Biden-era economic growth leaves Republicans literally speechless (Steve Benen, 1/26/24, MSNBC)
Americans learned this week that economic growth in the final three months of 2023 easily outpaced modest expectations, and GDP 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.” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, told the Times the economic news was “stunning and spectacular.”
Naturally, I was curious how Republicans would respond to the news. A few options came to mind.
Maybe leading GOP officials would make the case that the robust economic recovery is nice, but President Joe Biden doesn’t deserve any credit. Perhaps they’d argue that it’s too soon to applaud good news since there’s still plenty of economic work to do. Maybe they’d argue that the United States economy is a massive beast, and it’s unrealistic to think a White House agenda is uniquely responsible for year-to-year shifts.
But as it turns out, Republicans went with the same approach they use in response to robust job growth: They simply ignored the good news, as if it hadn’t happened.