First Lady Jill Biden is making a bold claim about the state of the country since President Joe Biden assumed the highest office in the land.
During an event in Minnesota on Wednesday, the first lady said, “We still have a long way to go. Our world faces incredible challenges.”
“But things are so much better. You were right to put your faith in Joe Biden a year ago,” she added.
Watch the video below:
Jill Biden: "Things are so much better. You were right to put your faith in Joe Biden a year ago." pic.twitter.com/YUfKkjM2yp
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 3, 2022
Interestingly, the president — who is fully vaccinated and boosted — was wearing a mask on stage, despite being seen on camera greeting a Democratic lawmaker by appearing to slowly headbutt her just a day earlier.
In case you missed it:
This is not normal. pic.twitter.com/JKRmIVskye
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 2, 2022
But that’s beside the point.
The president touts that more jobs were added in the last year than “ever before in the history of the United States of America.” However, it’s debatable how much credit he can claim for those job gains as it’s likely a good number of jobs would have returned practically automatically as COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns were lifted.
Instead, it could be argued that by extending enhanced unemployment benefits and the eviction moratorium — even as case counts decreased or remained low — the administration discouraged people from going back to work for several months.
Aside from job growth, are things “so much better,” as Jill Biden insists?
Inflation is at a 40-year high and putting a squeeze on Americans’ pocketbooks as their paychecks are not going as far. Supply chain disruptions meant that large portions of the country couldn’t get products.
Gas prices surged to a seven-year high last year, and while the administration took some steps aimed at alleviating the price increases, the situation in Ukraine is threatening to send them even higher — which will likely fuel inflation as the price of transporting food and other goods is going to increase.
On the Covid front, the president declared “independence from the virus” in July. But when the Omicron variant ripped through the country months later, it faced a shortage of tests which forced people to wait in long lines. More than a year into the pandemic, the failure to prepare to have enough tests for a winter surge was mind-boggling.
Finally, polls have found that a majority of Americans believe the country is on the “wrong track.”
Has there been any major shift toward bipartisanship and unity? Not really. Just two months ago, Biden claimed that senators who did not support a bill to overhaul elections would be on the same “side” as Jefferson Davis. And a Quinnipiac University poll found Americans believe the president is doing more to divide than unite it.
Right now, it seems premature — at best — to claim that things are “so much” better.
