administration, but like everything else he’s inherited, he has squandered it,” Biden said in a statement, first shared with Bloomberg News.
Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, criticized Trump’s tax cuts and said the president “turned his back on the middle class” by focusing on an agenda that he said helps corporations and the wealthy. The former vice president said the coronavirus relief efforts have similarly focused on the rich.
Since the pandemic hit, more than 42 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits, ending the longest expansion since such records began in 1854. But the S&P 500 erased its 2020 losses on Monday afternoon as stocks rallied on optimism that the U.S. economy is reopening.
“Big day for Stock Market,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Smart money, and the World, know that we are heading in the right direction. Jobs coming back FAST. Next year will be our greatest ever!”
In his statement, Biden warned about Trump trying to take credit for an economic rebound, saying while the president is not responsible for the virus, his lackluster response made the impact worse.
“The ‘unprecedented magnitude’ of the economic hit, and the ‘broad reach’ of it -- that’s on Donald Trump,” Biden said. “It did not have to be this way. Millions of Americans are suffering right now because of his negligence and incompetence. We should all remember that when he tries to take credit for the hard work of the American people to get the economy back on track -- because he certainly isn’t doing anything to help.”
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