Brunswick Beacon, 02.10.22
I like a good joke as much as anyone, which is why I enjoy Congressman David Rouzer’s periodic newsletters. But experience tells me they’re really just setups: it’s what he leaves out that delivers the punch line.
Take his Jan. 31 letter. Please. He says President Biden’s first year made the economy worse and delivered an economic crisis. If you grew up watching Johnny Carson, you know enough to yell: “How bad was it?” Funny you should ask!
Biden’s first year brought the largest unemployment drop in history and lowest jobless claims in 52 years. January added 467,000 new jobs. Even omicron’s surge couldn’t derail the best recovery from a recession, and best job market, in history.
Biden created 6.6 million jobs, more than any year on record and over three times more than were created in 16 years under Trump and both Bush’s combined! Biden created more jobs per month than Reagan: 550,000 to 168,000.
The economy grew 5.7 percent last year: 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter alone.
Child poverty fell 38 percent. Americans had, on average, $354 more disposable income each month, even after inflation, than before the pandemic. The Biden Boom boosted disposable income and gave an unprecedented lift to America’s entrepreneurial spirit, creating 5.4 million new businesses in 2021, an all-time record.
All this happened with no help from Rouzer, who voted against Biden’s Invest in America Act and $456 million in infrastructure spending for North Carolina. Rouzer’s comical claim that Biden made the economy worse is a desperate attempt to distract from his own shameful record.
Rouzer has a real gift as a setup man. It should serve him well when he’s voted out. Maybe he can take his talents to a comedy club where folks can laugh without the nagging fear that someone, somewhere, is taking what he says seriously.
Joanne Levitan
Leland