Two weeks ago, Americans received another round of good economic news: GDP growth in the final three months of 2023 easily outpaced modest expectations, and economic growth across the entire year was quite good — despite overwhelming chatter a year ago about a looming recession.
The New York Times’ Paul Krugman, taking stock of the data, concluded that President Joe Biden “couldn’t have asked for better numbers.” A private sector economist characterized the data as “stunning and spectacular.”
Naturally, I was curious how Republicans would respond to the news. As it turns out, they pretended the good news didn’t exist.
A week later, the news on the U.S. job market was even better. The economy added 353,000 jobs in January — far exceeding expectations — and the unemployment rate remained at 3.7%, a rate so low that the United States never reached it throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
The economy has now added jobs for 37 consecutive months, and the jobless rate has been below 4% for 24 consecutive months — a streak unseen in the United States since the 1960s.
For good measure, let’s also note the data for all of 2023 was revised by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and we now know that more than 3 million jobs were created across last year. Excluding 2021 and 2022, when the domestic economy was still recovering from pandemic-era job losses, it’s fair to say 2023 was the best year for job creation in the United States since 1999.
And what, pray tell, did Republican leaders have to say about these developments? In keeping with the recent trend, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson responded to the job numbers by saying literally nothing about the good news. No press releases, no tweets, and no public comments.
It appears that the American job market is so good, Republicans have literally found themselves speechless — again.
Circling back to our earlier coverage, this wasn’t at all new: The GOP leadership in…
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