Fact Check 29: Earnings of the lowest-income workers rose under Trump-Pence, but dropped under Biden-Harris
Fact Check 29: Earnings of the lowest-income workers rose under Trump-Pence, but dropped under Biden-Harris
How could we now be two days away from the election, and practically no American voters know this basic fact? The answer is: The "news" media refuses to report it -- and the GOP and Trump haven't.
Also see:
Sources
US Bureau of Labor Statistics: “AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS OF PRODUCTION AND NONSUPERVISORY EMPLOYEES”
Analysis
The “news” media knew, in October 2020, that Trump’s policies caused low-income workers’ weekly wages to rise even faster than all other workers’ wages
In contrast to these basic facts, Americans have been told over and over again that Trump’s economic policies only helped the super-rich, at the expense of the poor and middle-class
Have you ever seen a substantive response to these allegations, in a format that the average American can easily understand, and verify — and in a venue that is within their field of visibility?
What is the result? Most Americans now believe the lie that “Trump’s economic policies only help the rich.”
How are the American people supposed to know the reality, if no one is providing them with access to the basic facts about what Trump-Pence policies — vs those of Biden-Harris — affected the earnings of low-income Americans?
This is but one example of how the Democrats and their allies in the “news” media have been able to peddle such egregious economic myths — while the GOP and Trump have refused to even attempt to credibly refute them
Conclusion: If Vice-President Harris wins the election, it will largely be thanks to the fact that she and her supporters — many masquerading as “journalists” — were able to peddle these economic myths, with zero crystal-clear, evidence-driven push-back from the GOP or Trump
(1) The “news” media knew, in October 2020, that Trump’s policies caused low-income workers’ weekly wages to rise even faster than all other workers’ wages
Trump’s Numbers, Preelection Update: What the statistics tell us about the president’s time in office, by Brooks Jackson, PolitiFact, October 14, 2020. Excerpt:
Paychecks continued to grow faster than prices.
The average weekly earnings of all private-sector workers, in “real” (inflation-adjusted) terms, rose 7.1% during Trump’s first 44 months (ending in September).
Those figures include managers and supervisors. Rank-and-file production and nonsupervisory workers — at least, those who still have jobs — are doing even better than their bosses. Real earnings for those workers (81% of all workers) have gone up 8% so far under Trump.
Here is an infographic I produced that shows the (correted) comparison in BLS data, regarding how Trump’s economic policies affected the weekly earnings of low-income workers, vs all other workers:
(2) In contrast to these basic facts, Americans have been told over and over again that Trump’s economic policies only helped the super-rich, at the expense of the poor and middle-class
This allegation has been made across the Biden White House, the Harris-Walz campaign, the DNC, the “news” media and Democrat-supporting celebrities.
Here are a few examples of the latter:
(1) Bruce Springsteen dropped a video on October 2, explaining why he is endorsing Kamala Harris (transcript here). Although he doesn’t specifically mention the issue of manufacturing jobs, Springsteen said Trump’s policies were (and are) aimed at helping the super-rich (like Springsteen himself, who is now a billionaire) — not blue-collar workers, who constitute a huge portion of “The Boss’s” core fan base:
“[Harris-Walz] want to grow our economy in a way that benefits all, not just the few like me on top. That’s the vision of America I’ve been consistently writing about for 55 years.”
The supreme irony: Springsteen co-hosts a podcast with President Obama, whose policies —as this infographic report demonstrates — were responsible for a steady decline in manufacturing jobs, while Trump’s policies reversed this trend, adding 441,000 manufacturing jobs.
2) Then, on October 30 Arnold Schwarzenegger posted on X on the following screed:
"Let me be honest with you: I don’t like either party right now. My Republicans have forgotten the beauty of the free market, driven up deficits, and rejected election results. […]
"A candidate who has shown no ability to work to pass any policy besides a tax cut that helped his donors and other rich people like me but helped no one else…, a candidate who thinks Americans who disagree with him are the bigger enemies than China, Russia, or North Korea - that won’t solve our problems," wrote Schwarzenegger, known for his role in several "Terminator" franchise movies.
Note: My responses to Schwarzenegger on X are here, here and here.
(3) Have you ever seen a substantive response to these allegations, in a format that the average American can easily understand, and verify — and in a venue that is within their field of visibility?
Neither have any other Americans.
Here’s an indication of why:
I took screencaps of the GOP.com website (and an archive, here) on the morning of November 3, 2024. See if you can find anything that in any way debunks the lies that have been peddled about the results of Trump’s economic policies:
After closing this image pop-up…
…one arrives at this screen. Scrolling down…
… this is the bottom of the page:
Nothing.
Here’s the GOP’s feeds on X and Facebook. Do you see anything there?
What about the Trump campaign’s social media… anything there that meets this standard?
Nope. See Trump’s feeds on X and Facebook. Nothing.
(4) What is the result? Most Americans now believe the lie that “Trump’s economic policies only help the rich.”
Most voters in new survey say Trump cares about interests of rich over Harris, The Hill, November 2, 2024. Excerpt:
A majority of U.S. adults say former President Trump cares more about the needs and problems of wealthy Americans than Vice President Harris, a new survey revealed.
The recent YouGov poll shows that nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults, 63 percent, say Trump cares about the needs of the rich compared to 25 percent who said the same of Harris.
October 31: Vice-President Harris:
Here’s what comes up when one Googles “Trump helps rich expense of poor,” as of November 3, 2024 — instead of any mention about the reality:
(5) How are the American people supposed to know the reality, if no one is providing them with access to the basic facts about what Trump-Pence policies — vs those of Biden-Harris — affected the earnings of low-income Americans?
How are the American people, across the political spectrum, supposed to learn about the basic facts about whose policies affected low-income Americans’ wages in which ways, if neither the “news” media, nor the GOP, nor the Trump campaign, do anything to provide them with this information, as clearly and accountably as I — a complete nobody, with no institutional backing — did on this page?
(6) This is but one example of how the Democrats and their allies in the “news” media have been able to peddle such egregious economic myths — while the GOP and Trump have refused to even attempt to credibly refute them
Here are more infographic reports from the 2024 Fact Check series that further blow apart the lie that Trump’s economic policies only help the rich, at the expense of the poor, middle class and minorities (excerpted from the complete directory to 2024 Fact Check infographic reports, here):
Fact Check 1: Did Trump’s policies destroy manufacturing jobs, reversing Obama’s “booming” economy? (October 6)
Fact Check 2: Electricity prices stayed the same under Trump, but skyrocketed under Biden-Harris (October 7)
Fact Check 3: Gasoline prices declined under Trump, but skyrocketed under Biden (October 8)
Fact Check 5: Black home ownership rate declined under Obama, grew under Trump (October 10)
Fact Check 10: Black and Hispanic unemployment under Trump dropped significantly (October 15)
Fact Check 13: The Black and Hispanic poverty rate under Trump dropped to lowest in history (October 18)
Fact Check 14: The price of child care increased almost twice as much under Biden-Harris as under Trump-Pence (October 19)
Fact Check 20: Rent prices rose modestly under Trump-Pence, but skyrocketed under Biden-Harris (October 25)
(7) Conclusion: If Vice-President Harris wins the election, it will largely be thanks to the fact that she and her supporters — many masquerading as “journalists” — were able to peddle these economic myths, with zero crystal-clear, evidence-driven push-back from the GOP or Trump
And this will not be the first time. Consider this survey, conducted after Trump’s 2020 loss, regarding Biden voters’ knowledge of his accomplishments regarding economic and foreign policy matters:
One in six Biden voters would have changed their minds if they had known the full story - Chattanooga Times Free Press, November 26, 2020
What if the Republican Trump had had even a neutral media, one that gave him credit where credit was due and investigated Democratic challenger Joe Biden where investigation was necessary?
Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog organization, tested that theory recently in a poll of 1,750 voters in seven swing states.
What they learned in an admittedly small survey was that one of every six Biden voters (17%) said they would not have voted for him had they known the facts about several of the news stories the national media refused to investigate thoroughly because they might have hurt his candidacy.
Aside from being unaware of the Biden family corruption scandals, and then-Sen. Harris being far to the left of even Sen. Bernie Sanders(!), Biden voters also were unaware of Trump’s economic and foreign policy successes:
More than half of those surveyed, 50.5%, did not know the United States became a net exporter of oil for the first time in 2019. Nearly half (49%) of Biden voters had no idea economic growth rebounded by 33% in the third quarter, which was a record, albeit one caused by the global pandemic lockdown that forced a 31.4% plunge in the second quarter. […]
Further, 45.3% of respondents who voted for Biden had no idea the Trump administration had helped broker historic agreements between Israel and Arab nations, and 39.4% of the same voters weren't aware the five consecutive pre-election jobs reports - from June 5 to October 2 - showed a record 11.1 million jobs were created in the summer and fall.
What is going to happen in two days?
I am convinced that whatever happens, it will be largely driven by the facts presented in this report.
Subscribe
If you value the 2024 Fact Check infographic report series (previous reports listed below; see background and mission here), subscribe below to receive each new one via email until Election Day, and share this post on social media: